A Mission to Achieve Justice

 

Ensaaf is a nonprofit organization working to end impunity and achieve justice for crimes against humanity in India, with a special focus on Punjab.

 

In many regions of India, Indian security forces have perpetrated gross human rights violations with impunity.

In Punjab alone, security forces tortured, executed, and disappeared tens of thousands of people from 1984 to 1995. Survivors continue to suffer more decades later because the government refuses to bring perpetrators to justice.

Justice is being denied in the world’s largest democracy.

▸ Key evidence is lost each year as survivors die and documents are destroyed. We must capture this evidence before it is gone forever.

▸ Key cases have reached higher courts. These cases will set national precedents and we must support them.

▸ Accused police officers have been promoted to senior positions, and the few convicted officials have been absconding from jail or been pardoned. They must be removed from power.

Without confronting impunity, India will continue to operate outside the rule of law, and conflict and abuses will not end. Punjab presents a unique and timely opportunity to challenge systematic impunity in India.

Effective Strategies

Ensaaf employs three integrated strategies:

  1. Documenting abuses to counter official denials and build evidence for accountability;

  2. Engaging in strategic litigation to remove perpetrators from power and set national precedents on human rights norms; and

  3. Organizing survivors to advocate for their rights to truth, justice, and reparations.

Ensaaf has established an international reputation for innovative and effective advocacy, working with India’s preeminent human rights attorneys and the world’s foremost human rights organizations.

Ensaaf has published Op Eds and been cited by numerous media outlets, including the BBC, the LA Times, the Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor, and Time.

 

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    Ensaaf thanks its individual donors, matching corporate donors, and institutional supporters. Thank you for working to secure human rights for India’s citizens today, and for generations to come.

    Appear for the Disappeared

    Join Ensaaf for our Walkathon and Fundraiser. Take 5,269 steps (4 km) in one day in honor of each victim profiled on our Mapping Crimes Against Humanity site.

    Multiply your impact.
    Fight for truth and justice now, and double your donation.

    Mapping the Killings

    View our interactive data visualization site, mapping and profiling 5300+ victims.

    Rajvinder S. Bains:
    This procedure has failed completely.

    Rajvinder S. Bains, a human rights attorney in the Punjab & Haryana High Court for over 20 years, discusses his experiences with the High Court in cases filed on behalf of victims of disappearances or extrajudicial executions. (Oct. 2007)

    Mohinder Singh:
    What justice can we get from here?

    Mohinder Singh discusses the abduction and murder of his son by the Punjab police and his pursuit of numerous avenues of justice. (Oct. 2007)

    Tarlochan Singh:
    A Mockery of Justice

    Tarlochan Singh describes his son Kulwinder Singh’s abduction by the Punjab police, and his 18-year continuing legal struggle for justice for Kulwinder Singh’s extrajudicial execution. (Oct. 2007)

    Gurcharan Singh and his Desire for Justice

    In an SBS Dateline program on Punjab, Geoff Parish discusses the Punjab governments offer of compensation to 17 families, with no investigation or admission of liability by the state, in the Punjab mass cremations case. Gurcharan Singh rejected this offer. (Apr. 2002, Uploaded with permission from SBS.)

    Jaswant Singh Khalra: Investigations into Illegal Cremations

    An SBS Dateline program on Punjab describes human rights defender Jaswant Singh Khalras discovery of the Punjab polices use of secret cremations to hide evidence of extrajudicial executions. The clip includes an interview with human rights activist Ram Narayan Kumar. (Apr. 2002, Uploaded with permission from SBS.)

    A Witness Among the Bodies: Surviving Bluestar

    On the 30th Anniversary of Operation Bluestar, Ensaaf presents an eyewitness account of the Indian Army attack on The Harmandir Sahib Complex in Amritsar, Punjab, from June 1 and June 6, 1984. This exclusive interview reveals how the Indian Army intentionally killed thousands of civilians and used excessive force during this assault.

    Ensaaf Speaks with Manak about Court Decision,
    November 28, 2013

    On November 26, 2013, the Punjab & Haryana High Court allowed the appeal of the State of Punjab and reversed and nullified the decision of the Single Judge directing investigation by the CBI. Not only did it refuse to order an inquiry into Satwant Singh Manak’s allegations that he witnessed the Punjab Police torture and unlawfully kill ten people, it also fined Manak, ordering him to pay 2,000 rupees to each of the accused police officers.
     

