[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2319-E2320]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

DELHI MASSACRES

______

HON. PETER T. KING

of new york

in the house of representatives

Thursday, December 7, 1995

Mr. KING. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to note that last month Sikhs and
the world remembered the 11th anniversary of the brutal November 1984
massacre of Sikhs in which more than 40,000 Sikhs were killed by
government-inspired mobs while government television and radio
repeatedly called for more Sikh blood. Over 20,000 Sikhs were killed in
Delhi alone during this massacre. For 3 days, the police stood aside,
under strict orders to do nothing. Sikh police officers were disarmed
and confined to their barracks to prevent them from helping their Sikh
brothers and sisters.
In all, more than 150,000 Sikhs have been murdered in India since
1984. In addition, there have been murders of over 200,000 Christians
in Nagaland since 1947, more than 43,000 Muslims in Kashmir since 1988,
tens of thousands of Assamese, Manipuris, and others, and thousands of
Dalits ``black untouchables''. The State Department reported in 1994
that between 1991 and 1993, the Indian regime paid over 41,000 cash
bounties to police officers for killing Sikhs.
Self-determination is the God-given right of all people of all
nations. This is the principle that underlies our Declaration of
Independence, and it is a principle that is sweeping the world. On
October 7, 1987, the Sikh nation asserted its right the self-
determination by declaring its independence from India, forming the
sovereign, independent country of Khalistan. The Sikhs had ruled Punjab
from 1765 to 1849. India's response to Khalistan's declaration of
independence has been to set up the repression against the Sikh nation.
Today Khalistan lives under the occupation of 500,000 Indian troops--
more troops than the British stationed in the entire subcontinent at
any time during their rule.
As the leader of the free, democratic countries of the world, the
United States should not be propping up this repressive tyranny. It is
time for America to take strong action to see to it that India respects
human rights and the right of self-determination.
I am introducing into the Record a speech delivered by Dr. Gurmit
Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, at a November 4
rally commemorating the November 1984 massacres.

Statement of Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh

Today we are gathered to commemorate the anniversary of
India's brutal November 1994 massacres of Sikhs in which more
than 20,000 Sikhs were murdered by government-inspired mobs
in Delhi alone, and over 40,000 throughout India. As the Home
Minister at that time, Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha
Rao was intimately involved in that murderous operation. For
three days, the regime did nothing about the massacre while
the state television and radio cried for more Sikh blood. In
India there is no peace

