[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

                                 ______
                                 

                          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.''

                          ____________________