[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 18]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 23770-23771]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    COUNCIL OF KHALISTAN URGES SIKHS TO WORK TO FREE KHALISTAN SEES 
                        DISINTEGRATION OF INDIA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, December 7, 2006

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, last month, Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, 
President of the Council of Khalistan, spoke at the Press Club in 
Lahore, Pakistan. In that speech, he predicted disintegration of India, 
according to the newspaper Dawn from Lahore. ``There is nothing common 
in the culture of the Hindu living in Bengal and the one in Tamil 
area,'' the paper quotes Dr. Aulakh as saying. ``A country having 18 
official languages cannot hold its people together for a long time, 
especially when there is state sponsored suppression against 
minorities,'' he went on to say.
  Dr. Aulakh cited the BJP's statement that if you want to live in 
Hindustan, you must be a Hindu. He discussed India's long record of 
violence against the minorities within its borders, including the 
murders of over a quarter of a million Sikhs, more than 90,000 Kashmiri 
Muslims, over 300,000 Christians in Nagaland, 2,000 to 5,000 Muslims in 
Gujarat, tens of thousands of Christians and Muslims around the rest of 
the country, and tens of thousands of Assamese, Bodos, Dalit 
``untouchables'', Manipuris, Tamils, and other minorities. He cited 
numerous other incidents, including the murder of former Jathedar of 
the Akal Takht Gurdev Singh Kaunke, the kidnapping and murder by the 
police of human-rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, the recent attack 
on the Convent of Loreto, the attack on the Babri mosque, and many 
other such events.
  Dr. Aulakh said that the only solution to this situation is a free, 
sovereign, independent Khalistan, which was declared on October 7, 
1987. It is time for the United States to help protect the dignity of 
all people in South Asia by helping them to live in freedom. There 
should be a free and fair plebiscite in Punjab on the independence of 
Khalistan, as well as a plebiscite in Kashmir, as promised to the 
United Nations in 1948, in Nagaland, and wherever people are seeking 
freedom from India. The essence of democracy is the right to self-
determination. The United States Congress should be on record in 
support of that. In addition, we should stop our aid and trade with 
India until such time as the tyranny stops and all people there enjoy 
full human rights.
  We seek good relations with India, but not at the expense of our 
principles. India must spread the blessings of freedom and democracy to 
all its people, not just the ruling elite and its friends.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to insert the Dawn article and an article 
from The News concerning Dr. Aulakh's statement into the Record.

                    [From Dawn Lahore, Nov. 7, 2006]

             Khalistan Council Sees India's Disintegration

                        (By Our Staff Reporter)

       Lahore, Nov. 6: India will break up in many states like the 
     former USSR, says Council of Khalistan president Dr. Gurmit 
     Singh Aulakh.
       ``There is nothing common in the culture of the Hindu 
     living in Bengal and the one in Tamil area. A country having 
     18 official languages cannot hold its people together for a 
     long time, especially when there is state-sponsored 
     suppression against minorities,'' Dr. Aulakh said at a press 
     conference at the Lahore Press Club on Monday.
       The BJP had conveyed to all the minorities in the strongest 
     terms that if they wanted to live in `Hindustan', they have 
     to become Hindus. Over a million people have been killed 
     since independence merely because they were not Hindus. The 
     Indian government has committed terrorism against its own 
     minorities. More than 250,000 Sikh infants, children, youth, 
     men, women and elderly had been murdered since 1984, in 
     addition to more than 300,000 Christians in Nagaland, over 
     90,000 Muslims in Kashmir, tens of thousands of Christians 
     and Muslims throughout the country besides tens of thousands 
     of Assameese, Bodos, Dalits, Manipuris, Tamils and other 
     minorities.
       Indian police arrested human rights activist Jaswant Singh 
     Khalra after he exposed

[[Page 23771]]

