17 Indians Mostly Sikhs On Death Row In Sharjah

It has been hard for me to gather my thoughts and state them succinctly, but rakhra ji has helped me along with that. His comments should be taken seriously.

United Arab Emirates have worked very hard to use publicity engines to promote themselves as a picture of progressive states in a traditional Arab world. That is not true. There are a few truly suspicious themes in this story.

1. A police round-up of 55 which is then narrowed to 17. This tells me that initially the police did not know who to arrest, and in the end they did not know who to charge. So they piled on ignorance with ignorance.


2. A report that 17 broke under torture

If this was a drunken brawl as depicted -- whose account of the facts can be trusted? It appears that anyone who succumbed to torture was guilty by default. This is like dipping a witch in a pond. If she drowns she is guilty, and if she survives she is surely still guilty.

3. These were all contract workers from India. As such they live in shanty towns, work horrendous hours, live in filthy and unsanitary conditions, and were brought to the emirates to work at low wages in order to develop an emerging economy. Don't forget this is a country that needs to diversify its own economy because oil reserves are running low. If they don't get on the fast-track, their own poor will turn against the rich.

This is a time-tested approach in which the desperately poor contract workers will accept any arrangement in order to feed their families and escape from economic suffering in their homeland. This is a story that every immigrant group in the developed world is familiar with. This is a group who are easy to hate -- they look sweaty, dirty, rumpled don't they? -- if you are on the receiving end of their labor. They are so easy to hate that they are easy prey if authorities are looking for scapegoats. Who is going to stand up for them, such a sorry and disgusting lot?

4. Police over-charging. Again at the risk of repeating myself. This seems to have been a drunken brawl. Maybe not. However, how does the death penalty get applied when even if one person was surely guilty the rest were of diminished capacity because of these circumstances? In a "civilized" country this would be manslaughter not murder, and the "death penalty" would be moot. But this is UAE, which believes itself to be civilized. And after all, they were only contract workers from India, so why be stuck on boring legal details.

5. The Sharia Law card was played as a public relations stunt. 42 out of 55 were released because they could not be kept in jail indefinitely without a lot of people asking embarrassing questions.

The GOI needs to think about its obligations to contract workers who are being lured by the unscrupulous for economic gain. These people are victims before they even set a foot into countries that hire them. Advocacy has to become a standing policy and pursued aggressively. We are reading about only 55 here. There is story after story about workers gone missing, or later found enslaved, dead, in jail.


And a fair minded person will not say, They were driven by greed themselves, they were drunk, let's point fingers!!!!!!

How can they be blamed when they are victims, before during and after they enter into abusive economic arrangements?

 
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The suspects had attempted to kill three of the victim’s compatriots, but they managed to escape their attackers and were rushed to Kuwaiti Hospital for treatment.
The convicted men are aged between 17 and 30 years.
According to the three Pakistanis who survived, 50 people set upon them with knives on that fateful day last year.
Police rushed to the area and arrested the 17 Indians, who allegedly led the attack. The others were let off due to lack of evidence.
Police round-up of 55 which are then narrowed to 17. This tells me that initially the police did not know who to arrest, and in the end they did not know who to charge. So they piled on ignorance with ignorance.

A report that 17 broke under torture. These were all contract workers from India. As such they live in shanty towns, work horrendous hours, live in filthy and unsanitary conditions, and were brought to the emirates to work at low wages in order to develop an emerging economy. Don't forget this is an economy that needs to diversify its own economy because oil reserves are running low. If they don't get on the fast-track, their own poor will turn against the rich.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/sikh-news/29781-17-indians-mostly-sikhs-death-row.html
As I mention before some thing doesn’t make any sense. If there was a fare trail, from both sides than out come could be different but UAE doesn’t want any one to be in there boundary.
I do not believe at all these men’s are guilty………..
We should sign some petition for there release of Death Sentence
Gurfateh

Wahe Guruji Ka Khalsa Wahe Guruji Ki Fateh,
It is a sad to know that some Indians are at the mercy of the UAE authorities especially our SIKH brothers. We sympathize with their families and pray that those innocent ones are spared by the grace of Waheguru. However I noted that what ever happened was due to some "illegal alcohol trade" issue.
Why? Does not our religion forbade us to consume alcohol and why are SIKHS related to the illegal alcohol trade issue?
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=29781
IF ONLY, we SIKHS had stuck fast to the instructions of our 10th Guru, today nobody in this whole wide world would dare accused a SIKH of anything that has to do with alcohol, so who is to blame? I believe that no real SIKH should ever consume alcohol or have anything to do with it. But sad to say, we so called SIKHS are one of the highest consumers of alcohol, at least where I come from, you can observe that in almost all weddings or special functions, in the day they bow before SRI GURU GRANTH SAHIB JI and at night they merry with drinks. "A Sikh must not take hemp (cannabis), opium, liquor, tobacco, in short, any intoxicant. His only routine intake should be food." -
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=29781
(SIKH REHT MARYADA)
Coming back to the issue at hand, it is difficult to obtain justice in a country like UAE, if going by what happened, that is they chose to charge anybody at their convenience.
However, our prayers for those who have been falsely charged. SAT-SRI-AKAL

I think this is the latest. This news story says that these boys and men convicted lived in a room formerly occupied by the real culprits and are totally innocent.

