Our Successes

Ensaaf has made notable achievements in its work to end impunity and achieve justice for crimes against humanity in India, including conducting innovative documentation projects, releasing groundbreaking reports, advancing key cases through critical litigation support, and engaging international experts.

Five Officers Convicted

Ensaaf provided key litigation support for the convictions and life sentences of 5 police officers for Jaswant Singh Khalra's abduction and murder.

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Largest-Ever Documentation Effort in India

Ensaaf has interviewed thousands of survivors of disappearances and unlawful killings, reaching all of Punjab’s 12,000+ villages.

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International Experts Engaged

Ensaaf partnered with the Nobel Prize-winning organization Physicians for Human Rights on a torture and trauma study.

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Recognized as a Ground-breaking Organization

Ensaaf Co-Founders Jaskaran Kaur and Sukhman Dhami received the Echoing Green fellowship award in 2006.

 

 

Timeline

April 2004

Ensaaf begins work.

June 2004

Ensaaf releases a report analyzing 1000s of government papers concerning massacres of Sikhs: Twenty Years of Impunity: The November 1984 Pogroms of Sikhs in India.

May 2005 to June 2005

Ensaaf partners with Nobel Prize-winning Physicians for Human Rights and Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture on in-depth torture and trauma study in Amritsar, Punjab.

July 2005

On the eve of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the US, Ensaaf publishes an op-ed in the Boston Globe, “The Legacy of India’s Counter-terrorism.”

October 2005

Ensaaf releases a report examining recent abuses committed from May to June 2005 as part of a government crackdown on an alleged revival of terrorism in Punjab.

October 2005

Physicians for Human Rights and Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture intervene in the Punjab mass cremations case by submitting their expert report to the NHRC.

November 2005

A criminal court convicts 6 Punjab policemen for the illegal detention and murder of human rights defender Jaswant Singh Khalra. Ensaaf provided critical legal support.

May 2006

Ensaaf Co-Founders receive the Echoing Green Fellowship award, recognized as among the world’s most exceptional emerging leaders working to spark social change.

September 2006

Ensaaf works with attorney RS Bains to file a High Court case against KPS Gill, calling on the government to prosecute him for his role in Khalra’s murder.

March 2007

Ensaaf releases the second edition of Twenty Years of Impunity, examining developments since the Nanavati Commission.

October 2007

The High Court upholds the convictions of 5 police officers for the illegal detention and murder of Khalra, and enhances sentences to life imprisonment.

October 2007

Ensaaf and Human Rights Watch release a joint report analyzing impunity for Punjab abuses and providing a framework for redress.

November 2007

Ensaaf meets with the Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances in Geneva following a joint submission with international human rights groups.

January 2009

Ensaaf and the Benetech Human Rights Data Analysis Group release a report presenting verifiable quantitative findings demonstrating the implausibility that lethal human rights violations in Punjab were random or minor aberrations.

January 2009

United Nations report incorporates allegations presented by Ensaaf on disappearances and mass cremations in Punjab, informing the Government of India that it has an ongoing duty to thoroughly and impartially investigate the disappearances.

July/August 2009

Ensaaf completes the largest disappearances and extrajudicial executions documentation effort in Punjab in nearly a decade, conducting approximately 1,000 interviews in 6 weeks.

September 2009

Following a successful Right to Information Act request, Ensaaf procures 30,000 legal records from the National Human Rights Commission concerning the Punjab mass cremations case.

November 2009

Ensaaf launches an ad campaign in San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit system, which represents the first time ads on human rights abuses in India have been viewed by riders in any transit system in the U.S.

November 2009

TIME Magazine interviews Ensaaf for an expert opinion on the November 1984 pogroms, and thrice quotes Ensaaf in its published article, "India's Anti-Sikh Riots: Waiting for Justice." The article is #1 on Time.com's Most Emailed List for almost 2 days.

November 2009

San Jose Mercury News publishes Ensaaf's op-ed, highlighting the continuing impact of impunity for gross human rights violations in India, as well as its relevance to the U.S.

November 2011

The Supreme Court upholds the convictions of 5 police officers for the illegal detention and murder of Khalra. Ensaaf provided key litigation support to the case at various stages.

March 2013

On the 25th anniversary of India’s suspension of the right to life in Punjab, the Christian Science Monitor publishes an op-ed article by Sukhman Dhami, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Ensaaf.

October 2013

Ensaaf releases a new short film, The Last Killing, about a former policeman’s commitment to fight for justice for families of those who were unlawfully killed by his colleagues.

April 2014

Punjab Police whistleblower, Satwant Singh Manak, files an appeal to the Supreme Court of India in the case he is fighting on behalf of ten victim families whose loved ones were unlawfully killed by the Punjab Police. Supreme Court attorney Shadan Farasat, High Court attorney Rajvinder S. Bains, and Ensaaf drafted the special leave petition.

May 2014

Judge Poonam R. Joshi convicts three Punjab Police officers in the abduction and murder of Kuljit Singh Dhatt. Ensaaf provided litigation support in this case.

May 2014

On the 30th Anniversary of Operation Bluestar, Ensaaf releases a short film, A Witness Among The Bodies: Surviving Bluestar, an eyewitness account of the Indian Army attack on the Harmandir Sahib Complex in Amritsar, Punjab, from June 1 to June 6, 1984.

June 2014

The Supreme Court of India grants police whistleblower Satwant Singh Manak and victim families leave to appeal the High Court judgment that had denied them a high level inquiry into the unlawful killings witnessed by Manak.

July 2014

On the 25th anniversary of Kuljit Singh Dhatt’s custodial killing by the Punjab Police, Ensaaf presents A Labor of Love: Contesting Impunity, a multimedia tribute to the strength and resilience of one family and how they fought impunity for 25 years.

September 2014

Sukhman Dhami, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Ensaaf, presents at the first-ever Congressional briefing on the November 1984 anti-Sikh violence in India, hosted by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in Washington, D.C.

September 2014

Ensaaf’s film, The Last Killing, wins the Amnesty International Best Human Rights Short award at the Isle of Wight Film Festival 2014.

January 2015

The Hill publishes an article by Ensaaf co-founder and co-director Sukhman Dhami calling on the U.S. to engage India on its poor human rights record.

August 2015

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

September 2015

Ensaaf’s film, The Last Killing, wins the Best Documentary Short at the New Filmmakers Los Angeles “Best of 2014” awards on September 12, 2015 in Los Angeles, California.

December 2015

On Human Rights Day, Khalra Mission Organisation, the Punjab Human Rights Organisation, and Ensaaf release a new web-based human rights tool to help empower victims of government abuse to report their experiences at ReportPunjabPolice.org.

August 2018

Ensaaf releases its first-of-a-kind interactive data visualization site, mapping and profiling 5100+ victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions in Punjab, India.

November 2021

Testimonies of Truth: A Video Archive launches in beta, providing the global community a free repository of video testimonials from surviving families of the “Decade of Disappearances.”

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.