[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 161 (Tuesday, October 23, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2212-E2213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          K.P.S. GILL SHOULD NOT TESTIFY IN AIR INDIA INQUIRY

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 23, 2007

  Mr. TOWNS. Madam Speaker, K.P.S. Gill, the former Director General of 
Police in Punjab, has requested the opportunity to testify before the 
Major Commission, which is investigating the 1985 Air India bombing. 
The request comes in response to the testimony of officials from the 
Punjab Human Rights Organization who had valuable new information to 
impart. Mr. Gill should not testify.
  Gill was part of the same machinery of Indian repression that led to 
the bombing. He was responsible for the murders of tens of thousands of 
Sikhs while he was DGP in Punjab. Mr. Gill was quoted as endorsing 
extrajudicial killings, saying that they ``should happen.'' These are 
incidents where the police kill innocent people, then report it as an 
``encounter'' to justify their actions. He was denied passage to the 
1996 Olympics in Atlanta by every airline because of his terrorism and 
he had to leave the country immediately after India's field hockey 
games. He serves as president of the Indian Field Hockey Association. 
Almost 50 Members of Congress wrote to the State Department urging them 
to deny Mr. Gill a visa. He stands convicted of sexually harassing a 
high-level female Indian Administrative Service employee. He is not fit 
to be a witness in any civilized country. He ought to be in prison.
  Gill has no information on the Air India incident. Why doesn't the 
Major Commission call Zuhair Kashmeri and Brian McAndrew, who wrote the 
book Soft Target, which details the Indian government's involvement in 
this terrorist act, or former Member of Parliament David Kilgour, who 
exposed the story of Ryszard Paskowski? Paszkowski was a Canadian-
Polish double agent who was approached by representatives of the Indian 
government who asked him to be involved in a second bombing. They said, 
``the first one worked so well.'' For For that matter, why not just 
call Mr. Paszkowski himself?
  Gill's involvement in genocide is well known. Why should the Major 
Commission accept him as a witness?

            Gill Should Not Testify Before Major Commission

       Washington, DC, October 3, 2007.--Former Punjab Director 
     General of Police K.P.S. Gill is seeking to testify before 
     the Major Commission, which is investigating the 1985 Air 
     India disaster. His request comes in response to testimony 
     from two officials of the Punjab Human Rights Organization 
     (PHRO.)
       Gill should not testify because he is a terrorist,'' said 
     Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of 
     Khalistan. ``He is responsible for the murders of tens of 
     thousands of Sikhs. Now he is portraying himself as some sort 
     of expert on the Air India bombing. The Council of Khalistan, 
     the government pro tempore of Kha1istan, leads the struggle 
     to liberate Khalistan from India.
       Gill was denied passage to the Atlanta Olympics by every 
     airline in 1996 because of his terrorism. He had to be sent 
     to Atlanta in a special train and he was sent out as soon as 
     the hockey game was over. 49 Members of the U.S. Congress 
     wrote to the State Department, urging them not to give Gill a 
     visa. In that same year, he was convicted of sexually 
     harassing a senior IAS official. A few years ago when Gill 
     was visiting Belgium, his turban was removed from him by Sikh 
     activists, who then chased him down to his hotel. In 1999, he 
     was quoted as saying that fake encounters ``should occur'' if 
     they are ``necessary.'' Many innocent people, including a 
     three-year-old child, have been killed in such encounters. In 
     1994, the U.S. State Department reported that the Indian 
     government paid out over 41,000 cash bounties to police 
     officers for such killings.
       Gill presided over more than 50,000 extrajudicial killings, 
     which were exposed by the PHRO in a study begun by Sardar 
     Jaswant Singh Khalra, who was picked up by the police in 
     September 1995 and murdered in police custody in October of 
     that year. Many of these were secret cremations, in which 
     Sikhs were arrested, tortured, and murdered, then their 
     bodies were secretly cremated and declared ``unidentified.'' 
     Their remains were never even given to their families. It was 
     for exposing this brutal policy that Gill's police arrested 
     and murdered Sardar Khalra.
       Gill serves as head of the Anti-Terrorist Institute of 
     India, which has so far received $95 million in taxpayer 
     funding from the government of Canada, and of the Institute 
     for Conflict Management, which has received $65,000. ``It is 
     ironic that Gill heads an antiterrorism institute and he is a 
     terrorist himself,'' said Dr. Aulakh. ``Like most police

[[Page E2213]]

     officials, he has escaped any consequences of his actions. 
     Gill should be tried for genocide.''
       Information recently released to Tehelka by the PHRO showed 
     that Talwinder Singh Parmar, the leader of Babbar Khalsa (an 
     organization significantly infiltrated and controlled by the 
     Indian government) had identified Lakhbir Singh Brar (Rode), 
     leader of the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), as 
     the main culprit behind the bombing and as an Indian 
     government agent. A police official, Harmail Singh Chandi, 
     showing documents that were supposed to have been destroyed, 
     reported that Parmar was murdered in police custody. It is 
     clear that Parmar was killed to keep him from talking about 
     Rode's involvement. As a Canadian Security Investigative 
     Service agent who was quoted in Zuhair Kashmeri and Brian 
     McAndrew's book Soft Target said. ``If you really want to 
     clear up the incidents quickly, take vans down to the Indian 
     High Commission and the consulates in Toronto and Vancouver. 
     We know it and they know it that they are involved.''
       ``If Gill can testify, why not call Kashmeri and McAndrew? 
     Former Member of Parliament David Kilgour, who wrote 
     Betrayal: The Spy That Canada Abandoned, should also be 
     invited to testify,'' Dr. Aulakh said. In his book Kilgour 
     reports on a Canadian-Polish double agent named Ryszard 
     Paszkowski, who was approached by representatives of the 
     Indian regime, who asked him to participate in a second 
     bombing because ``the first one worked so well.'' Paszkowski 
     should also be invited to testify.
       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), which expired in 1995. 
     Many have been in illegal custody since 1984. According to 
     Amnesty International, there are tens of thousands of other 
     minorities being held as political prisoners in India. 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, Dalits, Bodos, and others. The Indian 
     Supreme Court called the Indian government's murders of Sikhs 
     ``worse than a genocide.''
       ``How can anyone accept testimony of the representative of 
     this bloody regime?'' Dr. Aulakh asked. ``In a free 
     Khalistan, no one would accept those who carry out genocide 
     against the Sikh religion and the Sikh Nation or against any 
     other people,'' he said. ``The Sikh Nation and the Sikh 
     religion cannot flourish without political power. We must 
     free Khalistan now.'

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