Dear U.S. Representative,

We are writing to request your assistance in an issue of distress to the California and national Indian minority communities. Our request is that you would speak in favor of denying U.S. visitor’s visas to three top-ranking Indian police officers based on their involvement in a system that promotes torture as a daily tool for the average officer. Here are the facts:

• Gurpreet Dheo, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Parmodh Baan, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) and S.K. Sharma, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) are top-ranking officers of Punjab Police. In early December, they are scheduled for a speaking tour of the USA, to include New York, Texas, Michigan, and areas of California, including Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno and Tracy.
• There is precedent as well as reason for forbidding Indian police officers to enter North America.
• In 2009, Canada denied entry to Ranbir Singh Khattra, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Punjab Police, saying in a letter signed by Canadian Embassy Vice Counsel Sharon Hogan: “You are at the very least willfully blind to the crime against humanity committed by the Punjab Police in Amritsar district. During the investigation, arrest and interrogation, while your posting, you may have been directly involved or at the very least help the increase the effectiveness of the Punjab Police in Amritsar district at the time when a large number of police forces in the area was involved in commission of crime against humanity.” In 2010, Canada again denied visas to several Indian police officers, as well as members of other Indian security forces like the Intelligence Bureau (IB), because of their knowledge of and probable involvement in severe human rights violations.

The practice of torture is all pervasive in India’s national police forces, as documented by “Demons Within: The Systematic Practice of Torture by Indian Police” by Organization for Minorities of India (OFMI). The report shows how innocent and guilty alike are tortured. Peaceful political protesters are tortured. Those too poor to pay bribes to the police are tortured. Minorities, both ethnic and religious, are tortured. As seen in the report, the practice of torture by Indian police is universal and the methods are beyond brutal.

Punjab Police, for instance, are best known for fielding death squads in the 1980s. Mohammad Izhar Alam, once Director General of Police (DGP, the top rank) organized and led one of the most infamous death squads, called both “Alam Sena” and “Black Cats.” A human rights organization reported November 18, 2011 that it had just discovered and identified 34 young Sikhs killed under Alam’s reign of terror. Yet in October 2010, Chief Minister of Punjab Parkash Singh Badal promised Alam a state Legislative Assembly seat. [1]

In 2002, Physicians for Human Rights members reported that one Punjab Police officer admitted, “In his police station alone, between 4,000 and 5,000 acts of torture were committed each year from 1985 to 1990.” [2] In 2003, Amnesty International warned: “Virtually none of the police officers responsible for a range of human rights violations — including torture, deaths in custody, extra-judicial executions and ‘disappearances’ during the militancy period — were brought to justice, creating an atmosphere in which state officials appear to believe that they can violate people’s fundamental rights with impunity even today.” [3] Police officers are regularly ordered to arbitrarily arrest and murder random citizens in “false encounter” killings. A police officer interviewed in 2009 by Human Rights Watch said: “This week, I was told to do an ‘encounter’ … I am looking for my target. I will eliminate him.” [4]

The Asian Human Rights Commission reported in 2010: “Torture, in its cognate and express forms, is practiced in every police station in the country.” [5] Also in 2010, the Asian Centre for Human Rights reported: “About four people have died or been killed in police custody every day in India between 2002 and last year, a large number tortured to death.” [6] In light of such evidence of continued systemic police use of torture, please consider speaking against entry into the U.S. of top-ranking Indian police officers whose presence would be a great source of unease to American citizens of South Asian origin.

Sincerely,

Organization for Minorities of India
Founding Director Bhajan Singh, singh@ofmi.org
Communications Coordinator Arvin Valmuci, arvin@ofmi.org

Citations:
1 Singh, I.P. “Alam Sena staged encounter killings.” The Times of India. September 11, 2011.
2 Laws, Ami and Vincent Iacopino. “Police Torture in Punjab, India: An Extended Survey.” Health and Human Rights. Vol. 6, No. 1, 2002. 205.
3 India: Break the cycle of impunity and torture in Punjab.” Amnesty International. January 20, 2003.
4 Ibid. 4.
5 Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong. Article 2: Torture Prevention & Police Law in India. Vol. 09 – No. 03-04. “India’s Prevention of Torture Bill requires a thorough review.” December 2010.
6 “India: New Killings, Torture at Bangladeshi Border.” Human Rights Watch. July 24, 2011.