Punjab: SC to hear PIL for SIT on executions, killings

The Supreme Court is to hear on Monday a PIL seeking a direction to set up an SIT or a ‘Truth Commission’ to uncover the "cold-blooded execution and killing of as many as 25,000 victims" in Punjab and in other parts of India during 1984 to 1995.

The petition filed by the 'Punjab Documentation & Advocacy Project', a human rights organisation, and victim families relied upon "investigations" which it claimed, "uncovered secret mass cremation of dead bodies of over 8,527 victims between 1984-95".

The petition is to come up before a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M R Shah on Monday, September 2.

It alleged there were "enforced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and mass cremations" in Punjab during the period of militancy and counter-insurgency after 1984.

The petitioner claimed to have carried on investigations and collected information in some 26 districts and sub-districts of Punjab in 1,600 villages, 1,200 police FIRs and 150 RTI applications resulting in the discovery of 8257 victims and data of 6,224 cremations from several cremation grounds between 1984-95.

The petition, to be argued by senior advocate Colin Gonsalves and advocate Satnam Singh Bains, sought a direction to the Centre and state to investigate mass state crimes, prosecute perpetrators and rehabilitate victim, citing examples in the Supreme Court such as the Manipur Extra-Judicial Execution Victim Families Association vs Union of India case as well as international examples of truth commissions, and commissions to identify missing persons in post-conflict situations.