“AFTER 30 YEARS, WORDS ARE NOT ENOUGH”: VICTIMS’ FAMILIES CALL ON SGPC AND AKAL TAKHT TO ACT

Families of victims of enforced disappearances gathered at the Press Club, New Amritsar, to demand practical support and accountability over the appointment to the SGPC’s highest judicial post of the lawyer who represented the killers of Jaswant Singh Khalra and hundreds of other police officers.

They called for his removal as Chairman of the Sikh Gurdwara Judicial Commission and urged the SGPC and Akal Takht to rally behind the 8,257 disappearance cases already before the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

AMRITSAR: Families of Punjab’s disappeared and victims of extrajudicial killings have delivered a clear message to the SGPC and Sri Akal Takht Sahib: after nearly 30 years, words and remembrance are not enough — we need action.

Following a press conference by Punjab Disappeared — Punjab Documentation & Advocacy Project (PDAP) — victims’ families have called upon Sikh institutions to translate their support for the legacy of human rights defender Jaswant Singh Khalra into concrete action for the cause to which he gave his life.

Khalra’s discovery of 2,097 unidentified and unclaimed cremations began a struggle that has now led to approximately 9,000 disappeared persons being traced and identified through the examination and cross-referencing of approximately 200,000 records.

That work has also contributed to a decades-long struggle for accountability in which 115 police personnel have been convicted and sentenced. Yet thousands remain unaccounted for.

RALLY BEHIND THE 8,257 CASES ALREADY BEFORE THE HIGH COURT

In 2019, a Public Interest Litigation concerning 8,257 disappeared persons was filed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Victims’ families are calling upon the SGPC, Sri Akal Takht Sahib and Sikh institutions worldwide to rally behind these cases and support the fight for truth and accountability already before the Court.

These are not abstract numbers. Each case represents a person, a family and an unanswered demand for truth.

The families are also calling for an independent Judicial Commission to investigate the wider scale of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and unidentified cremations across Punjab.

If Sikh institutions honour Jaswant Singh Khalra, they must also stand behind the cases that continue the work he began.

ACTION FOR THE FAMILIES WHO FOUGHT FOR JUSTICE

PDAP has submitted a memorandum to the SGPC calling for meaningful financial assistance for victims’ families who have fought for decades and secured convictions, and for priority employment within SGPC institutions to be considered for eligible kin of affected families.

Some families have spent 20, 30 and nearly 40 years pursuing justice. They do not need sympathy alone. They need institutions to stand beside them.

THE SATNAM SINGH KALER ISSUE MUST BE ADDRESSED

Punjab Disappeared has also asked the Acting Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib to address serious concerns regarding Advocate Satnam Singh Kaler and his appointment as Chairman of the Gurdwara Judicial Commission.

The organisation has questioned how an advocate who represented many of the accused police personnel — including the killers of Jaswant Singh Khalra, notorious police officers such as Sumedh Saini, and other police personnel convicted in serious human rights cases — came to hold such a significant position within a Sikh judicial institution.

The contradiction must be addressed: Sikh institutions cannot celebrate the legacy of Jaswant Singh Khalra while ignoring the concerns of victims’ families about those who defended the very police personnel implicated in the abuses he exposed.

Punjab Disappeared has called for appropriate proceedings to be initiated to dismiss Kaler and has stated that, if no action is taken by the SGPC within 14 days, victims’ families will seek accountability directly from the SGPC leadership.

The message from the families is clear:

Do not only remember Jaswant Singh Khalra — stand behind the cases he gave his life to expose.

Rally behind the 8,257 cases already before the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Stand with the families who have carried this struggle for nearly four decades.

After decades of public pronouncements, tributes and promises, the time for words is over. If those words were genuine, prove it through action.