[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 195 (Friday, December 8, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2319-E2320]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            DELHI MASSACRES

                                 ______


                           HON. PETER T. KING

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, December 7, 1995

  Mr. KING. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to note that last month Sikhs and 
the world remembered the 11th anniversary of the brutal November 1984 
massacre of Sikhs in which more than 40,000 Sikhs were killed by 
government-inspired mobs while government television and radio 
repeatedly called for more Sikh blood. Over 20,000 Sikhs were killed in 
Delhi alone during this massacre. For 3 days, the police stood aside, 
under strict orders to do nothing. Sikh police officers were disarmed 
and confined to their barracks to prevent them from helping their Sikh 
brothers and sisters.
  In all, more than 150,000 Sikhs have been murdered in India since 
1984. In addition, there have been murders of over 200,000 Christians 
in Nagaland since 1947, more than 43,000 Muslims in Kashmir since 1988, 
tens of thousands of Assamese, Manipuris, and others, and thousands of 
Dalits ``black untouchables''. The State Department reported in 1994 
that between 1991 and 1993, the Indian regime paid over 41,000 cash 
bounties to police officers for killing Sikhs.
  Self-determination is the God-given right of all people of all 
nations. This is the principle that underlies our Declaration of 
Independence, and it is a principle that is sweeping the world. On 
October 7, 1987, the Sikh nation asserted its right the self-
determination by declaring its independence from India, forming the 
sovereign, independent country of Khalistan. The Sikhs had ruled Punjab 
from 1765 to 1849. India's response to Khalistan's declaration of 
independence has been to set up the repression against the Sikh nation. 
Today Khalistan lives under the occupation of 500,000 Indian troops--
more troops than the British stationed in the entire subcontinent at 
any time during their rule.
  As the leader of the free, democratic countries of the world, the 
United States should not be propping up this repressive tyranny. It is 
time for America to take strong action to see to it that India respects 
human rights and the right of self-determination.
  I am introducing into the Record a speech delivered by Dr. Gurmit 
Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, at a November 4 
rally commemorating the November 1984 massacres.

                  Statement of Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh

       Today we are gathered to commemorate the anniversary of 
     India's brutal November 1994 massacres of Sikhs in which more 
     than 20,000 Sikhs were murdered by government-inspired mobs 
     in Delhi alone, and over 40,000 throughout India. As the Home 
     Minister at that time, Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha 
     Rao was intimately involved in that murderous operation. For 
     three days, the regime did nothing about the massacre while 
     the state television and radio cried for more Sikh blood. In 
     India there is no peace 

