[sacw] [ACT] sacw dispatch 20 Jan 00

Harsh Kapoor act@egroups.com
Thu, 20 Jan 2000 17:52:58 +0100


South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
20 January 2000
(http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex)
___________________
#1. Indo-Pak boundry as a bridge : Delhi Students trip to Pakistan
#2. India's Terrorist Politicians who go unpunished
#3. Separation of state & religion is necessary in Bangladesh
#4. HRCP report: 'honour-killings', 'stove-deaths' around Lahore
___________________

#1.

[The below paper is to be published in the upcoming issue of 'The News on
Sunday', Jan 23, 2000]

USING THE BOUNDARY AS A BRIDGE

A group of Indian students discovered a Pakistan totally different from the
one they had in mind when they boarded the Lahore-bound train at Amritsar.
Beena Sarwar records their impressions

"We didnt find the Pakistan we were looking for," said the student from
India. He was among the dozen history students from Ramjas College (one of
Delhi University's 70 colleges) who visited Pakistan for one freezing cold
and foggy week this month on their annual college excursion, having got
permission to visit Lahore, Islamabad, Taxila and Peshawar.

Young Madhuresh Kumar, whose family lives in Patna, Bihar, explained his
enigmatic statement thus: "Lahore is just like Delhi, and Islamabad, as
someone rightly put it, is twenty minutes from Pakistan, while Peshawar is
more like Afghanistan. We couldnt find the Pakistan that lies, as
imagined, in 90 per cent of the Indians minds, courtesy the media and
governments of both countries."

But Madhuresh and his fellow travellers werent disappointed at the
Pakistan they did find. "One thing was common: people were kindly and the
response was amazing when they heard we were from India. The love and
affection we received made me feel ashamed of what our brethren think of
Pakistan in their mental darkness."

Apparently, the overall gloomy picture about Pakistan does not dampen the
desire of Indians to visit this country, as the Ramjas College history
department found, during a meeting in September 1999, held to decide the
destination of the departments annual winter excursion. When Mukul
Mangalik, the history teacher who accompanies students on these annual
trips, suggested Pakistan, he was amazed at the response. There was great
enthusiasm at the idea -- despite the fact that the tensions that had
arisen during the Kargil affair still prevailed, and the whole episode was
a not-so-distant memory.

=46orty hands shot up to be included in the trip, an annual affair in which
the different classes have an opportunity to mix instead of being
segregated in their own years. As word spread about the history
departments intentions, other departments asked to join the trip, and then
other colleges. Things were threatening to get out of hand when the
October 12 coup happened, effectively dampening some of the enthusiasm.
The Pakistan High Commission had already been applied to for permission by
then, but no one at Ramjas thought it would be granted. Miraculously,
after weeks of silence, it came through.

Mukul Mangalik received the Ramjas College principals official go-ahead on
December 24 -- the day Indian Airlines plane was hijacked. As news about
the hijacking hogged the headlines, and tension between India and Pakistan
heightened, many students and their parents began having second thoughts.
>From the original group of twenty that had signed up, the number dwindled
down to a brave dozen, all male, who were allowed by their families to go,
and finally seen off by friends and relatives on Jan 5 from Delhi with
some trepidation.

Most of them had come to Ramjas from all over India and represent a
diversity of backgrounds, cultures, religions, languages and experiences,
>from Assam in the north-east (one from Majuli, the largest river island in
the world), and Kerala in the south. Only two were Dilli-wallas. And there
was Iftikhar Hussain, amazingly from Kargil -- yes, Kargil.Relieved at the
warmth with which they were met by total strangers, they related some of
the reactions back home to their trip.

One student has a five-year old niece, who asked what he would say if asked
where he was from. "From Hindustan," he replied. "No, no, dont," she
pleaded. "Say youre from Pakistan, or they will kill you". The students
who stayed behind gave them a little going-off ceremony with "Acha zindagi
rahi to milenge" kind of jokes being bandied around not so jokingly. All
of this, of course, bears testimony to the kind of tension created by
governments and increased by media in its projection of issues. The
reality the students encountered here was quite different >from what they
had expected.

