On the 18th of April, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) confirmed the execution of two Punjabi men in Saudi Arabia. While the execution of the two men was carried out on the 28th of February, the Indian Embassy in Riyadh wasn’t able to confirm the fact until today.
Satwinder Kumar of the Hoshiarpur district and Harjit Singh of Ludhiana were arrested on the 9th of December 2015 in connection with the murder of an Indian national by the name of Arif Imamuddin.
According to the information about the case, Arif, Harjit and Satwinder were involved in a robbery. However, post the robbery, there was a disagreement between the three with regard to splitting the money, following which, Satwinder and Harjit killed Arif. Satwinder and Harjit were executed on charges of murder.
Stating his displeasure with regard to the execution, Amarinder Singh, the Chief Minister of Punjab, said, the MEA failed to do what was supposed to be done. “If the executions were undertaken without prior information even to the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia, with the victims not provided legal counsel, it amounted to a grave violation of human rights,” said Amarinder Singh in a statement. He also said, the MEA refused to release the documents of the execution till it was forced to do so after a petition was filed by Satwinder’s wife.
Reacting to the execution, Amarinder called upon several civil bodies and the United Nations (UN) to stop Saudi Arabia from performing more barbaric acts like these. He also added, he is going to ask the MEA to release the bodies of the men. As per the rules and regulations of Saudi Arabia, only the death certificates of the executed will be returned to their families, not the mortal remains.
The Chief Minister of Punjab said if the Punjabis were executed without proper legal representation, then Saudi clearly violated human rights. Apart from asking the UN, Amarinder Singh also asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to put a stop to such brutal practices.