Our dear young brothers and their families are very low on chardi kala; we need to revive their spirits, as well as save their lives. I urge every Sikh to say Ardaas for these.

Read on, please...

UAE Indians on death row: Kins turn to religious leaders

Punjab Newsline Network
Friday, 02 April 2010
By Parminder Singh Bariana and Alkesh Sharma JALANDHAR: The families of the 17 Indians sentenced to death in Sharjah will approach Muslim religious leaders and organisations in India and Sikh organisations all across the world to intervene with the United Arab Emirates and save their lives. Family members of 16 of the youth, who hail from Punjab and Haryana, got together Thursday in this Punjab town, around 150 km from Chandigarh, and met former union minister and Lok Bhalai Party (LBP) leader Balwant Singh Ramoowalia to seek his help in securing their release. Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=29781 "Sentencing 17 people to death in the absence of concrete proof and evidence is totally intolerable. They were not a threat for their national security and we strongly condemn this verdict. We appeal Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to himself intervene in this issue to ensure justice," Ramoowalia told IANS. "This is a very sensitive issue. Therefore, we have also appealed to all Sikh organisations and gurdwaras, across the world, to come out on a single platform on this issue. We will take these 16 families to Ajmer Sharif and we will meet Muslim organisations there and urge them to take up this issue with the UAE (United Arab Emirates)." Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=29781 The LBP, which is working to help Indian youth stranded abroad for the last many years, is also sending its own delegation to Dubai. "There is nobody to fight their case in Dubai and we cannot let our children languish like this in any part of the world. We will also send our own delegation to Dubai to appeal against this verdict," Ramoowalia said. Seventeen Indians have been sentenced to death by a court in Sharjah for killing a Pakistani man and injuring three others in January 2009 following a fight over illegal liquor business, a media report said Monday. The murder took place in Al Sajaa area of Sharjah in the UAE. The victim died of stab wounds and also suffered brain damage, police said. The convicted men are between 17 and 30 years of age. Paramjit Singh, brother of Taranjit Singh, who is among the 17, told IANS: "I was also in Dubai at the time when police had arrested these youth. They all are innocent and police have unknowingly committed a big blunder." "Police had arrested them from a room, where the original culprits used to stay in the past. But after committing the crime, they fled to some unknown place. These Indian youth had taken the room just a few days back and during a raid, police arrested all of them without any proof," he alleged. He said that the 17 are lodged in jail in the most inhuman conditions and police did not allow anybody to meet them. "During my stay in Dubai, I tried for at least 20 times to meet them but I could meet them for only four times. All of them had turned very weak and had lost all hope," he recalled. Taranjit's inconsolable mother Sukhwinder Kaur said: "I do not know what is going on and why they are targeting my son. For over last one year, I have not even heard his voice." A majority of these families are from lower middle class backgrounds and engaged in agriculture. "My son is innocent. He cannot kill anybody. Although we have lost all hopes but still I appeal to Congress leader Sonia Gandhi to take up this issue with UAE," Gurmeet Kaur, mother of Ravinder who is also among the 17, told IANS.

Death sentence to 17 Indians subject to appeal: UAE
April 05, 2010 10:48 IST

Amid concerns in New Delhi [ Images ] over the capital punishment given to 17 Indians in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates [ Images ] on Monday said its legal system guarantees a fair trial and the death sentence is subject to appeal and annulment by the rule of law, without any interference from the parties concerned.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=29781

"The UAE embassy in New Delhi has been following press reports with regard to convicted Indian nationals in Sharjah. Death penalty in the UAE's legal system is subject to appeal by the rule of law without any interference from the parties. We fully trust our legal system and its procedures and we are sure that it will provide and guarantee a fair trial to the convicted," the UAE embassy in New Delhi said in a statement.

Moreover, the court (in UAE) provides lawyers for those unable to get legal help themselves and gives them the right and the means to defend themselves in court, the embassy said.

Seventeen Indians were sentenced to death on March 29 by a Sharjah Shariah court for allegedly killing a Pakistani and leaving three others injured in an attack last year.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=29781

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna [ Images ] has termed as 'very unfortunate' the death sentence given to 17 Indians and has instructed his ministry to assist them in filing an appeal and also bear all the expenses involved.