Jalandhar (September 29, 2011): Remembering its founder member Gajinder Singh, who hijacked the Indian plane in Sep 1981 on this day and who is living in exile at some undisclosed country, the Dal Khalsa has written a letter to the United Nations to ensure that civil and political rights of Gajinder Singh are restored.
To mark his 30 years in exile, Dal Khalsa and its associate groups, has demanded that he be allowed to live in a country of his choice. “It is ironic that he was being compelled to spend his life in oblivion despite the hard fact that he has undergone the life imprisonment for hijacking”, he said.
Kanwar Pal Singh in a statement didn’t mention as to where he was based now. However, he said Gajinder Singh remains the guiding force for the Dal Khalsa, which unfailingly continues to uphold the spirit of the work started by him, said he.
The letter sent to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees at its New Delhi office states: Gajinder Singh, in international parlance, is a stateless person. Forced to live in exile, he is a person who cannot live in his homeland as despite having undergone long imprisonment for hijacking and despite the fact that he is entitled to the legal defense of not to be tried for the same offence twice under the notion of ‘double jeopardy’. The letter alleged that the India state in a malafide has placed him in the “most wanted” category, and at every juncture makes the sinister move of maligning him in the media.
Our plea to United Nations is based not on mercy but on grounds of justice for stateless person like Gajinder Singh, said Kanwar Pal.
Replying to another question, Singh said their party wrote to the Home Ministry twice protesting the inclusion of his name in the list of 20 most wanted persons released in 2002. However, he revealed that subsequent to their communications Gajinder Singh’s name was not in the list of 50 most wanted persons handed over to Pakistan by the Ministry in May this year. “We are not clear whether his name stands in the list or is dropped as it looks from the latest dossier handed over to Pakistan”, said Dal Khalsa spokesperson.