Besides not finding the Pakistan they had envisioned, they were overwhelmed
at the warmth and hospitality they encountered. Many stereotypes were
shattered and misconceptions cleared in their encounters with ordinary
people, as they travelled about on a shoe-string budget -- upper limit Rs
2,500 for the entire week, including travel, lodging, food and shopping.
They stayed in hostels, travelled by bus, on foot or crammed in Suzuki
pickups.

In this they were aided by their teachers dedicated efforts to save them
money. At an informal dinner at Naheed Siddiquis on Jan 12, the night
before they departed for Delhi, Mitual Baruah, a lively student from
Assam, had everyone, including Mukul Mangalik, laughing with his imitation
of the teacher striding up "to the ticket-collector or whoever is at the
gate of the place we want to go to. He goes up and greets them, then
introduces himself like this (flinging his arms out): "Dekhiey janab, I am
a history teacher from Hindustan. These are my students. I can pay
whatever your ticket is, but the students are after all students. We are
your guests. Its up to you. No one refused him!"

That would have been difficult. Mukul is after all from Lucknow, legendary
for its manners. "They are lucky to have a teacher like him," commented a
Pakistani student who met them. "I dont [think] any teachers here who
would rough it out with their students on buses and trains every year.
They respect him, but its also a friendly relationship which gives them
enough room to clown around."

There was no fixed itinerary, no programme; just a couple of contacts here,
though which a booking was made at the youth hostel in Lahore. The Samjhota
Express steamed into the Lahore station late on the night of Jan 6, and
they spilled out into the cold, bundled up in overcoats, hats and scarves,
lugging a piece of baggage each. The cold and the well-meaning warnings of
their friends and families were temporarily forgotten in the excitement of
actually being here, their spirits undampened by spending all day at
Attari on the Indian side of the border. "A learning experience," said
Mukul Mangalik good humouredly. "Theyre a sporting lot," he added. "I
really believe that all this is a crucial part of their education."

The students possibly hadnt bargained that having to fast would be part of
their education this time round. Having arrived during Ramzan, they
respected the local norms and abstained from eating and drinking all day
while sight-seeing, led by someone they had never met, Arif Usmani, a
young history teacher from Government College who dedicatedly showed them
around when asked for his help by historian Dr Mubarik Ali.

Their original programme would have landed them here in the middle of
Ramzan instead of at the end, and they had wanted to spend New Years Eve
here. Many people, here and back home, thought they were mad on both
counts. But as the students explained it, this was one country they had
intensely wanted to visit, "and what better time to be here than for the
millennium," as one of them put it. But by the time the programme was
finalised and the logistics worked out, it was too late and they had to
make do with the last week of their vacation, missing a couple of days of
college which was to re-open a couple of days before they returned.

There were comic moments as the two Assamese students in the group, and
Iftikhar Hussain from Kargil, found themselves being mistaken as Thai,
Uzbek or Filipino. For Iftikhar, it was perhaps a more intense experience
than for the others, since he had spent the summer with his family in
Kargil town dodging the shelling and bullets coming from across the
border. They had to evacuate their homes more than once, and he remembers
thinking "what kind of people they are who trouble us".

"I used to hate them," he admits candidly, "but after coming here and
travelling about, I am quite confused in my thinking, wondering whom I
should blame. The people here are so nice and hospitable. And really, I
didnt feel any sort of alienness here," he added. Karan Singh Bagal, a
second year student, had similar misgivings "due to the media propaganda.
But to my surprise the environment I found was very homely, familiar,
similar faces, living conditions. I didnt feel myself alienated. The
people greeted us more than their relatives and made us comfortable in
every way."

Other students too placed the blame for the misconceptions they had about
Pakistan on the media.

