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Government puts on hold execution of Sikh radical
India has put on hold the execution of a Sikh radical for his role in the assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh by a suicide bomber in 1995, a government spokeswoman said yesterday.
Balwant Singh Rajoana was scheduled to be hanged on Saturday at Patiala Jail in the Punjab, but his execution was stayed pending an appeal made by the state government to the president.
“The execution has been stayed while the appeal is under consideration with the president,” home ministry spokeswoman Ira Joshi said.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal filed the appeal yesterday when he met with President Pratibha Patil, as the northern state saw widespread strikes over what would have been the first execution carried out in India since 2004.
Sikh organisations, politicians and rights groups have joined in calling for the sentence to be commuted, although Rajoana, a member of Babbar Khalsa, a Sikh militant group fighting for the creation of a separate Sikh homeland, himself has made it clear he would not appeal for clemency.
A strike call by Sikh groups and opposition parties saw many businesses shut down yesterday across Punjab, while hundreds of protesters wearing saffron turbans gathered at Sikhism’s holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Security has been tightened across Punjab, with 60,000 police personnel and 15 companies of paramilitary forces put on alert, and special orders prohibiting large gatherings.
Rajoana was sentenced to death in 2007 for his role in the 1995 assassination of Beant Singh, who was killed by a suicide bomber along with 15 other people.
Rajoana had acted as a standby assassin in case the initial attempt failed.
The Patiala Jail where Rajoana is being held resembled a fortress, and all roads leading to the prison were barricaded, the NDTV channel reported.
Rajoana issued a letter through his sister Kamaldeep Kaur appealing to the people to maintain peace.
He said he will not submit any mercy petition to the president or prime minister to get his death sentence commuted, and added that he was waiting to die on Saturday.
A court in Chandigarh on Tuesday ordered that Rajoana be hanged on Saturday.
Radical Sikh groups had held Beant Singh responsible for abuses allegedly carried out by security forces in the suppression of a violent Sikh nationalist insurgency in Punjab in the 1980s.
Rights watchdogs Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both called for Rajoana’s execution to be suspended, saying it would mark a major step backwards for India.
“The death penalty is always wrong and the Indian government should immediately stop this execution,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“Beyond that, executing Rajoana would merely continue the cycle of killing and retribution between the Sikh community and the Indian state that has long divided communities.”
India’s last execution took place in 2004, when a former security guard was hanged for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old schoolgirl.
India has hundreds of condemned convicts awaiting execution, including the killers of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, and Pakistani national Mohamed Ajmal Kasab - the sole surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
A complex and lengthy appeal process means those given capital punishment often sit on death row for many years.
In most cases the death sentence is commuted to life imprisonment.
India has put on hold the execution of a Sikh radical for his role in the assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh by a suicide bomber in 1995, a government spokeswoman said yesterday.
Balwant Singh Rajoana was scheduled to be hanged on Saturday at Patiala Jail in the Punjab, but his execution was stayed pending an appeal made by the state government to the president.
“The execution has been stayed while the appeal is under consideration with the president,” home ministry spokeswoman Ira Joshi said.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal filed the appeal yesterday when he met with President Pratibha Patil, as the northern state saw widespread strikes over what would have been the first execution carried out in India since 2004.
Sikh organisations, politicians and rights groups have joined in calling for the sentence to be commuted, although Rajoana, a member of Babbar Khalsa, a Sikh militant group fighting for the creation of a separate Sikh homeland, himself has made it clear he would not appeal for clemency.
A strike call by Sikh groups and opposition parties saw many businesses shut down yesterday across Punjab, while hundreds of protesters wearing saffron turbans gathered at Sikhism’s holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Security has been tightened across Punjab, with 60,000 police personnel and 15 companies of paramilitary forces put on alert, and special orders prohibiting large gatherings.
Rajoana was sentenced to death in 2007 for his role in the 1995 assassination of Beant Singh, who was killed by a suicide bomber along with 15 other people.
Rajoana had acted as a standby assassin in case the initial attempt failed.
The Patiala Jail where Rajoana is being held resembled a fortress, and all roads leading to the prison were barricaded, the NDTV channel reported.
Rajoana issued a letter through his sister Kamaldeep Kaur appealing to the people to maintain peace.
He said he will not submit any mercy petition to the president or prime minister to get his death sentence commuted, and added that he was waiting to die on Saturday.
A court in Chandigarh on Tuesday ordered that Rajoana be hanged on Saturday.
Radical Sikh groups had held Beant Singh responsible for abuses allegedly carried out by security forces in the suppression of a violent Sikh nationalist insurgency in Punjab in the 1980s.
Rights watchdogs Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both called for Rajoana’s execution to be suspended, saying it would mark a major step backwards for India.
“The death penalty is always wrong and the Indian government should immediately stop this execution,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“Beyond that, executing Rajoana would merely continue the cycle of killing and retribution between the Sikh community and the Indian state that has long divided communities.”
India’s last execution took place in 2004, when a former security guard was hanged for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old schoolgirl.
India has hundreds of condemned convicts awaiting execution, including the killers of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, and Pakistani national Mohamed Ajmal Kasab - the sole surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
A complex and lengthy appeal process means those given capital punishment often sit on death row for many years.
In most cases the death sentence is commuted to life imprisonment.
