AFP
Thursday, August 3, 2000

LONDON, Aug 3 (AFP) - Two Sikh militants at the centre of a deportation row here were almost certainly tortured in the Punjab along with dozens of others from the northern Indian region, a torture watchdog group charged on Thursday.

Mukhtiar Singh, 27, and Paramjit Singh, 26, won their battle against deportation from Britain on Monday despite being branded international terrorists because they said they risked torture if they were repatriated to India.

India's top envoy in Britain, Nareshwar Dayal, has said the torture allegations were unfounded.

But the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture said torture was widespread in the Punjab, and that Paramjit Singh had certainly been subjected to ill-treatment, and that Mukhtiar Singh probably had.

The former said he had endured beatings, suspension by the wrist and an Indian torture involving a thick wooden pestle.

"I have no doubt that he suffered as he described," said Duncan Forrest, a doctor who examined both men.

Mukhtiar Singh said he suffered beatings, and another Indian torture in which the legs are forced apart often to 180 degrees.

"I believe that the medical evidence gives strong support to his story," Forrest said.

The foundation said in a statement that the case demonstrated that India "has got to go a great deal further in stopping human abuses before (it) can say with equanimity that torture does not take place."

The two militants caused a stir when their appeal against deportation was upheld by an immigration commission despite the fact that they are considered a danger to national security in Britain.

The two have been accused of reviving Sikh insurgency in the Punjab to establish a Sikh homeland there.

Both had entered Britain illegally in a lorry, and lived in Birmingham, central England, before their detention.