Sikhs For Justice

LONDON, UK—Paramjeet Singh Pamma, a Sikh nationalist is being held in Portugal for extradition to India on the trumped up terror charges. Paramjeet Singh, a resident of England, UK, has been in the forefront of the campaign for Sikhs’ right to self determination to liberate Punjab from the Indian occupation through democratic means.

Since 2000, Paramjeet Singh has been granted Indefinite Leave to Remain in the United Kingdom as a refugee recognized under the 1951 UN Convention relating to the status of refugees and its 1967 Protocol.

Paramjeet Singh has been rearing his family consisting of four British Citizen children and a wife, by driving commercial truck while being active in local Sikh Gurudawara in organizing religious events and supporting the democratic campaign for Sikhs’ right to self determination.

Paramjeet Singh left Punjab more than a decade ago to save his life from continuous harassment and torture by the Indian police who had already killed his brother Parminder Singh Raja for supporting Sikhs’ right to self determination.

In India, torture on Sikh detainees has been a dynamic and living reality since the years following the June 1984 military action on the holiest Sikh shrine, the Golden Temple. Indian Government regards Sikhs’ demand for “right to self determination” as a “crime” and Sikh political activists supporting right to self determination are consistently labeled “terrorists”, routinely tortured, given life imprisonment and death sentence.

Since 1985, Portugal has been a signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture while India has never ratified the Torture Convention. Article 3 of the Torture Convention categorically prohibits extraditing or returning of an individual to a country where “there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture”.

With India’s track record of human rights violations, torture on detainees, life imprisonment and death penalties, it is more than likely that if extradited, Paramjeet Singh will be tortured, given life imprisonment or death sentence in India.

Most recently India awarded life sentence to Abu Salem, who was extradited from Portugal with assurance that he will not be given life imprisonment or death sentence. Abu Salem’s case again proves that India disregards and violates extradition agreements.

Since Portugal is a country which respects human rights, does not practice torture and does not allow a sentence longer than 25 years, we request you to block India’s attempt to extradite a Sikh nationalist Paramjit Singh who has been granted refugee status by the United Kingdom.