BBC World Service
Thursday, 7 September, 2000

The human rights organisation Amnesty International has raised the case of a Sikh campaigner in the Indian state of Punjab who it says was arrested earlier this week, while trying to present a petition to the visiting British Home Secretary, Jack Straw.

Amnesty says the detained man, Rajiv Singh Randhawa, was detained outside the Golden Temple in Amritsar, while trying to draw attention to human rights abuses in Punjab.

Human rights officials say he's been charged with robbery and murder after being repeatedly harrassed by the authorities to try to discourage him from pursuing a campaign on behalf of a fellow activist Jaswant Singh Khalra who has disappeared.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service