[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 17] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages 25785-25786] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]REAL CULPRIT IN AIR INDIA BOMBING IS INDIAN GOVERNMENT ______ HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS of new york in the house of representatives Tuesday, October 31, 2000 Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, we are all pleased that the Canadian government has maintained an active investigation of the Air India bombing in 1985 that killed 329 people. Terrorism is always unacceptable, and all decent people condemn it. Thus, I read with interest this past weekend that Canada had arrested two Sikhs, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, for this bombing. Unfortunately, I believe that these two individuals are being scapegoated. The book Soft Target, written by journalists Brian McAndrew of the Toronto Star and Zuhair Kashmeri of the Tornoto Globe and Mail, shows that the Indian government itself carried out this atrocity. According to McAndrew and Kashmeri, the Indian Consul General in Toronto, Mr. Surinder Malik, pulled his wife and daughter off the flight shortly before it took off. A friend of the Consul General who was a car dealer in Toronto also cancelled his reservation. An Indian government official named Siddhartha Singh was also scheduled on the doomed flight and cancelled. Surinder Malik called the Canadian authorities about the crime before it was reported publicly that it had occurred to try to point them to a Sikh he claimed was on the passenger list. The pilot of the flight was a Sikh. It looks like the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who made the two arrests this weekend, were not open to the evidence that the Indian government was responsible, even though Canada's other investigate agency, the Canadian State Investigative Service, tried to warn them. Soft Target quotes a CSIS agent as saying. ``If you really want to clear the incident 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 knew it that they are involved.'' Clearly, the objective was to damage the Sikh freedom movement and raise the spectre of ``Sikh terrorism'' to justify another of India's campaigns of violence against the Sikhs. Mr. Speaker, this is unfortunately not the only case of Indian state terrorim. The repression of Christians, which has taken the form of burning churches, murdering priets, raping nuns, burning a missionary and his two young sons to death, and other atrocities, is well known. In November 1994, the Indian newspaper The Hitavada reported that the late Governor of Punjab, Surendra Nath, was paid over $1.5 billion by the Indian government to foment state terrorism in Punjab and Kashmir. [[Page 25786]] In March, during President Clinton's visit to India, the government murdered 35 Sikhs in the village of Chithi Singhpora, Kashmir. Two independent investigations and an Amnesty International report have confirmed the government's responsibility. Between 1993 and 1994, 50,000 Sikhs were made to disappear by Indian forces. More than 250,000 Sikhs have been murdered since 1984. Over 200,000 Christians have been killed since 1947 and over 70,000 Kashmiri Muslims have been killed since 1988, as well as tens of thousands of Dalit ``untouchables,'' Assamese, Manipuris, Tamils, and others. As you know, Mr. Speaker, 21 of us wrote a letter in June calling for India to be declared a terrorist state. These are some reasons why we said that. Mr. Speaker, India should be declared a terrorist nation and subjected to the penalties that status brings. We should cut off our aid to India until it respects human rights. And Mr. Speaker, the only way that Sikhs, Christians, Muslims, and other minorities will ever escape Indian tyranny is through the democractic right of self- determination. We should go on record in support of an internationally- supervised plebiscite in Punjab, Khalistan, in Nagalim, in Kashmir, and wherever people in South Asia are seeking their freedom from this terrorist government, to resolve their status the democratic way, by the vote. Democratic states don't practice repression and genocide, they decide issues by voting. Is India a democracy or not? The Council of Khalistan has issued a press release on these arrests. I would like to insert it into the Record for the information of the American people. Canadian Government Arrests Innocent Sikhs evidence shows indian government planned, executed Bombing of Air India Flight 182--Punish the Real Culprits, Not the Scapegoats WASHINGTON, D.C., October 31, 2000--Despite strong evidence that the Indian government carried out the bombing of Air India Flight 182 in 1985, killing 329 people, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested two Sikhs, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bhagri, in the bombing. Flight 182 was piloted by a Sikh. ``The RCMP has never even considered the evidence that this bombing was an Indian government operation,'' said Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, the government pro tempore of Khalistan, the Sikh homeland that declared its independence from India on October 7, 1987. He noted that the book Soft Target, written by two Canadian journalists, proves that the Indian government carried out the bombing. This finding is confirmed by Canadian Member of Parliament David Kilgour in his book Betrayed: The Spy That Canada Forgot. According to Kilgour, a Canadian-Polish double agent was recruited by terrorists working with the Indian government to help carry out a second bombing. The agent declined and reported what had happened. According to Soft Target, the Candian State Investigative Service (CSIS) was so convinced of the Indian government's involvement that at a meeting of the task force on the Air India bombing, one CSIS agent said, ``If you really want to clear the incident 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.'' According to Soft Target, Surinder Malik, the Indian Consul General in Toronto, pulled his wife and daughter off the flight suddenly, claiming that his daughter had to do some examinations for school. A Toronto car dealer who was a friend of the Consul General also canceled his reservation on Flight 182. Siddhartha Singh, head of North American affairs for external relations in New Delhi, who was visiting Indian officials in Canada, also suddenly cancelled his reservation. The book reports that Consul General Malik called the police about the bombing to alert them to an ``L. Singh'' who was allegedly on the passenger manifest even before the incident became public knowledge. Malik was one of several Indian diplomats Canada later asked to have removed from the country after CSIS unearthed evidence of an Indian spy network. CSIS agents believe that Vice Consul Davinder Singh Ahluwalia laid the groundwork for the bombing. He was transferred in 1985. ``India has practiced this kind of terrorism both inside and outside Punjab, Khalistan, for a long time,'' Dr. Aulakh said. He noted that in March, during President Clinton's visit to India, the Indian government murdered 35 Sikhs in the village of Chithi Singhpora, Kashmir. Two independent investigations and an Amnesty International report have confirmed the government's responsibility. In November 1994, the Indian newspaper Hitavada reported that the Indian government paid the late Governor of Punjab, Surendra Nath, about $1.5 billion to organize and support covert state terrorism in Punjab, Khalistan and in Kashmir. The Indian Supreme Court described the situation in Punjab as ``worse than a genocide.'' About 50,000 Sikhs languish in Indian prisons as political prisoners without charge or trial. Between 1993 and 1994, 50,000 Sikhs were made to disappear by Indian forces. More than 250,000 Sikhs have been murdered since 1984. Over 200,000 Christians have been killed since 1947 and over 70,000 Kashmiri Muslims have been killed since 1988, as well as tens of thousands of Dalit ``untouchables,'' Assamese, Manipuris, Tamils, and others. ``Democracies don't commit genocide,'' Dr. Aulakh said. On June 21 Members of the U.S. Congress wrote to President Clinton urging him to declare India a terrorist state because of the repression against Christians, such as burning churches, murdering priests, raping nuns, and other atrocities. ``We must not let the Indian government's terrorist apparatus repress the minorities and derail our just struggle for independence by labeling them terrorists,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``The time has come for the Sikh Nation to begin a Shantmai Morcha to liberate Khalistan.''