"Wonderful" and "amazing" is how Gagan Kumar, another second year student
described his experience. "Wonderful because of the variety of people and
things I have been able to experience, and amazing because of the warmth
and hospitality of the people towards us here."

His trip to Peshawar nearly didnt turn out to be so wonderful, however.
There was one tense moment in a "typical rang birangi Pakistani bus"
heading for Qissa Khawani bazar when a Ramjas student innocently sat down
on an empty seat next to a woman, only to realise that the entire bus was
staring at him, horrified. He was roundly scolded by the woman, and the
Pathan driver touched his ears in a tauba on learning where the offending
passenger was from.

Kumar confesses he was "frightened to see the six-foot bearded Pathans",
with whom he had trouble communicating in his "Delhi-walla language". "Tum
kedhar se aya?" a Pathan asked him. "Hesitatingly I told him, From
Hindustan. For a minute he was shocked and kept looking in my eyes with
his eyebrows up. He did not speak with me after that, but kept talking to
his friend about us (perhaps) in Pashto. Between all these people, I
thought I was alien and after getting to the hotel room, I did not feel
like going out to shop. But my friends insisted. After that, what I
experienced was probably the nicest welcome in my life. Everyone I
communicated with, shook hands, some even hugged me, and one topi seller
even gave me qehva to drink. All this time I realised what a fool I would
have been if I had not come out of the hotel room and not met such nice
human beings."

"The whole world honours India for its culture and especially for its
hospitality," said Amit Singh, a BA Honours student from Saharsa, Bihar.
"But I say that the culture and hospitality I saw in Pakistan is richer.
There were lots of doubts in our minds before coming to Pakistan," he
added. "But after reaching here, all these doubts disappeared as I found
myself on my own land."

Another moving comment came from Sidharth Mishra of Patna, a thin,
intense-eyed MA student. "This boundary between the two countries is a
reality now," he said. "The earlier we accept this, the better it is for
both countries. But the boundary should not be a barrier," he added with
feeling. "It should be a bridge. I wish to see this in my lifetime. And I
will work for it."

He will, too. After all, he braved the local student mafia, defying the
unwritten rule which requires students to become RSS members before they
can get a room in the RSS-controlled hostels (sounds familiar?). As the
only non-RSS member in his hostel, doesnt he get threatened? "How can
they?" he asks. "I am entitled to the room on merit. They know Ill go to
court if they try anything."

=46or Gaurav Srivastava of Delhi, the opportunity to visit Pakistan meant th=
e
fulfilment of a secret dream, "to see the great Indus which was so
beautiful and ironically once a part of India."

Like many of his fellow students he loved the food here (only four of the
twelve students were vegetarians). His parting wish: "I pray to God, and
hope that this beautiful, wonderful land, so close to India, will set an
example to the international community."

Mukul Managlik sums up the experience thus: "Apart from the warmth and
hospitality that was showered on us, we discovered also that ordinary
people are not in the least bit obsessed about India in a devilish sort of
way, that they would talk to us about what everyday life in India was
like, the films, the music, the food we ate, with Kargil , the hijacking,
and Zee TV thrown in for good measure. We talked about everything without
feeling scared or threatened. as we had imagined we might. It was this
feeling that we were travelling as ordinarily and easily as we would in
any part of india that was refreshingly reassuring. It was as if having
been
forced to spend so inordinately long crossing the border, the border had
evaporated once we stepped into Pakistan. People were ordinary people
like people in India, grappling with problems and trying to find
solutions. Civil society and a democratic discourse were not the absent
phenomena that most Indians think they are."

(ends)
____________

#2.
Rediff on the Net
January 13, 2000

=46EW NOTICE THE TERROR
by Dilip D'Souza

Few noticed, but Sajjan Kumar was acquitted last week. If you're asking
"Sajjan who?", you shouldn't be. Sajjan Kumar, Congress leader from Delhi,
is the kind of Indian we should all remember long and well.

