CAT/C/46/D/336/2008 searching for them. They, however, disagree with the State party’s assessment that: India has an effective penal justice system, which prosecutes police personnel committing human rights violations; that since 1993 the political dissent in India is no different from the same phenomenon in western democracies; that if the complainants are wanted by the police, there is no good reason to believe they might be tortured; and that the complainants are only low level Sikh activists abroad. 5.2 The complainants reiterate that three Sikh men involved in hijackings were killed upon their return to India by the Indian police, which was recognized by the Swiss Asylum Appeal Commission in its decision of 7 March 2003. They further submit that between 1999 and 2004 the Swiss authorities have granted asylum to at least six Sikhs, who had cases similar to theirs. They maintain that even the Pakistan authorities, after releasing them from prison, did not expel them to India, since they believe that the Indian security forces would torture and kill them. 5.3 The complainants reiterate that they are wanted by the police and that the Head of the Anti-terror Cell announced it in a television interview. They maintain that the poster presented to the Swiss authorities is genuine and that it has pictures of two of them at the age when they participated in the hijackings. They further submit that several Sikhs, who had returned from Europe between 2006 and 2008, had been questioned by the police about them. 5.4 The complainants maintain that they are very prominent figures in the radical European Sikh Community. They reiterate that on numerous occasions reports about their activities had appeared in the Indian media. They submit that, in March 2007, 27 Sikh organizations met in Switzerland and prepared a memorandum to the United Nations and that one of the complainants appeared as the spokesman of the assembly. On 10 April 2007, two of the complainants were among the Sikh representatives who participated in a meeting with the Special Rapporteur on human rights while countering terrorism. The complainants maintain that the Indian authorities want to apprehend all “Sikh militants” and “hardcore terrorists”, such as themselves, and refer to a publication on the Pioneer website, dated 2 October 2006, which states that wanted Sikh terrorists have taken shelter in many countries, including Switzerland, and quotes the Head of the police in Punjab, who expressed hope that western governments will revise “their earlier stand of granting asylum to such people”. 5.5 The complainants maintain that torture and mistreatment in police custody and extrajudicial killings continue to be widespread and quote the U.S. Country Report on Human Rights Violations 2007 in India,7 which states that: “authorities often used torture during interrogations to extort money and as summary punishment […]”; “human rights groups asserted that the new law had not decreased the prevalence of custodial abuse or killings”; “Security forces often staged encounter killings to cover up the deaths of captured non-Kashmiri insurgents and terrorists from Pakistan or other countries. […] Most police stations failed to comply with a 2002 Supreme Court order requiring the central government and local authorities to conduct regular checks on police stations to monitor custodial violence.” State party's additional observations 7 Report available at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100614.htm, Section 1, Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom From, para (c) Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and para (f) Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence. 7