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Human Rights watch to India: Don't torture Khalistani militant
A US-based human rights body has urged India to ensure that a militant of the banned Khalistani Commondo Force who has been extradited to the country is not "tortured or mistreated." Following India's request, US had extradited Kulvir Singh, a former separatist leader who faces 11 charges of robbery, murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to murder. He was brought to New Delhi on Sunday by Punjab police officials."If (Singh) has committed crimes he should be prosecuted in a fair trial, but the Indian government must not allow its own forces to break the law to punish him," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. He claimed that Singh's "account of being tortured in the past makes it even more likely that Indian security forces will abuse him again." Singh had alleged that that Indian security forces in 1988 and 1989 tortured him to stop his political activism and to make him reveal the identities of other Sikh activists. Human Rights Watch alleged that the greatest risk to Singh, "as with many criminal suspects in India," is during police remand, when suspects are detained at police stations for investigations with minimal oversight. "Indian security forces have a long history of abusing criminal suspects and detainees by torturing them," claimed Adams. "They've used those methods against politically active Sikhs without facing any punishment." A district court in California had dropped eight of the cases brought against Barapind in the extradition petition, five of them because they fell under the "political offense exception" in Indo-US extradition treaty. But last October, it certified his extradition in the three remaining cases involving six murders and one attempted murder. Posted by: john 2006-06-24 |
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