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NEWS : India: 1,000 missing in Punjab are dead
HEADLINE: 1000 missing in Punjab are dead
DATELINE: NEW DELHI, July 22
BODY:
Indian investigators said Monday that at least 1,000 people missing
since a Sikh separatist rebellion ended in the early 1990s were killed by
police in the northern state of Punjab over a 10-year period, reports
said. India's Central Bureau of Investigation has turned over evidence of
the extra-judicial killings to the country's Supreme Court, the Press
Trust of India reported. Investigators said the victims had been
officially listed as ''unidentified'' by police who were engaged in a
statewide campaign to end Punjab's 11-year separatist movement, the news
agency said. Punjab police officials have denied the accusations.
Expressing ''horror and shock'' over the report, the two Supreme Court
judges directed investigators to continue the probe. Several
international human rights organizations have also accused Punjab state
police of carrying out secret killings of thousands of innocent people
during the years of the Sikh uprising. Earlier, the Court ordered an
inquiry following numerous complaints from relatives of the missing.
Until 1994, Sikhs -- who make up 2 percent of India's 935 million people
-- battled for an independent religious homeland to be called Khalistan.
More than 25,000 people died in the insurgency.