[[Page E 2320]]
or freedom for Sikhs or other minority nations. The record of Indian
rule in our homeland, Punjah, Khalistan, is one of genocide
and tyranny by the country that presumes to call itself ``the
world's largest democracy.''
The Associated Press recently reported on the suit filed in
India's Supreme Court by Harpreet Singh, a Sikh man who was
illegally detained four years ago and listed as having been
killed in an ``encounter'' with the police. While we are glad
that his case came to light, it is not unusual. Sikhs
continue to be oppressed and butchered in supposedly free
India. India is a country which tortures, murders, abducts,
and rapes people. In India, ``disappearances'' are routine.
Recently, the Indian press reported that since 1990 over
25,000 young Sikh men had been abducted, tortured, and
murdered by the Indian regime. Then their bodies were listed
as unclaimed and cremated. The person who issued this report,
Jaswant Singh Khalra, general secretary of the Human Rights
Wing (Shiromani Akali Dal), was abducted by the Amritsar
police on September 6 and has not been seen since. The next
day, Amnesty International issued an ``Urgent Action''
bulletin calling for his release. They expressed the fear
that Mr. Khalra is being tortured. Indeed, according to Asia
Watch, ``virtually everyone detained in Punjab [Khalistan] is
tortured.''
A mass grave which held the remains of 400 Cambodians shook
the world, as it should have. Why is the mass cremation of
more than 25,000 innocent Sikhs in Punjab, Khalistan,
ignored?
On October 19, 65 members of the U.S. House of
Representatives from both parties and across the political
spectrum wrote to Mr. Rao demanding Mr. Khalra's release.
So far there has been no response. Mr. Khalra remains in
illegal detention.
According to a report issued by Human Rights Watch and
Physicians for Human Rights, one police officer told HRW/PHR
that ``over a five-year period, 500 people were killed by
police station alone.'' Another police is quoted as saying,
``During my five years with the Punjab Police, I estimate
4,000 to 5,000 were tortured at my police station alone,''
There are over 200 such police stations in Punjab, Khalistan.
A policy of summary executions in Punjab, Khalistan has the
blessings of some key officials at the Centre, as borne out
by a series of secret communications from Delhi. The pattern
of ``encounter killings'' is that ``the victim would be
detained during police raids on villages or city
neighborhoods and tortured for several days before being
killed. One police officer said: `During my career with the
Punjab police, I participated in approximately five raids per
day.''' Three types of Sikhs are targeted for torture and
death by the police: (1) Amritdari Sikhs, (2) young Sikh men
and (3) political asylum returnees.
The U.S. State Department reports that from 1991 through
1993, the Indian regime paid more than 41,000 cash bounties
to police officers for killing Sikhs. In November 1994, the
Indian newspaper Hitavada reported that the late governor of
Punjab, Surendra Nath, was paid $1.5 billion to organize and
support covert state terrorism in Punjab, Khalistan, and in
neighboring Kashmir. Seventy-five percent of Punjab's water
has been diverted to nonriparian states. India is a police
state, not a democracy at all.
It takes more than elections to make a democracy. I would
remind you that Adolf Hitler was democratically elected. For
Sikhs, Kashmiri Muslims, Christians in Nagaland, Assamese,
and the tribal people of Manipur, no matter who wins the
elections, the bloody repression continues. The Indian regime
has killed over 120,000 Sikhs since 1984, over 43,000
Kashmiris since 1988 and over 200,000 Christians in Nagaland
since 1947. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in
Assam, Manipur, and other tribal areas since independence.
Dalits (``black untouchables'') have died by the thousands.
Recently a Dalit girl was blinded by her teacher for the
sin of drinking from the water pitcher. A few years ago, a
Dalit constable was stoned to death when he sought shelter in
a temple on a rainy day. In the state of Madhya Pradesh in
late February, a 40-year-old nun was pulled from a bus in the
town of Indore and stabbed 36 times by a Hindu militant.
These are not the acts of a democratic nation. The U.N.
Charter, to which India is a party, calls on nations ``to
practice tolerance and live together in peace with one
another as good neighbors.'' Where is the tolerance in these
Indian policies?
The historical record shows that 85 percent of those hanged
in the cause of India's independence were Sikhs. Eighty (80)
percent of those exiled and 75 percent of those jailed
were Sikhs as well, despite the fact that the Sikhs at
that time constituted less than 2 percent of India's
population.
In 1947, when India achieved independence, three nations
were to receive power. The Hindus got India, the Muslims got
Pakistan, and the Sikh nation was to receive a state of our
own. But the Sikh leadership at the time made the critical
mistake of taking our share with India on the solemn promises
of Gandhi and Nehru that Sikhs would enjoy ``the glow of
freedom'' in Punjab and that no law affecting Sikh rights
would be passed without Sikh consent. As soon as the
constitution was adopted, those promises were broken and the
repression of our people began. As a result, no Sikh has ever
signed the Indian constitution.
Nine times the Indian regime has imposed Presidential
rule--direct rule by the central government--on the Sikhs of
Punjab. Kashmir and Nagaland currently suffer under
Presidential rule. Many other states have suffered the same
fate. Rule from the Center is imposed in utter disregard of
democratic principles.
Perhaps the greatest offense of all, however, was the
Indian regime's brutal terrorist attack on the most holy Sikh
shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar and 38 other Sikh
temples throughout Punjab, in June 1984. This is the
equivalent of attacking the Vatican or Mecca. These brutal
attacks ultimately resulted in the murder of 20,000 Sikhs by
the government, including important Sikh leaders like Sant
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a major spokesman for Sikh
freedom. The attack took place from June 3 through 6, 1984.
15,000 troops of the Indian army took part in this surprise
attack, called Operation Bluestar. These attacks were timed
to fall on a holy day for the Sikh nation. Many innocent,
unarmed men, and women and children, who had come only to
pray on the anniversary of the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev
Ji, were instead gunned down in the very temples in which
they sought peace and solace.
In the face of this repression, the Sikh nation declared
its independence on October 7, 1987, forming the separate
country of Khalistan. Although our movement to liberate
Khalistan is peaceful, democratic, and nonviolent, the brutal
Indian regime insists upon treating all Sikhs as
``terrorists.'' The cases of Harpreet Singh and Jaswant Singh
Khalra clearly emanate from that policy. This past September
19, U.S. Representative Philip M. Crane, one of the senior
Members of Congress, called upon the Indian regime to
recognize the independence of Khalistan. It is time for the
United Nations to do the same.
The Sikh nation showed its support for independence in
February 1992, when only four (4) percent of the Sikh
population in Punjab, Khalistan, voted in the elections
there, held under the Indian constitution, a constitution
which no Sikh has ever signed.
In December, Sikh leader Simranjit Singh Mann spoke to a
crowd of 50,000 Sikhs and called for a peaceful, democratic,
nonviolent movement to liberate Khalistan. He asked his
audience to raise their hands if they agreed. All 50,000
hands were raised. For this blatant act of free speech, he
was arrested in January and kept in illegal detention for six
months. He continues to face charges under the repressive
``Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act'' (TADA), which has
expired. Old charges against Mr. Mann which has been
dismissed were reinstated in order to frighten him into
silence. Our demand for freedom is irrevocable, irreversible,
and non- negotiable.
India is not one nation. It is a conglomeration of many
nations thrown together for administrative purposes by the
British. With 18 official languages, India is doomed to
disintegrate just as the former Soviet Union did.
Freedom for Khalistan and all the nations living under
Indian occupation is inevitable. It is time for India to
recognize the inevitable and end its illegal occupation of
Khalistan and the other minority nations it occupies. India
must recognize Khalistan's independence, as Congressman Crane
said. It is time for the United Nations to stop dignifying
bloodthirsty tyrants like Mr. Rao. It is time for the U.N. to
speak out for the ideals of its charter by working to
liberate Khalistan and all the nations of the Indian
subcontinent.
Freedom is the universal birthright of all people and
nations. It is this universal right that the Sikh nation
claims for itself. The only way that right can be preserved
is in a sovereign, independent Khalistan. India must
recognize reality and free Khalistan now. The Sikh nation
will be free. KHALISTAN ZINDABAD.

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