AMRITSAR SAHIB—Security measures on par with Bhai Jagtar Singh Hawara now also appear to have been applied to Bhai Narain Singh Chaura.
SOPW volunteers traveled to Tarn Taran to meet Bhai Narain Singh Chaura who was due to appear in court there hoping for a brief meeting. SOPW volunteers reported that hours before Bhai Narain Singh had even arrived, the security forces cordoned off the entire outside of the Court and flooded the vicinity with lines of armed police officers. Bhai Chaura told us that the level of security that had been enforced here was on par with that of Bhai Jagtar Singh Hawara’s court appearances. SOPW volunteers explained that the distance of the area sealed off meant that when the police van arrived with Bhai Chaura it was too far to even see him, so speaking to him or taking a picture had proved impossible.
SOPW acknowledges that Indian law enforcement officers need to maintain adequate security, however it seems highly unfair that it needs to be to an extent that even families and friends are unable to come close to their loved one.
It was only last month that a SOPW volunteer’s camera was confiscated and broken by the police when he had attempted to take a picture of Bhai Baljeet Singh Bhau attending court. SOPW will be highlighting with our senior lawyers many such concerns, namely why in eighteen years of possibly hundreds of court appearances the media have never been allowed to record the voice of Bhai Jagtar Singh Hawara and Bhai Parmjit Singh Bheora and the current concern that Bhai Narain Singh Chaura will also be subjected to similar harsh and needless measures of security.
Below is a video recorded by the biased Indian media who constantly and deliberately label every Sikh demanding justice as either a separatist or a terrorist.
