EXTERNAL (For General Distribution) AI Index: ASA 20/46/92 Distr: UA/SC

EXTERNAL (for general distribution) AI Index: ASA 20/46/92 Distr: UA/SC

UA 278/92 Fear of Torture 4 September 1992

INDIA: Malwinder Singh Malli, Journalist

Malwinder Singh Malli, a journalist for the Punjabi Tribune and former General Secretary of the Punjab Human Rights Organization was reportedly arrested by police on 23 August 1992. He is being held under the National Security Act probably in the Sangrur District.

Malwinder Singh Malli was travelling on a bus from Dhury to Malerkotla when the police stopped the bus and took him away. Mr Malli is a close associate of Ram Singh Billing, another Sikh journalist, who was reportedly taken into custody on 3 January 1992 (See Urgent Action 17/92, ASA 20/11/92, 14 January 1992). Mr Billing's whereabouts are still unknown. Both Malwinder Singh Malli and Ram Singh Billing had been involved in bringing legal action on behalf of two young Sikh detainees and had filed a petition on their behalf in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Chandigarh.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Amnesty International regularly receives reports of torture, "disappearances" and unacknowledged detention of people arrested in Punjab on suspicion of being members or sympathizers of one of the Sikh opposition groups advocating a separate Sikh state, "Khalistan". In some cases the detainees are eventually found to have died in custody, while others are found to have been deliberately killed in custody although official reports say they died in "encounters" with the police. Even though legal safeguards against torture and unacknowledged detention exist in India's ordinary criminal law and procedural code, they are often simply not adhered to and prisoners are held in illegal detention for weeks and sometimes months under special legislation granting the security forces arbitrary powers to arrest and detain people without ordinary legal safeguards and without charge or trial. The National Security Act is a preventative detention law allowing people to be detained without charge or trial for up to one year.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send telegrams and airmail letters either in English or in your own language:

- expressing concern about reports that Malwinder Singh Malli was reportedly arrested on 23 August 1992 by policemen and is now held in preventive detention without charge;

- urging that he be allowed immediate access to lawyers and relatives and be brought before a magistrate forthwith;

- seeking assurances that Malwinder Singh Malli is being humanely treated and is granted full legal safeguards while in custody;

- urging that he be released if he is not to be charged with a recognizably criminal offence.

page 2 of UA 278/92 APPEALS TO:

Chief Minister of Punjab 1) Beant Singh Chief Minister of Punjab Office of the Chief Minister Chandigarh Punjab INDIA

Telegrams: Punjab Chief Minister, Chandigarh, Punjab, India Salutation: Dear Chief Minister

Director General of Police 2) Mr K. P. S. Gill Director General of Police Police Headquarters Chandigarh Punjab INDIA

Telegrams: Director General Police, Chandigarh, Punjab, India Salutation: Dear Director General

COPIES TO:

Punjab Human Rights Organisation (Regd.) Head Office H. No. 22, Sector 2 Chandigarh (U.T.) Punjab INDIA

Mr Surinder Nath Governor of Punjab Office of the Governor Chandigarh Punjab INDIA and to diplomatic representatives accredited to India in your country.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 15 October 1992.