The sole report I found about his acquittal was a minuscule one from PTI.
"The prosecution alleged", it says, that Kumar and his co-accused Ishwar
Singh were "leading a mob armed with iron rods and lathis, which attacked
people belonging to the Sikh community." The police charged the two with
attempt to murder. For they "had allegedly incited a mob for violence in
[the] Sultanpuri area of the capital after the assassination of Indira
Gandhi on October 31, 1984."

The police charged them all right, but the police's efforts seem to have
ended right there. Additional Sessions Judge R C Yaduvanshi, trying the
case, observed that the prosecution failed to produce sufficient evidence
against Kumar and Singh. So he acquitted both.

Which brought to a close yet another feeble attempt to bring justice to
the families of 3,000 Sikhs murdered in 1984. In the wake of what is
undoubtedly the worst single crime, the greatest shame, in our half
century, this is all those families have had by way of justice: the
occasional feeble attempt that meanders into nothing.

Naturally, there have been those favourite ruses of the Indian state in
the wake of riots: inquiries. They have painted clearly the role played in
those riots by Kumar and such other Congress politicians as H K L Bhagat,
Lalit Maken, Jagdish Tytler and Dharam Das Shastri. All were accused of
crimes then, of egging on murderous mobs. But as inquiries do, these have
only gathered years of dust. Home Minister Advani has even proposed yet
another such exercise. (An inquiry, not the dust-gathering, though those
might amount to the same thing).

And there has been the occasional case. Two women who lost their husbands
in that nightmare, Darshan Kaur and Satnami Bai, filed one against H K L
Bhagat. Four years ago, it actually resulted in a warrant for the man's
arrest. He was brought to court. But as politicians do, this one promptly
complained of chest pains caused by his entry into court. The pain
attracted caustic comment from the judge about how convenient illnesses
afflict politicians -- but Bhagat went to hospital anyway. Some months
later, Satnami Bai, who had previously identified Bhagat as the man who led
a mob that attacked her house and burned her husband alive, mysteriously
could not identify him any more. Darshan Kaur was left to hint at why: "I
and my children are still getting threats," she told the court. Yet she had
not been cowed -- yet. The "neta with black goggles," she said to the
judge, "told the rioters to kill the people."

That's the last heard of that case, for nearly four years now. And today
Sajjan Kumar has been acquitted in another case. Fifteen years later, these
powerful men with their political connections remain free, as do others
accused of crimes in the 1984 murders. Not just free, but hiding behind the
highest security available, paid for by Indian taxpayers. Including the
families of Indians killed in that 1984 carnage. (Maken, of course, was
shot dead in 1985).

Few noticed, but December 22 saw a case adjourned yet again because the
accused refused to show up. A familiar tale, because it has happened as
many as twenty-four times since October 1997. This case is the CBI's
Special Court of Inquiry into the demolition of the Babri Masjid on
December 6 1992. It was initially set up by the Uttar Pradesh police's
crime branch three days after the demolition, but turned over entirely to
the CBI in August the next year. Leaders such as present Ministers Advani
and M M Joshi, Uma Bharti, Bal Thackeray and others are accused in the case
for their involvement in the demolition. They are charged under a host of
Indian Penal Code sections: ranging from 147 (punishment for rioting) to
153(a) (promoting enmity between communities on the basis of religion) to
295 (destruction of a place of a worship) to 395a (dacoity) and many more.

The inquiry has followed a tortuous, if languorous, route since August
1993. The CBI filed a charge-sheet in October. In August 1994, the Special
Court was allotted a judge. Three days later, the CBI asked to conduct
"further investigations" in the case, even though it had filed its
charge-sheet nearly a year before. In January 1996, "further
investigations" presumably complete, the CBI filed a fresh charge-sheet.
One-and-a-half years later, in September 1997, the Special Court ordered
charges to be framed against the accused. Immediately, the accused filed
petitions challenging this order. Some of those were upheld, staying the
Special Court's order to frame charges.

