The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) today ordered the state government to pay compensation to the families of 1,051 persons who were among the 2,097 killed and secretly cremated by police between 1984-1994 — a period when the state’s police force fought a no-holds-barred battle with militants. The government has been ordered to pay Rs 1.75 lakh in each case.

Punjab, on the orders of NHRC, has already paid Rs 2.5 lakh each to the families of 194 persons who are confirmed to have died in police custody and cremated illegally. But there are many that have been identified but there is no proof that they were in police custody at the time of their death.

The rights body had been arbitrating this case for nearly 10 years and its first order came two years ago. The lid on the secret mass cremations by police was blown by Jaswant Singh Khalra, an Amritsar-based human rights activist who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Khalra had trailed the mass cremations around Tarn Taran and Majitha — hotbeds of insurgency — and later his wife and friends pursued the case in the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the NHRC’s orders have angered Sikhs with community leaders demanding that the Commission also fix responsibility on individual police officers for the killings.