[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 3] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages 3016-3017] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]ATTACKS ON MUSLIMS IN INDIA ARE A REPEAT OF 1984 ATTACKS ON SIKHS ______ HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS of new york in the house of representatives Tuesday, March 12, 2002 Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, more than 540 people have recently died in violent attacks on Muslims in Gujarat, India while police stand by and do nothing. This violence is very disturbing and very reminiscent of the violence against Sikhs in Delhi in November 1984. At that time, police also stood by and did nothing. Sikh police were locked in their barracks and the state-run radio and television stations fanned the flames of the massacre. Even a former Member of Parliament was killed in the riots last week while police stood by, according to a report in the National Post. When the government, through its police, stands by and lets these attacks unfold, it condones them. Unfortunately, this shows the real truth about India's claim that it is secular and democratic. In a secular, democratic country, the police do not allow minorities to be massacred. This is the act of a theocratic country that seeks to wipe out minorities. That is not the kind of country that America should be supporting. We should stop providing aid to India while its minorities suffer from this kind of repression. We should not build up its economy with trade. And we should support the people and nations of South Asia in achieving freedom. Self-determination is the right of all people; let us support a free and fair plebiscite on the future of Khalistan, Kashmir, Nagaland, and the other countries seeking their freedom from India. Mr. Speaker, the Council of Khalistan recently published a press release discussing the parallels between the current violence and the Delhi massacres of Sikhs. Killing of Over 540 Muslims By Hindu Militants Parallels 1984 Massacre of Sikhs Washington, D.C., March 5, 2002.--The attacks on Muslims in Ahmedabad parallel the November 1984 massacre of Sikhs in Delhi, according to Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, the government pro tempore of the Sikh homeland, Khalistan, which leads the struggle for the independence of Khalistan. ``The police stood by then, too, and the police gave a nod to the violence,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``This is part of the overall plan of a Hindu fundamentalist regime that is determined to wipe out minorities,'' he said. More then 540 people have died during the last week in the current violence in Ahmedabad. ``When 13 people were killed in the attack on the Indian Parliament, there was a lot of outrage, as there should be for the killing of any human being,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``Where is the outrage at the death of over 540 people in this massacre?'' he asked. ``The true face of Indian secularism is exposed,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``They demolished a mosque the other day, they demolished the mosque in Ayodhya and they are proceeding with plans to build a Hindu temple on the site,'' he said. ``They attacked the Golden Temple in 1984. They have attacked Christian churches, schools, and prayer halls.'' In 2000, Indian troops were caught red-handed trying to set fire to Sikh homes in Kashmir. During the Delhi massacres in November 1984, Sikh police officers were locked in their barracks while more than 20,000 Sikhs were massacred and the state-run television and radio called for more Sikh blood. ``It is too bad that atrocities like these are carried out with impunity,'' he said. The Indian government has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 1984. Over 75,000 Kashmiri Muslims have been killed since 1988. More than 200,000 Christians have been killed since 1947, along with tens of thousands of Dalits, Tamils, Assamese, Bodos, Manipuris, and other minorities. A report issued last year shows that 52,268 Sikh political prisoners are [[Page 3017]] held in Indian jails, as well as tens of thousands of others. Since Christmas 1998, Christians have felt the brunt of the attacks. Priests have been murdered, nuns have been raped, churches have been burned, Christian schools and prayer halls have been destroyed, and no one has been punished for these acts. Militant Hindu fundamentalists allied with the RSS, the pro-Fascist parent organization of the ruling BJP, burned missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons to death. Pakistan has requested the extradition of Home Minister L.K. Advani, who is wanted for the murder of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, 50 years ago. Last year, a cabinet member said that everyone living in India must be a Hindu or be subservient to Hindus. In July 1997, Narinder Singh, a spokesman for the Golden Temple, told National Public Radio, ``The Indian government, all the time they boast that they're democratic, they're secular, but they have nothing to do with a democracy, they have nothing to do with a secularism. They try to crush Sikhs just to please the majority.'' The attacks in Ahmedabad reportedly came in retaliation for an attack on a railroad car full of Hindus on their way to Ayodyha to build a temple on the site where the most revered mosque in India was destroyed several years ago. 58 Hindus were burned to death in that attack. For several days, train loads of Hindu extremists had passed through the village of Godha, where the train attack occurred, shouting provocative slogans about building a temple. ``By standing by while this violence went on, the government condones it,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``The only way to escape this government-supported violence and tyranny is for the Sikhs, Christians, Muslims, and other minorities to claim their freedom from India,'' he said. ``That is the only way to prevent the Hindu militant theocracy from wiping us out,'' he said. ``Now is the time for a Shantmai Morcha (peaceful agitation) for the independence of Khalistan,'' he said. ``Sikhs are a separate nation. Sikhs ruled Punjab until the British annexed Punjab in 1849. The people of South Asia must have self-determination now,'' he said. ``India is on the verge of disintegration, as Steve Forbes predicted in the current issue of Forbes magazine,'' he said. ``Khalistan will be free by 2008.'' ____________________