     their policy of mass cremation of Sikhs. Over 50,000 Sikhs 
     were arrested, tortured, murdered and then their bodies were 
     declared unidentified and secretly cremated, said Dr. Aulakh.
       Mr. Khalra was murdered in police custody and his body was 
     not handed over to his family. No one was brought to justice 
     for his kidnap and murder. The only witness to the Khalra 
     kidnapping, Rajiv Singh Randbawa, had been repeatedly 
     harassed by the police, including having been arrested for 
     trying to hand a note to the then British home secretary Jack 
     Straw.
       The Khalistan Council chief said 35 Sikhs were arrested in 
     Punjab last year for delivering speeches in support of 
     Khalistan and raising its flag. How can delivering speeches 
     and raising a flag be considered crimes in a democratic 
     society?
       The police never released the body of Gurdeve Singh Kaunke, 
     the former Jathedar of the Akal Takht, after SSP Swaran Singh 
     Ghotna murdered him. The police officer had never been tried 
     for the murder.
       Mr. Graham Stains, missionary, was murdered along with his 
     two sons, ages 8 and 10, by a mob of militant, fundamentalist 
     Hindu nationalists who set fire to the jeep, surrounded it, 
     and chanted Hannuman ki jay (Victory to Hannuman). Another 
     missionary, Joseph cope, was beaten so badly that he had to 
     remain in an Indian hospital for a week. Later, the Indian 
     government threw him out of the country and none of the 
     people involved had been tried.
       ``Police broke up a Christian religious festival with 
     gunfire but the people who murdered priests, raped nuns and 
     burnt churches had yet to be charged or tried. Recently, 
     militants from the Bharatiya Januata Yuva, the youth movement 
     affiliated with the BJP and the fascist RSS, attacked the 
     Convent of Loreto.
       ``The murderers of 2,000 to 5,000 Muslims in Gujarat have 
     never been brought to trial. An Indian newspaper reported 
     that the police were ordered not to get involved in that 
     massacre, a frightening parallel to the Delhi massacre of 
     Sikhs in 1984. Militant Hindu fundamentalists destroyed the 
     most important mosque in india, the Babri Masjid, but no one 
     had ever been held responsible,'' said Dr. Aulakh.
       ``What good it did to the Sikh nation if the Indian 
     government apologized for the Delhi massacres, in which over 
     20,000 sikhs were killed? Where are the apologies for the 
     golden Temple attack, the destruction of the Akal Takht, the 
     desecration of Darbar Sahib and the other atrocities? Where 
     is the compensation for the victims' families?'' asked a 
     charged Khalistan Council chief.
       Sikh farmers were expelled from Uttaranchal last year and 
     their land was seized, police thrashed them, their homes that 
     were built out of their life savings and by their own hands, 
     were bulldozed by paratroopers. ``We condemn this act of 
     state terrorism by the government of Uttaranchal,'' he said.
       Sikhs could not buy land in Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh 
     and now Uttaranchal had been added to the list while there 
     were no restrictions on land ownership in Punjab by non-
     Sikhs.
       India was trying to subvert Khalistan's independence by 
     overrunning Punjab with non-Sikhs while keeping Sikhs from 
     escaping the brutal repression in Punjab. ``It is now 
     incumbent on the Sikh diaspora to free Khalistan. We must 
     redouble our efforts. That is the only way to keep these 
     atrocities from continuing and to protect the Sikh nation and 
     the religion.''
       The Akali Dal, Dr. Aulakh alleged, conspired with the 
     Indian government in 1984 to invade the Golden Temple to 
     murder Sant Bhindranwale and 20,000 other Sikhs in June 1984 
     in Punjab.
       In response to a question, he said the Indian prime 
     minister was a puppet. ``Mr. Manmohan Singh lied before the 
     Geneva Commission in 1992 that there were no atrocities 
     against Sikhs in India in spite of the fact that there were 
     52,000 Sikhs in Indian jails under the notorious TADA. He 
     lacks the true Sikh spirit, if a Sikh is not Khalistani, he 
     is not a Sikh,'' declared Dr. Aulakh.
       Sikhs would never get any justice from Delhi. Ever since 
     independence, India had mistreated the Sikh nation, starting 
     with Patel's memo calling Sikhs `a criminal tribe.'
       ``What a shame for Home Minister Patel and the Indian 
     government to issue this memorandom when the Sikh nation gave 
     over 80 percent of the sacrifices to free India. There is no 
     place for Sikhs in supposedly secular, democratic India. Our 
     moment of freedom is closer than ever. Sikhs will continue to 
     work to make certain that we shake ourselves loose from the 
     yoke of Indian oppression and liberate our homeland, 
     Khalistan, so that all Sikhs may live lives of prosperity, 
     freedom and dignity.
       ``The flame of freedom continues to burn brightly in the 
     heart of every Sikh and no force can suppress it. Recently, 
     Dal Khalsa and the Shironment Khalsa Dal announced that they 
     are uniting for sovereignty for Khalistan. The Punjab 
     legislative assembly proclaimed the sovereignty of Punjab 
     when it cancelled the water agreements. Only by liberating 
     Khalistan can we put an end to the repression and terrorism 
     against the Sikh nation by the Indian regime. Now is the time 
     to rededicate ourselves to the liberation of Khalistan.
       ``The Sikhs are a free nation and they would neither 
     compromise on their freedom nor they could be subjugated. 
     Freedom is the right of every nation. We have been struggling 
     for the independence of our homeland from the day when the 
     Golden Temple was attacked. We have been exposing the indian 
     atrocities worldwide since then,'' the Khalistan Council 
     chief said.

              [From The News International, Nov. 7, 2006]

                    Sikhs Urged to Work for Homeland

       Sardar Gurmeet Singh Aulak, president of Council of 
     Khalistan, has said that it is the moral duty of Sikhs to 
     establish free homeland and get freedom from India.
       While addressing a press conference here Monday at Lahore 
     Press Club, he said Sikhs had to come forward to get free 
     homeland for the Sikhs living around the world. He said the 
     foundation of Khalistan was laid after the attack on Golden 
     Temple in 1984 adding that now the Sikhs were fighting for 
     their birth right though the war was long but it has to meet 
     logical end.
       He said the biggest mistake which the Sikh nation had 
     committed was that they did not accept the offer of Quaid-e-
     Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and for that they have to pay for 
     few more decades.
       He said their struggle was peaceful and political but India 
     turned into violent by killing innocent Sikhs in East Punjab 
     and tagged them as terrorists.
       He said in India, 18 different languages were being spoken 
     and when there was no commonality in cultures, the country 
     was bound to be divided into parts like the USSR. He said on 
     October 17, 1987, the resolution was passed by Council of 
     Khalistan for free homeland and from that date the Sikhs were 
     struggling to get their homeland.
       He said Sikhs has no claim on that piece of land where they 
     did not have any population but they want homeland on areas 
     of East Punjab, Himachal and Haryana, where the Sikhs were in 
     majority. About Kashmir issue, he said he was surprised to 
     note that with so many Muslim countries around the world, the 
     state was not freed yet as if the Sikhs have the same number 
     of countries, they had freed their land from the cruel 
     clutches of India.
       About Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said he was a 
     puppet PM and dance to the tunes of Sonia Gandhi and lacks 
     confidence of Sikh nation.

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