[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 141 (Tuesday, October 31, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2044-E2045]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         REAL CULPRIT IN AIR INDIA BOMBING IS INDIAN GOVERNMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 31, 2000

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, we are all pleased that the Canadian 
government has maintained an active investigation of the Air India 
bombing in 1985 that killed 329 people. Terrorism is always 
unacceptable, and all decent people condemn it.
  Thus, I read with interest this past weekend that Canada had arrested 
two Sikhs, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, for this 
bombing. Unfortunately, I believe that these two individuals are being 
scapegoated. The book Soft Target, written by journalists Brian 
McAndrew of the Toronto Star and Zuhair Kashmeri of the Tornoto Globe 
and Mail, shows that the Indian government itself carried out this 
atrocity.
  According to McAndrew and Kashmeri, the Indian Consul General in 
Toronto, Mr. Surinder Malik, pulled his wife and daughter off the 
flight shortly before it took off. A friend of the Consul General who 
was a car dealer in Toronto also cancelled his reservation. An Indian 
government official named Siddhartha Singh was also scheduled on the 
doomed flight and cancelled. Surinder Malik called the Canadian 
authorities about the crime before it was reported publicly that it had 
occurred to try to point them to a Sikh he claimed was on the passenger 
list. The pilot of the flight was a Sikh.
  It looks like the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who made the two 
arrests this weekend, were not open to the evidence that the Indian 
government was responsible, even though Canada's other investigate 
agency, the Canadian State Investigative Service, tried to warn them. 
Soft Target quotes a CSIS agent as saying. ``If you really want to 
clear the incident quickly, take vans down to the Indian High 
Commission and the consulates in Toronto and Vancouver, load up 
everybody and take them down for questioning. We know it and they knew 
it that they are involved.''
  Clearly, the objective was to damage the Sikh freedom movement and 
raise the spectre of ``Sikh terrorism'' to justify another of India's 
campaigns of violence against the Sikhs.
  Mr. Speaker, this is unfortunately not the only case of Indian state 
terrorim. The repression of Christians, which has taken the form of 
burning churches, murdering priets, raping nuns, burning a missionary 
and his two young sons to death, and other atrocities, is well known. 
In November 1994, the Indian newspaper The Hitavada reported that the 
late Governor of Punjab, Surendra Nath, was paid over $1.5 billion by 
the Indian government to foment state terrorism in Punjab and Kashmir. 
In March, during President Clinton's visit to India, the government 
murdered 35 Sikhs in the village of Chithi Singhpora, Kashmir. Two 
independent investigations and an Amnesty International report have 
confirmed the government's responsibility.
  Between 1993 and 1994, 50,000 Sikhs were made to disappear by Indian 
forces. More than 250,000 Sikhs have been murdered since 1984. Over 
200,000 Christians have been killed since 1947 and over 70,000 Kashmiri 
Muslims have been killed since 1988, as well as tens of thousands of 
Dalit ``untouchables,'' Assamese, Manipuris, Tamils, and others. As you 
know, Mr. Speaker, 21 of us wrote a letter in June calling for India to 
be declared a terrorist state. These are some reasons why we said that.
  Mr. Speaker, India should be declared a terrorist nation and 
subjected to the penalties that status brings. We should cut off our 
aid to India until it respects human rights. And Mr. Speaker, the only 
way that Sikhs, Christians, Muslims, and other minorities will ever 
escape Indian tyranny is through the democractic right of self-
determination. We should go on record in support of an internationally-
supervised plebiscite in Punjab, Khalistan, in Nagalim, in Kashmir, and 
wherever people in South Asia are seeking their freedom from this 
terrorist government, to resolve their status the democratic way, by 
the vote. Democratic states don't practice repression and genocide, 
they decide issues by voting. Is India a democracy or not?
  The Council of Khalistan has issued a press release on these arrests. 
I would like to insert it into the Record for the information of the 
American people.

