[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 99 (Tuesday, July 25, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1519-E1520]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COUNCIL OF KHALISTAN CONDEMNS BOMB BLASTS IN BOMBAY
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HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS
of new york
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, the Council of Khalistan has condemned the
train bombings in Bombay this week. Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President
of the Council of Khalistan, whom most of us know, said that ``this is
a terrible incident and shameful for whoever carried it out. Terrorism
is never acceptable.''
The attacks have been attributed to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Kashmiri
organization. One thing you have to say about Lashkar, though:
normally, they take responsibility for what they do. But as Dr. Aulakh
pointed out, they have not done so in this instance and the attack fits
the pattern of the kinds of attacks carried out by the Indian
government and its operatives, which the Council of Khalistan details
in the release. These include the Air India bombing, the many attacks
on Christian groups, the Gujarat massacre, and the fact that as the
Washington Times reported, India is sponsoring cross-border terrorism
in Sindh. These are not the acts of a responsible democracy.
This kind of activity is the mark of a terrorist state, Mr. Speaker.
If we are serious about fighting terrorism, we should stop our aid and
trade with India and we should support a free and fair plebiscite in
the minority nations that seek their freedom in South Asia.
Council of Khalistan Condemns Train Bombings
Washington, DC., July 12, 2006--Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh,
President of the Council of Khalistan, today condemned the
train bombings in Bombay in which 190 people were killed and
over 660 were injured.
[[Page E1520]]
``This is a terrible incident and shameful for whoever
carried it out,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``Terrorism is never
acceptable.'' He endorsed the request to donate blood for the
victims. ``We should join together to take care of the people
who were victimized by this brutal attack,'' he said. The
Council of Khalistan leads the peaceful, democratic,
nonviolent movement to liberate Khalistan, the Sikh homeland
that declared its independence from India on October 7, 1987.
Dr. Aulakh was interviewed on WRC-TV Channel 4 news in
Washington yesterday about the bombings. Dr. Aulakh noted
that the first-class cabins were bombed. ``This is where the
rich people hid,'' he said. No one has taken responsibility
for the attack, although the Indian government has blamed the
Kashmiri organization Lashkar-e-Taiba.
``This is the kind of thing the Indian government is quite
capable of carrying out itself,'' Dr. Aulakh said. He noted
that the book Soft Target shows how the Indian regime bombed
its own airliner in 1985, killing 329 innocent people, to
justify further repression against the Sikhs. The flight was
bound for Bombay. The book quotes an investigator from the
Canadian Security Investigation Service as saying, ``If you
really want to clear the incidents 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.'' The book shows that within hours after the flight
was blown up, the Indian Consul General in Toronto, Surinder
Malik (no relation to Ripudaman Singh Malik), called in a
detailed description of the bombing and the names of those he
said were involved, information that the Canadian government
didn't discover until weeks later. Mr. Malik said to look on
the passenger manifest for the name ``L. Singh.'' This would
turn out to be Lal Singh, who told the press that he was
offered ``two million dollars and settlement in a nice
country'' by the Indian regime to give false testimony in the
case.
India fomented and pre-planned the massacre of Muslims in
Gujarat, according to a police officer who was quoted in the
newspapers. Government forces were caught red-handed in a
village in Kashmir, trying to burn down the Gurdwara (Sikh
place of worship) and some Sikh homes, to blame the Muslims.
Two independent investigations, one carried out jointly by
the Movement Against State Repression (MASR) and the Punjab
Human Rights Organization and the other carried out by the
International Human rights Organization of Ludhiana. both
concluded that Indian troops carried out the massacre of 38
Sikhs in Chithlsinghpora. Both former President Bill Clinton,
in his introduction to Madeleine Albright's book, and New
York Times reporter Barry Bearak came to the same conclusion.
The killers dressed as ``militants'' but spoke to each other
in the language of the Indian army. This is just one of many
incidents where the Indian army or its paid ``Black Cats''
paramilitary have been caught carrying out terrorist
incidents while trying to create the impression that they
were alleged ``militants.''
The Indian newsmagazine India Today reported that the
Indian government created the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam, identified by the U.S. government as a terrorist
organization. The January 2, 2002 issue of the Washington
Times noted that India sponsors cross-border terrorism in
Sindh. The Indian newspaper Hitavada reported that India paid
the late governor of Punjab, Surendra Nath, $1.5 billion to
foment and support covert state terrorism in Punjab and
Kashmir.
A report issued by MASR show 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. The 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 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.''
Government-allied Hindu militants have burned down
Christian churches and prayer halls, murdered priests, and
raped nuns. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) described the
rapists as ``patriotic youth'' and called the nuns
``antinational elements.'' Hindu radicals, members of the
Bajrang Dal, burned missionary Graham Stewart Staines and his
two sons, ages 10 and 8, to death while they surrounded the
victims and chanted ``Victory to Hannuman,'' the Hindu
monkey-faced God. The Bajrang Dal is the youth arm of the
RSS. The VHP is a militant Hindu Nationalist organization
that is under the umbrella of the RSS.
``Only in a free Khalistan will the Sikh Nation prosper and
get justice,'' said Dr. Aulakh. ``This is the only issue.
India is a terrorist state in which we will never escape from
the repression and tyranny.'' he said. ``It is time to
liberate Khalistan so that the Sikh Nation can live in
freedom, security, prosperity, and dignity,'' he said.
``Remember the words of former Akal Takht Jathedar Professor
Darshan Singh: `If a Sikh is not a Khalistani he is not a
Sikh.' The only way we can escape the terrorism and
repression is to free Khalistan. Khalistan Zindabad.''
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