[[Page E 2320]]
     or freedom for Sikhs or other minority nations. The record of Indian 
     rule in our homeland, Punjah, Khalistan, is one of genocide 
     and tyranny by the country that presumes to call itself ``the 
     world's largest democracy.''
       The Associated Press recently reported on the suit filed in 
     India's Supreme Court by Harpreet Singh, a Sikh man who was 
     illegally detained four years ago and listed as having been 
     killed in an ``encounter'' with the police. While we are glad 
     that his case came to light, it is not unusual. Sikhs 
     continue to be oppressed and butchered in supposedly free 
     India. India is a country which tortures, murders, abducts, 
     and rapes people. In India, ``disappearances'' are routine.
       Recently, the Indian press reported that since 1990 over 
     25,000 young Sikh men had been abducted, tortured, and 
     murdered by the Indian regime. Then their bodies were listed 
     as unclaimed and cremated. The person who issued this report, 
     Jaswant Singh Khalra, general secretary of the Human Rights 
     Wing (Shiromani Akali Dal), was abducted by the Amritsar 
     police on September 6 and has not been seen since. The next 
     day, Amnesty International issued an ``Urgent Action'' 
     bulletin calling for his release. They expressed the fear 
     that Mr. Khalra is being tortured. Indeed, according to Asia 
     Watch, ``virtually everyone detained in Punjab [Khalistan] is 
     tortured.''
       A mass grave which held the remains of 400 Cambodians shook 
     the world, as it should have. Why is the mass cremation of 
     more than 25,000 innocent Sikhs in Punjab, Khalistan, 
     ignored?
       On October 19, 65 members of the U.S. House of 
     Representatives from both parties and across the political 
     spectrum wrote to Mr. Rao demanding Mr. Khalra's release. 
     So far there has been no response. Mr. Khalra remains in 
     illegal detention.
       According to a report issued by Human Rights Watch and 
     Physicians for Human Rights, one police officer told HRW/PHR 
     that ``over a five-year period, 500 people were killed by 
     police station alone.'' Another police is quoted as saying, 
     ``During my five years with the Punjab Police, I estimate 
     4,000 to 5,000 were tortured at my police station alone,'' 
     There are over 200 such police stations in Punjab, Khalistan.
       A policy of summary executions in Punjab, Khalistan has the 
     blessings of some key officials at the Centre, as borne out 
     by a series of secret communications from Delhi. The pattern 
     of ``encounter killings'' is that ``the victim would be 
     detained during police raids on villages or city 
     neighborhoods and tortured for several days before being 
     killed. One police officer said: `During my career with the 
     Punjab police, I participated in approximately five raids per 
     day.''' Three types of Sikhs are targeted for torture and 
     death by the police: (1) Amritdari Sikhs, (2) young Sikh men 
     and (3) political asylum returnees.
       The U.S. State Department reports that from 1991 through 
     1993, the Indian regime paid more than 41,000 cash bounties 
     to police officers for killing Sikhs. In November 1994, the 
     Indian newspaper Hitavada reported that the late governor of 
     Punjab, Surendra Nath, was paid $1.5 billion to organize and 
     support covert state terrorism in Punjab, Khalistan, and in 
     neighboring Kashmir. Seventy-five percent of Punjab's water 
     has been diverted to nonriparian states. India is a police 
     state, not a democracy at all.
       It takes more than elections to make a democracy. I would 
     remind you that Adolf Hitler was democratically elected. For 
     Sikhs, Kashmiri Muslims, Christians in Nagaland, Assamese, 
     and the tribal people of Manipur, no matter who wins the 
     elections, the bloody repression continues. The Indian regime 
     has killed over 120,000 Sikhs since 1984, over 43,000 
     Kashmiris since 1988 and over 200,000 Christians in Nagaland 
     since 1947. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in 
     Assam, Manipur, and other tribal areas since independence. 
     Dalits (``black untouchables'') have died by the thousands.
       Recently a Dalit girl was blinded by her teacher for the 
     sin of drinking from the water pitcher. A few years ago, a 
     Dalit constable was stoned to death when he sought shelter in 
     a temple on a rainy day. In the state of Madhya Pradesh in 
     late February, a 40-year-old nun was pulled from a bus in the 
     town of Indore and stabbed 36 times by a Hindu militant. 
     These are not the acts of a democratic nation. The U.N. 
     Charter, to which India is a party, calls on nations ``to 
     practice tolerance and live together in peace with one 
     another as good neighbors.'' Where is the tolerance in these 
     Indian policies?
       The historical record shows that 85 percent of those hanged 
     in the cause of India's independence were Sikhs. Eighty (80) 
     percent of those exiled and 75 percent of those jailed 
