§ Mr. NellistTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what information his Department has on the number of detentions without trial, the number of disappeared suspects and the number of deaths in detention in the Punjab in the current year.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydIn January, the Indian Government announced that the number of detentions in the Punjab were 145 in 1988, 35 in 1989 and 16 in January-October 1990 under the National Security Act, and 3,685 in 1988, 2,146 in 1989 and 982 in January-September 1990 under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act. No more recent figures are available. We have no official information on numbers of disappeared suspects or of deaths occurring in Indian prisons.
§ Mr. NellistTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent representations he has made to the Government of India on the level of human rights violations and abuse of the law in the Punjab in the current year; and if he will make a statement.
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§ Mr. Lennox-BoydThe Indian Government are well aware of our concerns about human rights abuses, from our regular contacts with them. We have encouraged them to exercise maximum restraint in dealing with the serious terrorist violence they face as exemplified by the appalling massacre of train passengers by Sikh terrorists on 12 June.
§ Mr. NellistTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will obtain for his departmental library a copy of the report by Amnesty International on the Punjab, dated 10 May.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydThe FCO library has already received this report.