[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 83 (Friday, June 23, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1268-E1269]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        COUNCIL OF KHALISTAN COMMEMORATES GOLDEN TEMPLE MASSACRE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 22, 2006

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, on June 3 Sikhs from around the East Coast 
gathered here in Washington to commemorate the June 1984 attack on the 
Golden Temple by the Indian government. That attack occurred 
simultaneously with attacks on 37 other Gurdwaras in what came to be 
known as Operation Bluestar. Operation Bluestar took the lives of over 
20,000 Sikhs in Punjab.
  The demonstration was organized by the Council of Khalistan, which 
has been leading the peaceful, nonviolent, democratic Sikh struggle for 
independence for almost 20 years, ever since Khalistan declared its 
independence from India in 1987.
  Mr. Speaker, given the repression of the Sikhs and other minorities, 
such as Christians, Muslims, and others, I think we would do well for 
America to support the freedom movement in Khalistan and throughout the 
subcontinent. This is especially so given that India has a history of 
anti-American activities.
  It is time to press India to pay attention to human rights by 
stopping our aid and trade with that country and it is time to put the 
Congress on record in support of self-determination. The essence of 
democracy is the right to self-determination.
   I would like to add the Council of Khalistan's press release on its 
June 3 demonstration to the Record at this time.

                 Sikhs Commemorate Golden Temple Attack

       Washington, DC, June 3, 2006.--Sikhs from Philadelphia, 
     Florida, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and elsewhere on the 
     East Coast gathered in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, June 3 
     to commemorate the Indian government's brutal military attack 
     on the Golden Temple, the center and seat of the Sikh 
     religion, and 125 other Sikh Gurdwaras throughout Punjab, in 
     June 1984, in which over 20,000 Sikhs were murdered. They 
     chanted slogans such as ``India out of Khalistan'', 
     ``Khalistan Zindabad'', and others. In addition, 
     demonstrations were held in several other cities throughout 
     the world.
       During the Golden Temple attack, young boys ages 8 to 13 
     were taken outside and asked if they supported Khalistan, the 
     independent Sikh country. When they answered with the Sikh 
     religious incantation ``Bole So Nihaf,'' they were shot to 
     death. The Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy scriptures, 
     written in the time of the Sikh Gurus, were shot full of 
     bullet holes and burned by the Indian forces.
       The Golden Temple attack was a brutal chapter in India's 
     repression of the Sikhs, according to Dr. Gurmit Singh 
     Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, the government 
     pro tempore of Khalistan, which leads the struggle for 
     Khalistan's independence. ``Sikhs cannot forgive or forget 
     this atrocity against the seat of our religion by the Indian 
     government, said Dr. Aulakh ``This brutal attack clarified 
     that there is no place in India for Sikhs,'' he said. On 
     October 7, 1987, the Sikh Nation declared its independence 
     from India, naming its new country Khalistan.
       ``Sant Bhindranwale said that attacking the Golden Temple 
     would lay the foundation stone of Khalistan, and he was 
     right,'' said Dr. Aulakh. ``Instead of crushing the Sikh 
     movement for Khalistan, as India intended, the attack 
     strengthened it,'' he said. ``The flame of freedom still 
     burns bright in the hearts of Sikhs despite the deployment of 
     over half a million Indian troops to crush it,'' he said.
       A report issued by the Movement Against State Repression 
     (MASR) shows that India admitted that it held 52,268 
     political prisoners under the repressive ``Terrorist and 
     Disruptive Activities Act'' (TADA) even though it expired in 
     1995. Many have been in illegal custody since 1984. There has 
     been no list published of those who were acquitted under TADA 
     and those who are still rotting in Indian jails. 
     Additionally, according to Amnesty International, there are 
     tens of thousands of other minorities being held as political 
     prisoners. MASR report quotes the Punjab Civil Magistracy as 
     writing ``if we add up the figures of the last few years the 
     number of innocent persons killed would run

[[Page E1269]]

     into lakhs [hundreds of thousands.]'' The Indian government 
     has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 1984, more than 300,000 
     Christians in Nagaland, over 90,000 Muslims in Kashmir, tens 
     of thousands of Christians and Muslims throughout the 
     country, and tens of thousands of Tamils, Assamese, 
     Manipuris, and others. The Indian Supreme Court called the 
     Indian government's murders of Sikhs ``worse than a 
     genocide.''
       In the introduction to former Secretary of State Madeleine 
     Albright's new book, The Mighty and the Almighty, former U.S. 
     President Bill Clinton writes that ``Hindu militants'' are 
     responsible for the massacre of 38 Sikhs at Chithisinghpora 
     in March 2000. This reflects previous findings by the Punjab 
     Human Rights Organization, the International Human Rights 
     Organization, the Movement Against State Repression, and New 
     York Times reporter Barry Bearak. President Clinton writes, 
     ``During my visit to India in 2000, some Hindu militants 
     decided to vent their outrage by murdering 38 Sikhs in cold 
     blood. If I hadn't made the trip, the victims would probably 
     still be alive.''
       ``Only in a free Khalistan will the Sikh Nation prosper and 
     get justice,'' said Dr. Aulakh. ``When Khalistan is free, we 
     will have our own Ambassadors, our own representation in the 
     UN and other international bodies, and our own leaders to 
     keep this sort of thing from happening. We won't be at the 
     mercy of the brutal Indian regime and its Hindu militant 
     allies,'' he said. ``Democracies don't commit genocide. India 
     should act like a democracy and allow a plebiscite on 
     independence for Khalistan and all the nations of South 
     Asia,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``As Professor Darshan Singh, a 
     former Jathedar of the Akal Takht, said, `If a Sikh is not a 
     Khalistani, he is not a Sikh','' Dr. Aulakh noted. ``We must 
     continue to pray for and work for our God-given birthright of 
     freedom,'' he said. ``Without political power, religions 
     cannot flourish and nations perish.''