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Thirty years ago, India’s security forces brutally murdered human rights defender Jaswant Singh Khalra for exposing over 2,000 secret cremations of the disappeared in Punjab.

Gurdev Singh speaks about his family’s persecution, and about the extrajudicial execution of his brother. “They beat my father brutally. They beat him like one would beat corn. With rods. They beat him unconscious,” Gurdev Singh told Ensaaf.

Thirty-nine years ago, the 1984 Indian Army attack on the Harmandir Sahib complex in Amritsar, Punjab marked the beginning of a decades long reign of terror in which India’s security forces disappeared and unlawfully killed thousands.

In 1993, after Punjab Police abducted Gurmeet Kaur from her home in Kalia, a witness saw her in illegal detention and reported, “She was…severely beaten.” The Punjab Police killed her and orphaned her two children.

With much excitement, we invite you to explore the beta release of our new Testimonies of Truth: A Video Archive, with an initial selection of interviews and clips, exploring key human rights themes and survivor perspectives.

We’re writing to share a letter we co-authored with Arjun Sethi. We’re very proud of this intervention.

35 years ago on February 4, 1986, India’s security forces shot and unlawfully killed four Sikh men participating in a peaceful religious procession and protest in Nakodar, Punjab.

Every day for the past year, Ensaaf has been sharing the profile of a person who was disappeared or unlawfully killed by India’s security forces in Punjab on the anniversary of the incident. From young children, to the elderly, these crimes against humanity impacted countless families and communities, the consequences of which still reverberate today.

Ensaaf works to address impunity for crimes against humanity in Punjab, with strategies and methods that also impact other regions suffering from gross human rights violations.

On August 30, 2019, the International Day of the Disappeared, Ensaaf released its first in-depth perpetrator dossier of former Punjab Police Chief Sumedh Singh Saini

On the International Day of the Disappeared, Ensaaf invites you to view the first-of its-kind interactive data visualization site, mapping victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions in Punjab, India.

Ensaaf and Human Rights Watch released a photo essay (modified from original) in accompaniment to their 123-page report, Protecting the Killers: A Policy of Impunity in Punjab, India.

On July 23, 1989, Punjab Police officers abducted, tortured, and unlawfully killed 35-year old Sikh community leader Kuljit Singh Dhatt. For decades, his family has relentlessly pursued justice, attending over a hundred hearings, petitioning various courts and commissions, and enduring police harassment and intimidation of witnesses.

Ensaaf and the Benetech Human Rights Data Analysis Group released a photo essay in accompaniment to their joint report