    A Labor Of Love: Contesting Impunity

    On July 23, 1989, Punjab Police officers abducted, tortured, and unlawfully killed 35-year old Sikh community leader Kuljit Singh Dhatt. For 25 years, his family has relentlessly pursued justice, attending over a hundred hearings, petitioning various courts and commissions, and enduring police harassment and intimidation of witnesses. On May 9, 2014, a judge convicted three police officers of abduction in order to murder Kuljit Singh Dhatt, sentencing them to a mere five years. The legal battle continues, now in the higher courts.

    Navkiran Kaur Khalra:
    “We are proud of what our father did.”

    Navkiran Kaur Khalra, daughter of murdered human rights defender Jaswant Singh Khalra, recounts her family’s struggle for justice and her father’s discovery of thousands of killings and secret cremations by the Punjab police to hide evidence of wrongdoing. (Oct. 2007)

    Jaswant Singh Khalra: Last International Speech – The Struggle for Truth

    In his last speech made to a Canadian audience, Jaswant Singh Khalra discusses his investigations into the thousands of illegal killings and secret cremations by the Punjab police and his readiness to die to expose the truth about these crimes. Jaswant Singh Khalra begins his speech with a moving fable about the struggle of truth and light against expanding darkness. He recounts how he traced the fate of many disappeared Sikhs to Amritsar’s municipal cremation grounds. Through government records obtained from these municipalities, Khalra exposed a detailed history of systematic human rights violations in which security forces abducted, murdered, and secretly cremated an estimated 6,017 Sikhs in Amritsar district alone–then one of 13 districts in Punjab–from 1984 to 1995. (Apr. 1995)

    Paramjit Kaur Khalra on Impunity in Punjab

    In this video, Paramjit Kaur Khalra describes the need for a truth commission to redress the thousands of disappearances and killings in Punjab, India perpetrated during the counterinsurgency of 1984 to 1995. In September and October 1995, Indian security forces illegally detained, tortured, and killed her husband, human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, for his work uncovering over 2,000 cases of extrajudicial executions and secret cremations in Amritsar district alone. On November 4, 2011, India’s Supreme Court upheld life imprisonment for five officers involved in Khalra’s unlawful abduction, torture, and killing. Mrs. Khalra continues to seek justice for the all victims of illegal killings and disappearances.

    Seeking Ensaaf

    On Human Rights Day, we share this documentary to show you how your support helps us document abuses on the ground. Seeking Ensaaf, filmed by Andrew Heskett, Ryan Westra, and David Thompson, recipients of the Sikh Scholarship Program at Chapman University, in August 2013, follows Ensaaf field workers as they document a case of extrajudicial killing in Punjab. Thank you for joining us on this journey to end impunity and achieve justice for the disappearances and unlawful killings of the Decade of Disappearances in Punjab.

    A Light of Justice: Commemorating Jaswant Singh Khalra

    On the 20th anniversary of the police abduction of human rights defender Jaswant Singh Khalra, Ensaaf released A Light of Justice: Commemorating Jaswant Singh Khalra. This 30-minute film contains interviews with Khalra’s family, as well as archival footage of Khalra when he was investigating secret cremations and disappearances in Punjab.

    Twenty years after Khalra’s martyrdom, the architects of the widespread and systematic human rights abuses in Punjab remain free. The Indian government is no closer to bringing Gill and the other perpetrators to justice for organizing Khalra’s – and thousands of other innocent Sikhs’ – death.

    Please watch and share this film via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

    The Last Killing

    Satwant Singh Manak joined the Punjab Police to provide his family with a stable income. But in the late 1980s and early 1990s, in response to an insurgency, Indian security forces committed systematic and widespread torture, disappearances, and unlawful killings in Punjab. Manak silently witnessed the torture and executions of 15 unarmed individuals at the hands of his fellow police officers. The killing of Kulwant Singh, a teenager who had passed 10th grade, deeply affected Manak. No longer able to suppress his conscience and the horror of what he witnessed, he resigned from his job and filed a case against his fellow police officers. That case covers ten of the victims.