Since then, the Court has set 24 successive dates to hear the case -- to
hear, let's be quite clear, the objections of the accused to the order
issued to frame charges. On all those dates, the accused have themselves
chosen absence and consequent adjournment.

Now you may see not a thing wrong with such continued defiance of court
proceedings, especially if your particular political predilections lie in
the direction of Advani and his mates. But consider that the demolition was
the climax of a long campaign led most visibly by Home Minister Advani
himself, riding on a Toyota pretending to be a chariot. Consider that
Advani, as home minister, is himself ultimately responsible for the
prosecution of a case in which he himself is an accused.

Consider that something like 2,000 Indians were slaughtered in the riots
that demolition triggered; that just as with the 3,000 Indians who were
slaughtered in 1984, nobody has been punished for these murders. Consider
that there was a five-year-long inquiry into the riots in Bombay after the
demolition: an inquiry whose inconvenient conclusions Advani and his mates
have blithely ignored, just as inquiries inconvenient to Bhagat, Kumar and
mates have been ignored.

And consider, in the light of all that, these few statements about this
inquiry that Home Minister Advani made in a recent interview to Outlook"
'The law will take its own course. ... [But] I am completely innocent. ...
[A]s far as the demolition is concerned ... it was the saddest day of my
life. And *I* am accused of conspiring to pull down the structure! I had
nothing to do with the demolition. ... Chhodo, jayenge jail (I'll go to
jail) if it comes to that. I am innocent.'

The man rode a chariot for months to whip up passions about that mosque,
but he "had nothing to do with the demolition" and "it was the saddest day"
of his life when it happened. He wants the law to "take its own course" and
is quite willing to go to jail "if it comes to that," but has skipped court
appearances 24 successive times over two years and more.

Our home minister. Not acquitted in that demolition case, or not yet. But
he might as well be.

Few noticed, but Santosh Kumar Singh was acquitted on December 3, 1999.
This young man was tried for the January 1996 rape and murder of
Priyadarshini Mattoo in New Delhi. He was acquitted, much as Sajjan Kumar
was, because of a series of "lapses" by the prosecution and the CBI as they
investigated the case. The lapses are hardly surprising: Singh happens to
be the son of J P Singh, the inspector-general of police in Pondicherry.

Mattoo was assaulted, raped and strangled to death in her home. She had 19
injuries on her body. For over a year, Santosh Singh had been stalking her,
telephoning her at home and making threats, stopping her car and shouting
at her. She was given personal security by the Delhi police, but that
didn't slow this maniac. A neighbour even noticed him at the entrance to
Mattoo's flat shortly before her murder.

All this was noted by Additional Sessions Judge G P Thareja, trying the
case. But he also noted a wide range of apparently deliberate attempts to
weaken the case against Singh. He faulted the CBI for not following
"official procedure", for hiding evidence from the court, for hiding a
fingerprint report, for fabricating documentary evidence that supported
Singh, and for "fabricating DNA technology." He wondered, in his judgement,
"if the CBI during trial knowingly acted in this manner to favour the
accused." He also wrote that "the Delhi police attempted to assist the
accused during investigation and also during trial. ... [Their doings]
suggest that the rule of law is not meant for those who enforce the law nor
for their near relatives."

Faced with a case apparently subverted from the start, Thareja actually
concluded: "Though I know [Santosh Singh] is the man who committed the
crime, I acquit him, giving him the benefit of the doubt."

Few of us noticed these three events. Many more noticed and were outraged
by the terror in Kandahar. Yet may I submit: the riots that killed 3,000
Indians in 1984 were nothing but terrorism. The riots that the demolition
of a mosque set off in 1992 were nothing but terrorism. A man who stalks,
rapes and murders a woman is nothing but a terrorist.

Mine is a government, a country, unwilling and unable to punish those
responsible for such terror. Mine is a country where a judge observes that
"the rule of law is not meant for those who enforce [it]." Why should I, or
any Indian, or anyone, believe mine is a country that wants to fight terror
as seen in Kandahar?

