[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 44 (Tuesday, April 15, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E656-E657]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           A SHOCKING TRAGEDY

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                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 15, 1997

  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, I am placing the Council of Khalistan's 
press release on a recent tragedy into the Record. Press reports have 
recently stated that in attempting to capture an alleged terrorist, 
Indian police officers killed two adults and a 3-year-old child. The 
death of a 3-year-old child must shock the conscience of the 
international community.
  I call on the Indian Government to conduct a full and exhaustive 
investigation into this tragedy and to punish all those responsible. 
Justice delayed is, truly, justice denied. We must always remember, in 
the eloquent words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that an injustice 
anywhere is an affront to justice everywhere.

             [From the Council of Khalistan, Dec. 17, 1996]

   Indian Regime Murders 3\1/2\-Year-Old Labels Toddler ``Terrorist''

       Washington, DC.--A story in the December 10 issue of The 
     Hitavada, an Indian newspaper, reported that a 3\1/2\-year-
     old Sikh boy was murdered by the police, then the police 
     claimed that he was a ``terrorist'' who was killed in an 
     ``encounter.''
       According to the story, the police murdered little Arvinder 
     Singh, his father Jaswinder Singh, and the young boy's 
     maternal uncle along the Grand Trunk Road to collect bounty 
     money which was offered for the killing of militants. These 
     Sikhs were not militants. The family has not been given the 
     bodies because they were cremated. The police attached phony 
     identities to the bodies of these victims using the names of 
     known militants. Then they claimed bounty money for killing 
     these militants. When the boy's grandfather brought a 
     complaint against the police, Punjab and Haryana High Court 
     Justice Iqbal Singh stated that a three-year-old boy could 
     not be a ``terrorist,'' according to the article. According 
     to the Hitavada article, witnesses were coerced into 
     supporting the police version of the incident by testifying 
     that the bullets which killed these Sikhs did not come from 
     the police weapons.

[[Page E657]]

       The court ordered India's Central Bureau of Investigation 
     to investigate the killing of little Arvinder Singh and to 
     submit its report promptly.
       ``If India has to murder a 3\1/2\-year-old child to keep 
     its brutal, corrupt empire together, then freedom for 
     Khalistan cannot be far behind,'' said Dr. Gurmit Singh 
     Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan. Khalistan is 
     the Sikh homeland which declared its independence on October 
     7, 1987. ``This incident is a clear reflection of the 
     immorality of the Indian regime and the character of the 
     Punjab Police, who do not hesitate to kill their brothers and 
     sisters to make themselves rich,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``They do 
     not realize that they are pushing future generations into the 
     darkness of continued repression,'' he added.
       Dr. Aulakh called on the U.S. government to take strong 
     measures to punish this brutality. ``I urge the 
     Administration and Congress to cut off U.S. aid to India, 
     place an embargo on India like the one America had on South 
     Africa before Apartheid ended, and support freedom for 
     Khalistan and all the other freedom-seeking nations of the 
     subcontinent,'' he said. ``This kind of brutal repression is 
     unacceptable. Freedom-loving nations like the United States 
     must not tolerate it,'' he said.
       ``If Indian police are killing toddlers like Arvinder Singh 
     and labelling them as terrorists,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``Then 
     the world has a moral and legal obligation to isolate India 
     until they are ready to join the ranks of civilized nations 
     and peacefully end its occupation of Khalistan and other 
     South Asian nations; so that democracy in South Asia can be a 
     reality and not a well cultivated lie.''

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