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Homecoming
Lackadaisical
legal proceedings and a sympathetic state government are luring more and
more fugitive Punjab militants back to India, says INDIA TODAY's Special
Correspondent Ramesh Vinayak.
It
was not a coincidence. Last month, when rumours gained currency that Zurich-based
Wassan Singh Zaffarwal, one-time chief of the Khalistan Commando Force
(KCF), was planning a home-coming-after 15 years as a fugitive , the Punjab
Police sent out a circular to its district chiefs. The note called for
the nomination of foreign-based militants in fresh firs lodged against
their gang members. The fiat was necessitated because the police realised
that on returning to India former militants could walk free as the pending
cases against them were weak in the absence of witnesses.
The apprehensions
proved true on April 11. Zaffarwal walked into police custody as part
of a surrender deal clinched by a close relative, Punjab Public Works
Minister Sucha Singh Langah. On March 9, Zaffarwal, despite an Interpol
red-corner notice against him, had walked through Amritsar airport's green
channel. Not even his fake travel documents raised the suspicions of Intelligence
Bureau personnel manning the immigration counters.
Zaffarwal's return seems to fit in with Punjab Chief Minister Parkash
Singh Badal's twofold political strategy: cosying up to the radical section
of the Sikhs, and outdoing hardliners Gurcharan Singh Tohra and Simranjit
Singh Mann who recently joined hands. However, to deflect the Opposition's
charge of being hand-in-glove with militants, Badal ruled out an amnesty
for Zaffarwal.
As part
of the surrender, the KCF leader bargained for legal recourse. Perhaps,
knowing that though he was named in 16 cases, a declared proclaimed offender
in six, the police would be unable to get a conviction as most witnesses
were either dead or unwilling to depose against him. Even the numerous
letters Zaffarwal had written to his gang members from Pakistan exhorting
them to commit terrorist acts, feel police officials, will not be enough
to nail the former militant. Zaffarwal may ultimately only face charges
under the Indian Passport Act, says a senior police official.
Zaffarwal's case is not an isolated one. With the Punjab Police no longer
resorting to extra-judicial measures, and a sympathetic Akali regime in
place, one-time terrorists who had fled the country are no longer averse
to giving themselves to the law. Moreover, with peace returning to Punjab,
gaining political asylum in foreign countries is no longer easy.
Terrorists'
cases fall like nine pins in the courts and even those dubbed as most
wanted become free sooner than expected, says Kanwar Pal Singh Bittu,
former militant of the Babbar Khalsa group who was extradited from Hong
Kong in 1996. After a brief stint in judicial custody, Bittu was acquitted
as the police couldn't even file a challan against him in court. Not surprising
in a state where the conviction rate in the 15,000-odd TADA cases since
1985 has been as low as 1 per cent. Even in cases where a conviction has
been secured, the sentence has been much lower than that handed out by
courts outside Punjab for the same offences.
In August 1999, a Pakistan-based Dal Khalsa militant Satnam Singh, who
hijacked an Indian plane in the early 1980s, returned from Pakistan via
Nepal without facing any legal action. Even in cases where top militants
have been extradited from foreign countries after years of diplomatic
efforts, the trials are progressing at a snail's pace, mainly for want
of witnesses. Sloppy police investigations and unprofessional prosecution
agencies are other contributing factors. An example is Daya Singh Lahoria
of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), extradited from the US in January
1997 to face trial in 10 high-profile crimes. The case against him is
still at the trial stage.
Another KLF militant, Devinder Pal Singh, deported from Germany in 1995
and acquitted in most of the cases against him, faces trial in three murder
cases. Even these may suffer for want of hard evidence, say police officials.
Ranjit Singh Kuki and Sukhminder Singh Sukhi, militants who had fled to
the US, were extradited last year after almost 14 years, on the condition
that they would not be handed over to the Punjab Police until their trial
in the crimes committed outside Punjab is over.
Of the 250-odd terrorists wanted by the Punjab Police, almost 100 are
reported to be abroad. The police is pursuing the extradition of a handful
of militants lodged in foreign jails, among them Mahesh Inder Singh, Kulbir
Singh and Harpal Singh in the US.
Officials believe that the Zaffarwal episode may see many more former
militants returning to India. Some of them have reportedly sent feelers
to Akali ministers expressing a desire to surrender. It may spur them
to follow suit, says Punjab Police intelligence chief M.P.S. Aulukh. In
fact, within a week of the KCF leader's arrest, Rachhpal Singh Lalli returned
from the Philippines where he had fled five years ago and surrendered
to the Jagraon police.
Zaffarwal's surrender is a blow to the Khalistan lobby. No wonder, foreign-based
militants, with the exception of London-based Jagjit Singh Chauhan who,
in any case, is seeking an Indian passport, were quick to scorn Zaffarwal.
Badal's argument that there is nothing wrong in letting former militants
join the mainstream has cut little ice with other political parties and
a section of the police, who apprehend that the soft approach would dilute
the anti-terrorism guard of the state. Even the BJP, a ruling coalition
partner, is feeling edgy, knowing that Zaffarwal's return has not gone
down well with the party's urban Hindu support base.
Wary of laying down a policy on former militants, Badal has been following
an ambiguous approach. Appointment of Virsa Singh Valtoha and Amarjit
Singh Chawla, both one-time pro-militant leaders, to the state service
selection bodies was part of the Akali supremo's attempts to court hardliners.
And, in the recent Majitha assembly by-elections, Badal paraded the widows
of the November 1984 riots in a bid to arouse the passions of the Sikh
community against the Congress.
The manner in which Badal got the resolutions against Operation Bluestar
and the anti-Sikh riots passed in the Assembly last month, after suspending
the entire Opposition from the House, is a clear indication of his strategy
to revive emotive issues on the eve of the Assembly polls. Badal is playing
the communal-cum-fundamentalist card to make up for his non-performance,
charges veteran CPI leader Satyapal Dang.
Even moderate Akalis are uneasy. The Zaffarwal episode would weaken SAD's
anti-militancy stance, says Punjab Finance Minister Captain Kanwaljit
Singh. The party stands to gain nothing but may lose politically as it
has sent wrong signals to the Hindus. The real danger, according to political
observers, is to the hard-earned peace and communal amity in the state
after the SAD-BJP came to power in 1997, a sort of social coalition between
the Sikhs and Hindus.
More importantly, the Congress has taken up the Zaffarwal incident and
says it proves that the Akalis are hand-in-glove with militants. Badal
has played a benefactor to Zaffarwal to get political mileage, alleges
state Congress chief Amarinder Singh. A combative Congress is now accusing
Badal of backtracking on his pre-poll promise to set up a commission to
inquire into terrorism.
Zaffarwal may escape the legal heat but his return has sent the political
temperature in Punjab soaring.
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