[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
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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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