               Canadian Government Arrests Innocent Sikhs


evidence shows indian government planned, executed Bombing of Air India 
        Flight 182--Punish the Real Culprits, Not the Scapegoats

  WASHINGTON, D.C., October 31, 2000--Despite strong evidence that the 
Indian government carried out the bombing of Air India Flight 182 in 
1985, killing 329 people, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) 
arrested two Sikhs, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bhagri, in 
the bombing. Flight 182 was piloted by a Sikh.
  ``The RCMP has never even considered the evidence that this bombing 
was an Indian government operation,'' said Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, 
President of the Council of Khalistan, the government pro tempore of 
Khalistan, the Sikh homeland that declared its independence from India 
on October 7, 1987. He noted that the book Soft Target, written by two 
Canadian journalists, proves that the Indian government carried out the 
bombing. This finding is confirmed by Canadian Member of Parliament 
David Kilgour in his book Betrayed: The Spy That Canada Forgot. 
According to Kilgour, a Canadian-Polish double agent was recruited by 
terrorists working with the Indian government to help carry out a 
second bombing. The agent declined and reported what had happened.
  According to Soft Target, the Candian State Investigative Service 
(CSIS) was so convinced of the Indian government's involvement that at 
a meeting of the task force on the Air India bombing, one CSIS agent 
said, ``If you really want to clear the incident quickly, take vans 
down to the Indian High Commission and the consulates in Toronto and 
Vancouver, load up everybody and take them down for questioning. We 
know it and they know it that they are involved.''
  According to Soft Target, Surinder Malik, the Indian Consul General 
in Toronto, pulled his wife and daughter off the flight suddenly, 
claiming that his daughter had to do some examinations for school. A 
Toronto car dealer who was a friend of the Consul General also canceled 
his reservation on Flight 182. Siddhartha Singh, head of North American 
affairs for external relations in New Delhi, who was visiting Indian 
officials in Canada, also suddenly cancelled his reservation. The book 
reports that Consul General Malik called the police about the bombing 
to alert them to an ``L. Singh'' who was allegedly on the passenger 
manifest even before the incident became public knowledge. Malik was 
one of several Indian diplomats Canada later asked to have removed from 
the country after CSIS unearthed evidence of an Indian spy network. 
CSIS agents believe that Vice Consul Davinder Singh Ahluwalia laid the 
groundwork for the bombing. He was transferred in 1985.

[[Page E2045]]

  ``India has practiced this kind of terrorism both inside and outside 
Punjab, Khalistan, for a long time,'' Dr. Aulakh said. He noted that in 
March, during President Clinton's visit to India, the Indian government 
murdered 35 Sikhs in the village of Chithi Singhpora, Kashmir. Two 
independent investigations and an Amnesty International report have 
confirmed the government's responsibility. In November 1994, the Indian 
newspaper Hitavada reported that the Indian government paid the late 
Governor of Punjab, Surendra Nath, about $1.5 billion to organize and 
support covert state terrorism in Punjab, Khalistan and in Kashmir. The 
Indian Supreme Court described the situation in Punjab as ``worse than 
a genocide.''
  About 50,000 Sikhs languish in Indian prisons as political prisoners 
without charge or trial. Between 1993 and 1994, 50,000 Sikhs were made 
to disappear by Indian forces. More than 250,000 Sikhs have been 
murdered since 1984. Over 200,000 Christians have been killed since 
1947 and over 70,000 Kashmiri Muslims have been killed since 1988, as 
well as tens of thousands of Dalit ``untouchables,'' Assamese, 
Manipuris, Tamils, and others. ``Democracies don't commit genocide,'' 
Dr. Aulakh said.
  On June 21 Members of the U.S. Congress wrote to President Clinton 
urging him to declare India a terrorist state because of the repression 
against Christians, such as burning churches, murdering priests, raping 
nuns, and other atrocities. ``We must not let the Indian government's 
terrorist apparatus repress the minorities and derail our just struggle 
for independence by labeling them terrorists,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``The 
time has come for the Sikh Nation to begin a Shantmai Morcha to 
liberate Khalistan.''