____________

#3.

News From Bangladesh
20 January 2000
Editorial and Commentary

SEPARATION OF STATE AND RELIGION IS NECESSARY IN BANGLADESH

By Abul Hasanath

One of the popular English newspapers of Dhaka blurted, "Preparation for
Ijtema complete." This news came on January 19, 2000. Bangladesh's main
news agency the BSS reported the news to the mainstream newspapers. The
news read, "The Government has made all preparations in connection with the
holdings of the 34th Biswa Ijtema on January 29-31."

The State Minister for Rural Development and Cooperatives Mr. Rahmat Ali
was present in the preparatory meeting alongside with DIG of Police, Deputy
Commissioner of Gazipur, and Chairmen of the Tongi Pourasabha (local
government). Of course, the local coordinator of the Ijtema committee was
present along with "all department heads and high officials."

This news report, which is an ordinary account by most standard, sounded
an alarm bell to me for various reasons. Is Bangladesh an Islamic Republic?
Is Bangladesh's constitution based on Qur'an and Sunnah? If the answer to
these questions is negative then, why does it become the headache for
Bangladesh government to oversee the staging of a religious congregation?

By sending a cabinet member and high-level government officials to attend
the preparatory committee, the government of Bangladesh is giving a stamp
of approval to the enactment of a religious congregation. Would the
government send such delegation if say a sect of Sufis decide to celebrate
the birthday of Lalan Fakir or Urosh of Muslim Saint or Peers? How about
the celebration of Durga Puja or Maghi Purnima? Where would the government
draw a line?

The government is supposed to serve the interest of all citizens
irrespective of their religious belief. Won't it be sound if Bangladesh
government would take a neutral stand and let the Ijtema Committee manage
their affair? Of course, the government could send police to maintain the
law and order situation if asked by the Ijtema Committee. Then, the
government should always extend this service to any other religious or
civic society.

The government of Bangladesh by sending its cabinet member and other high
officials to attend the preparatory committee is sending a wrong signal to
the world community. Let us not delude us thinking that if Saudi government
could stage Al-Hajj ceremony then so could Bangladesh stage World Ijtema.
The distinction is very clear. First, Saudi Arabia is an Islamic country.
Bangladesh is not. Second, Al-Hajj ceremony is mandated by Holy Qur'an. The
world Ijtema just got started in the year 1966. And this is the brainchild
of Tablig Jamaat Committee of Kakrail Mosque, Dhaka.

When Bangladesh came into existence in the year 1971, it was very clear
that we fought for the country knowing that this would be a secular
(religious neutral) state. The constitution of 1972 clearly spelled that
one of the preambles of the nation would be secularism. But we know that
after a military junta, who took control of Bangladesh in November 1975,
deliberately removed the article of secularism from the constitution.
Sadly, our constitution still does not contain the secularism clause in the
constitution. However, this should not give reason for comfort among
religionists in Bangladesh to think that our nation is an Islamic one.
Until and unless, the country embraces an Islamic constitution, the
government should maintain a posture of neutrality and treat all the
religions those are being practiced in the country with reverence.

Separation of state and religion is a serious matter for any country,
which has not declared itself a religious state. It is to be hoped that
Bangladesh would conform to this standard. If, however, the citizens of
Bangladesh would like to change the constitution of their country to become
an Islamic state they most certainly could do so by democratic means. As
long as that is not the case to be, the government of Bangladesh has no
business in being cahoots with religionists of the nation to stage a
religious congregation. If other non-Islamic countries in the world were
practicing the same custom, i.e., governmental meddling in religious
congregation, this writer would like to know about it.

[ Abul Hasanath writes from America. His e-mail address is
<chayanot@h...> ]
____________
#4.

