[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 27 (Tuesday, March 12, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E324]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   ATTACKS ON MUSLIMS IN INDIA ARE A REPEAT OF 1984 ATTACKS ON SIKHS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 12, 2002

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, more than 540 people have recently died in 
violent attacks on Muslims in Gujarat, India while police stand by and 
do nothing. This violence is very disturbing and very reminiscent of 
the violence against Sikhs in Delhi in November 1984. At that time, 
police also stood by and did nothing. Sikh police were locked in their 
barracks and the state-run radio and television stations fanned the 
flames of the massacre. Even a former Member of Parliament was killed 
in the riots last week while police stood by, according to a report in 
the National Post.
  When the government, through its police, stands by and lets these 
attacks unfold, it condones them. Unfortunately, this shows the real 
truth about India's claim that it is secular and democratic. In a 
secular, democratic country, the police do not allow minorities to be 
massacred. This is the act of a theocratic country that seeks to wipe 
out minorities. That is not the kind of country that America should be 
supporting.
  We should stop providing aid to India while its minorities suffer 
from this kind of repression. We should not build up its economy with 
trade. And we should support the people and nations of South Asia in 
achieving freedom. Self-determination is the right of all people; let 
us support a free and fair plebiscite on the future of Khalistan, 
Kashmir, Nagaland, and the other countries seeking their freedom from 
India.
  Mr. Speaker, the Council of Khalistan recently published a press 
release discussing the parallels between the current violence and the 
Delhi massacres of Sikhs.

Killing of Over 540 Muslims By Hindu Militants Parallels 1984 Massacre 
                                of Sikhs

       Washington, D.C., March 5, 2002.--The attacks on Muslims in 
     Ahmedabad parallel the November 1984 massacre of Sikhs in 
     Delhi, according to Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the 
     Council of Khalistan, the government pro tempore of the Sikh 
     homeland, Khalistan, which leads the struggle for the 
     independence of Khalistan. ``The police stood by then, too, 
     and the police gave a nod to the violence,'' Dr. Aulakh said. 
     ``This is part of the overall plan of a Hindu fundamentalist 
     regime that is determined to wipe out minorities,'' he said. 
     More then 540 people have died during the last week in the 
     current violence in Ahmedabad. ``When 13 people were killed 
     in the attack on the Indian Parliament, there was a lot of 
     outrage, as there should be for the killing of any human 
     being,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``Where is the outrage at the death 
     of over 540 people in this massacre?'' he asked.
       ``The true face of Indian secularism is exposed,'' Dr. 
     Aulakh said. ``They demolished a mosque the other day, they 
     demolished the mosque in Ayodhya and they are proceeding with 
     plans to build a Hindu temple on the site,'' he said. ``They 
     attacked the Golden Temple in 1984. They have attacked 
     Christian churches, schools, and prayer halls.'' In 2000, 
     Indian troops were caught red-handed trying to set fire to 
     Sikh homes in Kashmir. During the Delhi massacres in November 
     1984, Sikh police officers were locked in their barracks 
     while more than 20,000 Sikhs were massacred and the state-run 
     television and radio called for more Sikh blood. ``It is too 
     bad that atrocities like these are carried out with 
     impunity,'' he said.
       The Indian government has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 
     1984. Over 75,000 Kashmiri Muslims have been killed since 
     1988. More than 200,000 Christians have been killed since 
     1947, along with tens of thousands of Dalits, Tamils, 
     Assamese, Bodos, Manipuris, and other minorities. A report 
     issued last year shows that 52,268 Sikh political prisoners 
     are held in Indian jails, as well as tens of thousands of 
     others. Since Christmas 1998, Christians have felt the brunt 
     of the attacks. Priests have been murdered, nuns have been 
     raped, churches have been burned, Christian schools and 
     prayer halls have been destroyed, and no one has been 
     punished for these acts. Militant Hindu fundamentalists 
     allied with the RSS, the pro-Fascist parent organization of 
     the ruling BJP, burned missionary Graham Staines and his two 
     young sons to death. Pakistan has requested the extradition 
     of Home Minister L.K. Advani, who is wanted for the murder of 
     Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, 50 years ago.
       Last year, a cabinet member said that everyone living in 
     India must be a Hindu or be subservient to Hindus. In July 
     1997, Narinder Singh, a spokesman for the Golden Temple, told 
     National Public Radio, ``The Indian government, all the time 
     they boast that they're democratic, they're secular, but they 
     have nothing to do with a democracy, they have nothing to do 
     with a secularism. They try to crush Sikhs just to please the 
     majority.''
       The attacks in Ahmedabad reportedly came in retaliation for 
     an attack on a railroad car full of Hindus on their way to 
     Ayodyha to build a temple on the site where the most revered 
     mosque in India was destroyed several years ago. 58 Hindus 
     were burned to death in that attack. For several days, train 
     loads of Hindu extremists had passed through the village of 
     Godha, where the train attack occurred, shouting provocative 
     slogans about building a temple.
       ``By standing by while this violence went on, the 
     government condones it,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``The only way to 
     escape this government-supported violence and tyranny is for 
     the Sikhs, Christians, Muslims, and other minorities to claim 
     their freedom from India,'' he said. ``That is the only way 
     to prevent the Hindu militant theocracy from wiping us out,'' 
     he said. ``Now is the time for a Shantmai Morcha (peaceful 
     agitation) for the independence of Khalistan,'' he said. 
     ``Sikhs are a separate nation. Sikhs ruled Punjab until the 
     British annexed Punjab in 1849. The people of South Asia must 
     have self-determination now,'' he said. ``India is on the 
     verge of disintegration, as Steve Forbes predicted in the 
     current issue of Forbes magazine,'' he said. ``Khalistan will 
     be free by 2008.''

     

                          ____________________