We warmly welcome you to the screening of Punjab Disappeared a 70 minute documentary which uncovers the decade of enforced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and mass secret cremations that took place in Punjab. Thousands of people, mainly young Sikh men disappeared after being abducted by the Punjab police, murdered in staged encounters and their bodies cremated as unclaimed and unidentified.The film traces the work of the Punjab Documentation and Advocacy Project (PDAP) furthering the pioneering work of Punjab human-right activist Jaswant Singh Khalra in identifying thousands of previously unidentified bodies from new evidence, and gives fresh impetus to the survivors’ 25 year struggle for justice.

For years, the voices of the families of those disappeared remained silenced. The documentary explores the complexities of mass state violence in India which is interwoven with their determined voices and the unacknowledged collective trauma shared with other genocide survivors.

The stories of the disappeared, and their families’ subsequent struggle to find answers to the question – ‘what happened to our loved ones?’

The documentary critiques the significance of the Punjab conflict and whether lessons from Punjab were learned in the context of contemporary mass state violence in India: Midnight knocks, people are taken, never to be heard from again. The multi layered cover up of these mass crimes is critically examined and the despite endemic failures of state institutions, the struggle for justice and accountability is enduring.

The viewer is taken through an often-emotional journey of grief, fear and despair but ultimately the film carries a message of hope and resistance. Expressing solidarity, support and a shared desire for justice with survivors from Manipur, Kashmir and Chhattisgarh. With difficult and searching questions of how the security forces in India are still able to act with impunity, and the relevance of Punjab to the victim families of other conflicts in India.

Punjab Disappeared is a clarion call for the State and civil society to take action now, for truth, justice, reparation, and non-repetition through the indomitable spirit, dignity and determination of its survivors.