DAWN
20 January 2000

HRCP REPORT: 266 'honour-killings', 163 'stove-deaths' around Lahore region
By Our Staff Reporter

LAHORE, Jan 19: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said here on
Wednesday that there was a significant increase in the quantum of reported
violence against women. It said that the increase could be gauged from the
estimate that while at the beginning of the 90s a woman was reported raped
every three hours now this figure had gone up to a rape every two hours.
(The word 'reported' is used throughout this article since in many cases a
crime might have been committed but not reported to the police, the
traditional source of information for a crime reporter.)

It's report, The Dimensions of Violence, chronicling reported cases of
violence against women (cases reported in Lahore's national newspapers) says
that in the 11 months of 1999 up to the end of November a total of 266 women
including 40 girls had been killed by relatives or family members. It said
that these murders were apparently carried out by the accused in a bid to
save "family honour". The report says that in 82 cases the women were killed
by their brothers, followed by 52 instances where the husband was the
alleged killer. As if this wasn't enough around 15 per cent of those killed
were young girls. When it came to catching the killers, the HRCP report
says, no more than 35 people have been arrested. And, in a quarter of all
cases, no FIR had been filed after the women's murder.

The Dimensions of Violence then goes on to chronicle cases of burn victims
as reported in Lahore's national dailies saying that in over half the 272
reported cases the victim was a recently married woman. In fact, in 201 of
these 272 incidents (or close to three-fourths) the victim was cooking. The
HRCP report says that while some of the cases might have been genuine
accidents the chance that all of them were mishaps seemed quite unlikely.
The 272 cases of stove-burning that were recorded included 48 girls and
caused the deaths of 163 of the victims. However, not a single person was
held and an FIR was registered in mere 22 cases. The HRCP says that this
meant that it was quite easy to disguise a deliberate incident stove-burning
as an accidental death.

MURDER CASES: The HRCP says that for the first 11 months of 1999 a total of
675 women were reported murdered. This included 85 who were under the age of
18 and 402 married women. The figure of 675 also includes the 266 women who
were killed on a matter of so-called 'honour'. Over 71 per cent of the
accused (in 480 cases) were relatives, mostly husbands, brothers or fathers
and in over 35 per cent of cases (241) the women had been killed after being
"suspected as having either a bad character or a friendship/relationship"
with another man. For these 675 reported murders no more than 77 accused
were arrested - in fact, complaints of over 150 murders were never
registered.

RAPE: A total of 597 women including 295 (over 49 per cent) were reported
raped in the Punjab. Almost as many of the women, 286 to be precise, were
gang-raped. In 140 cases, local police did not register even an FIR for the
crime while mere 74 people were arrested for the 597 cases.

KIDNAPPING: A total of 713 women were kidnapped during the first 11 months
of 1999; and over half, 368 to be precise, were girls. The HRCP says that
police is especially "notorious" for not dealing with kidnap cases properly,
especially when women are involved. In almost a third of cases, 232, not
even an FIR was registered. A total of 12 people were arrested and only 26
of the 713 kidnapped women were reported as having returned to their homes.

CUSTODIAL VIOLENCE: Forty one cases were reported of the either rape or
torture of women in custody by police personnel; This included six girls and
the distressing aspect was that all cases of rape were gang-rape, implying
that whenever an opportunity presented itself, the whole "gang" of policemen
on duty took part. Of the 41 reported cases only in five was anyone
arrested.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT: A total of 146 cases were reported of women (including 49
girls) being either molested or of an attempt to rape being made. However,
sexual harassment as perceived (and dealt with) in other developed countries
was not issue here and the cases reported were always of situations where
the situation got so out of hand that a relative [of a victim] tried to make
an issue out of it - and the matter gained sufficient attention to makes it
way into a newspaper report. However, in over a third of cases of sexual
harassment no case was registered and only nine people were held, and that
too for a short period.

__________________________________________
SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WEB DISPATCH is an informal, independent &
non-profit citizens wire service run by South Asia Citizens Web
(http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex) since1996.