OPEN LETTER TO INDIAN PRIME MINISTER MANMOHAN SINGH
India is a Terrorist State, not a victim of terrorism; it supports Cross-Border Terror & represses minorities. Yearning for Freedom lies in the heart of the Sikh Nation; no force can suppress it.
Washington D.C. October 10, 2006
Dear Prime Minister Singh:
On October 4, you said that India is a victim of cross-border terrorism. India is a terrorist state itself and should be subject to the penalties that are imposed on terrorist states.
On January 2, 2002, the Washington Times reported that India is supporting cross-border terrorism in Sindh, a province of Pakistan; the very same kind of thing that Prime Minister Singh was claiming is victimizing India. In addition, India's leading newsmagazine - India Today - reported that the Indian government created the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), identified by the U.S. Government as a terrorist organization, and its leaders were put up by the Indian Government in the finest hotel in Delhi. How can you blame Pakistan when India started cross-border terrorism with its own actions?
The Indian government has committed terrorism against its own minorities. It has murdered over 250,000 Sikh infants, children, youth, men, women, and elderly since 1984, as well as 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 Assamese, Bodos, Dalits, Manipuris, Tamils, and other minorities. A report by the Movement Against State Repression (MASR) states that 52,268 Sikhs are being held as political prisoners in India without charge or trial, mostly under a repressive law known as the "Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act" (TADA), which expired in 1995. Many have been in illegal custody since1984. There has been no list published of those who were acquitted under TADA and those who are still rotting in Indian jails. Tens of thousands of other minorities are also being held as political prisoners, according to Amnesty International. Tell the families of these innocent Sikhs and others that there is no terrorism in India.
Indian police arrested human-rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra after he exposed their policy of mass cremation of Sikhs, in which over 50,000 Sikhs have been arrested, tortured, and murdered, and then their bodies were declared unidentified and secretly cremated. Khalra was murdered in police custody. His body was not given to his family. No one has been brought to justice for the kidnapping and murder of Jaswant Singh Khalra. The only witness to the Khalra kidnapping, Rajiv Singh Randhawa, has been repeatedly harassed by the police, including having been arrested for trying to hand a note to then-British Home Secretary Jack Straw. Last year, 35 Sikhs were charged and arrested in Punjab for making speeches in support of Khalistan and raising the Khalistani flag. How can making speeches and raising a flag be considered crimes in a democratic society?
The police never released the body of former Jathedar of the Akal Takht Gurdev Singh Kaunke after SSP Swaran Singh Ghotna murdered him. He has never been tried for the Jathedar Kaunke murder. In 1994, the U.S. State Department reported that the Indian government had paid over 41,000 cash bounties for killing Sikhs. The MASR report quotes the Punjab Civil Magistracy as writing "if we add up the figures of the last few years the number of innocent persons killed would run into lakhs [hundreds of thousands.]" The Indian Supreme Court called the Indian government's murders of Sikhs "worse than genocide."
Missionary Graham Staines 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 "Victory to Hannuman," a Hindu god. Missionary Joseph Cooper was beaten so badly that he had to spend a week in an Indian hospital. Then the Indian Government threw him out of the country. None of the people involved has been tried. The persons who have murdered priests, raped nuns, and burned Christian churches have not been charged or tried. Police broke up a Christian religious festival with gunfire. Recently, militant Hindus from the Bharatiya Janata Yuva (a youth movement affiliated with the BJP and the Fascist RSS) attacked the Convent of Loreto and the school there. A spokesman for the BJP, Mr. H. Dikshit, demanded an investigation of the school
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. The most important mosque in India, the Babri Mosque, was destroyed by militant Hindu fundamentalists who have never been held responsible for their actions.
It is good that you have admitted the guilt of the Indian government by for the Delhi massacres, in which over 20,000 Sikhs were killed, by apologizing for the massacres, but what good does it do the Sikh Nation? Where are the apologies for the Golden Temple attack, the destruction of the Akal Takht, and the desecration of Darbar Sahib, and the other atrocities? Where is the compensation for the victims' families? That operation was yet another act of Indian domestic terrorism
The Guru granted sovereignty to the Sikh Nation, saying "In Grieb Sikhin Ko Deon Patshahi." We must remind ourselves of our heritage by raising slogans of "Khalistan Zindabad" and beginning a Shantmai Morcha to liberate our homeland, Khalistan. Whoever is honest and dedicated in leading that Shantmai Morcha deserves our support. Every morning and evening we recite, "Raj Kare Ga Khalsa." Now is the time to act on it. Do we mean what we say every morning and evening?
The flame of freedom continues to burn brightly in the heart of the Sikh Nation. No force can suppress it. Recently, Dal Khalsa and the Shiromani Khalsa Dal announced that they are uniting for sovereignty for Khalistan. This was met with chants of "Khalistan Zindabad." 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.
Last year, Sikh farmers were expelled from Uttaranchal Pradesh and their land was seized. They were beaten up by the police. Their homes were bulldozed by paratroopers. Their homes in many cases were built using their life savings and by their own hands. We condemn this act of state terrorism by the Government of Uttaranchal Pradesh. As you know, Sikhs are prohibited from buying land in Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. Now Uttaranchal Pradesh joins that list. Yet there are no restrictions on land ownership in Punjab by non-Sikhs. People from anywhere can buy land in Punjab, including people from Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. India is trying to subvert Khalistan's independence by overrunning Punjab with non-Sikhs while the Sikhs keep escaping the brutal repression in the Punjab. It is 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 Sikh religion.
The Akali Dal conspired with the Indian government in 1984 to invade the Golden Temple to murder Sant Bhindranwale and 20,000 other Sikhs during June 1984 in Punjab. Among those who conspired with the government, according to Chakravyuh: Web of Indian Secularism, were Dr. Chohan, Ganga Singh Dhillon, and Didar Singh Bains. It appears the Indian regime is even willing to arrest its own agents to suppress the movement for Khalistan Now Badal and Chief Minister Amarinder Singh have been accusing each other of being tied in with "terrorists. " These leaders view support for Khalistan as terrorism, as the Indian Government does. They have shown where their loyalties lie. How will these so-called Sikh leaders account for themselves? Remember the words of former Jathedar of the Akal Takht Professor Darshan Singh: "If a Sikh is not a Khalistani, he is not a Sikh."
Sikhs will never get any justice from Delhi. Ever since independence, India has 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 memorandum when the Sikh Nation gave over 80 percent of the sacrifices to free India. There is no place for the Sikhs in supposedly secular, supposedly 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.
Sincerely,
Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh
President
Council of Khalistan
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