     were Sikhs as well, despite the fact that the Sikhs at 
     that time constituted less than 2 percent of India's 
     population.
       In 1947, when India achieved independence, three nations 
     were to receive power. The Hindus got India, the Muslims got 
     Pakistan, and the Sikh nation was to receive a state of our 
     own. But the Sikh leadership at the time made the critical 
     mistake of taking our share with India on the solemn promises 
     of Gandhi and Nehru that Sikhs would enjoy ``the glow of 
     freedom'' in Punjab and that no law affecting Sikh rights 
     would be passed without Sikh consent. As soon as the 
     constitution was adopted, those promises were broken and the 
     repression of our people began. As a result, no Sikh has ever 
     signed the Indian constitution.
       Nine times the Indian regime has imposed Presidential 
     rule--direct rule by the central government--on the Sikhs of 
     Punjab. Kashmir and Nagaland currently suffer under 
     Presidential rule. Many other states have suffered the same 
     fate. Rule from the Center is imposed in utter disregard of 
     democratic principles.
       Perhaps the greatest offense of all, however, was the 
     Indian regime's brutal terrorist attack on the most holy Sikh 
     shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar and 38 other Sikh 
     temples throughout Punjab, in June 1984. This is the 
     equivalent of attacking the Vatican or Mecca. These brutal 
     attacks ultimately resulted in the murder of 20,000 Sikhs by 
     the government, including important Sikh leaders like Sant 
     Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a major spokesman for Sikh 
     freedom. The attack took place from June 3 through 6, 1984. 
     15,000 troops of the Indian army took part in this surprise 
     attack, called Operation Bluestar. These attacks were timed 
     to fall on a holy day for the Sikh nation. Many innocent, 
     unarmed men, and women and children, who had come only to 
     pray on the anniversary of the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev 
     Ji, were instead gunned down in the very temples in which 
     they sought peace and solace.
       In the face of this repression, the Sikh nation declared 
     its independence on October 7, 1987, forming the separate 
     country of Khalistan. Although our movement to liberate 
     Khalistan is peaceful, democratic, and nonviolent, the brutal 
     Indian regime insists upon treating all Sikhs as 
     ``terrorists.'' The cases of Harpreet Singh and Jaswant Singh 
     Khalra clearly emanate from that policy. This past September 
     19, U.S. Representative Philip M. Crane, one of the senior 
     Members of Congress, called upon the Indian regime to 
     recognize the independence of Khalistan. It is time for the 
     United Nations to do the same.
       The Sikh nation showed its support for independence in 
     February 1992, when only four (4) percent of the Sikh 
     population in Punjab, Khalistan, voted in the elections 
     there, held under the Indian constitution, a constitution 
     which no Sikh has ever signed.
       In December, Sikh leader Simranjit Singh Mann spoke to a 
     crowd of 50,000 Sikhs and called for a peaceful, democratic, 
     nonviolent movement to liberate Khalistan. He asked his 
     audience to raise their hands if they agreed. All 50,000 
     hands were raised. For this blatant act of free speech, he 
     was arrested in January and kept in illegal detention for six 
     months. He continues to face charges under the repressive 
     ``Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act'' (TADA), which has 
     expired. Old charges against Mr. Mann which has been 
     dismissed were reinstated in order to frighten him into 
     silence. Our demand for freedom is irrevocable, irreversible, 
     and non- negotiable.
       India is not one nation. It is a conglomeration of many 
     nations thrown together for administrative purposes by the 
     British. With 18 official languages, India is doomed to 
     disintegrate just as the former Soviet Union did.
       Freedom for Khalistan and all the nations living under 
     Indian occupation is inevitable. It is time for India to 
     recognize the inevitable and end its illegal occupation of 
     Khalistan and the other minority nations it occupies. India 
     must recognize Khalistan's independence, as Congressman Crane 
     said. It is time for the United Nations to stop dignifying 
     bloodthirsty tyrants like Mr. Rao. It is time for the U.N. to 
     speak out for the ideals of its charter by working to 
     liberate Khalistan and all the nations of the Indian 
     subcontinent.
       Freedom is the universal birthright of all people and 
     nations. It is this universal right that the Sikh nation 
     claims for itself. The only way that right can be preserved 
     is in a sovereign, independent Khalistan. India must 
     recognize reality and free Khalistan now. The Sikh nation 
     will be free. KHALISTAN ZINDABAD.

                          ____________________