[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1275-E1276]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

SIKHS OBSERVE ANNIVERSARY OF GOLDEN TEMPLE ATTACK

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HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

of new york

in the house of representatives

Tuesday, July 16, 2002

Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to note
a historic occasion that is being observed this week. In addition to
our observance of D-Day, the day that Allied troops landed in Europe to
begin the attack on Nazi Germany, this week marks the anniversary of
India's military attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar and the brutal
massacre of 20,000 Sikhs in June 1984. Recently, Sikhs from the East
Coast gathered to commemorate this event in front of the Indian Embassy
here in Washington. Similar events have been held or will be held in
New York, London, and many other cities.
The Golden Temple attack was an attack on the seat of the Sikh
religion. It forever put the lie to India's claim that it is secular
and democratic. How can a democratic state launch a military attack on
religious pilgrims gathered at the most sacred site of their religion?
The Indian troops shot bullet holes through the Sikh holy scriptures,
the Guru Granth Sahib, and took boys as young as eight years old out in
the courtyard and shot them in cold blood. This set off a wave of
repression against Sikhs that continues to this day.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to put the flyer from that event into the
Record now. It contains a lot of important information about the Golden
Temple attack that shows the tyranny just under the facade of Indian
democracy.

Khalistan Martyrs Day, June 1, 2002

PROTESTING INDIAN GOVERNMENT DESECRATION OF THE GOLDEN TEMPLE AND
MASSACRE OF SIKHS

Sikhs Demand Freedom for Sikh Nation of Khalistan. Remember
the Victims of Indian Genocide. ``If the Indian government
attacks the Golden Temple, it will lay the foundation of
Khalistan.''--Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Sikh martyr
Indian government genocide against the Sikh nation
continues to this day. From June 3 to 6, 1984 the Indian
Government launched a military attack on the Golden Temple in
Amritsar, the holiest of Sikh shrines and seat of the Sikh
religion. This is the equivalent of attacking the Vatican or
Mecca. 38 other Gurdwaras throughout Punjab, Khalistan were
simultaneously attacked. More than 20,000 Sikhs were killed
in these attacks.
Desecration of the temple included shooting bullets into
the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy scripture, and
destroying original Hukam Namas written by hand by the ten
Sikh Gurus. Young Sikh boys ages 8 to 12 were taken outside
and asked if they supported Khalistan, the independent Sikh
homeland. When they responded ``Bole So Nihal,'' a religious
statement, they were shot to death in cold blood by the
brutal Indian troops.
The Golden Temple attack launched an ongoing campaign of
genocide against Sikhs by the Indian government that
continues to this day. Punjab, Khalistan, the Sikh homeland,
has been turned into a killing field. The Golden Temple
attack made it clear that there is no place for Sikhs in
India. ``The essence of democracy is the right to self-
determination.''--Former Senate Majority Leader George
Mitchell (D-Me.)
The Movement Against State Repression issued a report
showing that India is holding at least 52,268 Sikh political
prisoners, by their own admission, in illegal detention
without charge or trial. Some of them have been held since
1984. Many prisoners continue to be held under the
repressive, so-called ``Terrorist and Disruptive Activities
Act (TADA) even though it expired in 1995. According to the
report, in many cases, the police would file TADA cases
against the same individual in different states ``to make it
impossible for them to muster evidence in their favor.'' It
was also common practice for police to re-arrest TADA
prisoners who had been released, often without filing new
charges.
``In November 1994,'' the report states, ``42 employees of
the Pilibhit district jail and PAC were found guilty of
clubbing to death 6 Sikh prisoners and seriously wounding 22
others. They were TADA prisoners. Uttar Pradesh later
admitted the presence of around 5000 Sikh TADA prisoners.''
Over 50,000 Sikhs have been made to disappear since 1984.
Sikhs in Punjab, Khalistan formally declared independence
on October 7, 1987, to be achieved through the Sikh tradition
of Shantmai Morcha, or peaceful resistance. Sikhs ruled
Punjab from 1765 to 1849 and were to receive sovereignty at
the time that the British quit India.
``When it comes to Kashmir and Punjab and Jammu, the Indian
Government might as well not be a democracy. For people in
those areas, India might as well be Nazi Germany. ``--U.S.
Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-Cal)
Only a terrorist state could commit atrocities of such
magnitude.
While India seeks hegemony in South Asia, the atrocities
continue. India has openly tested nuclear weapons and
deployed them in Punjab, weapons that can be used in case of
nuclear war with Pakistan. These warheads put the lives of
Sikhs at risk for Hindu Nationalist hegemony over South Asia.
The Indian government is run by the BJP, the militant Hindu
nationalist party in India, and is unfriendly to the United
States. In May 1999, the Indian Express reported that Indian
Defense Minister George Fernandes led a meeting with
representatives from Cuba, Russia, China, Libya, Iraq, and
other countries to build a security alliance ``to stop the
U.S.''
In March 42 Members of the U.S. Congress from both parties
wrote to President Bush asking him to help free tens of
thousands of political prisoners.
India voted with Cuba, China, and other repressive states
to kill a U.S. resolution against human-rights violations in
China.
India is a terrorist state. According to published reports
in India, the government planned the massacre in Gujarat
(which killed over 5,000 people) in advance and they ordered
the police to stand by and not to interfere to stop the
massacre. Last year, a group of Indian soldiers was caught
red-handed trying to set fire to a Gurdwara and some Sikh
homes in a village in Kashmir.
According to the Hitavada newspaper, India paid the late
Governor of Punjab, Surendra Nath, $1.5 billion to organize
and support covert state terrorism in Punjab and Kashmir.

Continuing Repression Against Sikhs

``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

[[Page E1276]]

please the majority.'' Narinder Singh, a spokesman for the
Golden Temple, Amritsar, Punjab, interviewed on National
Public Radio, July 11, 1997.
Since 1984, India has engaged in a campaign of ethnic
cleansing and murdered tens of thousands of Sikhs and
secretly cremated them. The Indian Supreme Court described
this campaign as ``worse than a genocide.''
The book Soft Target, written by two Canadian journalists,
proves that India blew up its own airliner in 1985 to blame
the Sikhs and justify more genocide. The Indian government
paid over 41,000 cash bounties to police officers for killing
Sikhs, according to the U.S. State Department.
Indian police tortured and murdered the religious leader of
the Sikhs, Gurdev Singh Kaunke, Jathedar of the Akal Takht.
No one has been punished for this atrocity and the Punjab
government refused to release its own commission's report on
the Kaunke murder.
Human-rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra was kidnapped by
the police on September 6, 1995, and murdered in police
custody. His body was not given to his family. Rajiv Singh
Randhawa, the only eyewitness to the police kidnapping of
Jaswant Singh Khalra, was arrested in front of the Golden
Temple in Amritsar Sikhism's holiest shrine, while delivering
a petition to the British Home Minister asking Britain to
intervene for human rights in Punjab.
In March 2000, 35 Sikhs were massacred in Chithisinghpora
in Kashmir by the Indian government.

A Wave of Repression Against Christians

Since Christmas 1998, India has carried out a campaign of
repression against Christians in which churches have been
burned, priests have been murdered, nuns have been raped, and
schools and prayer halls have been attacked. On January 17,
2001, Christian leaders in India thanked Sikhs for saving
them from Indian government persecution. Members of the
Bajrang Dal, part of the pro-Fascist Rashtriya Swayamsewak
Sangh (RSS), the parent organization of the ruling BJP,
burned missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons, ages
8 and 10, to death while they slept in their jeep. The RSS
published a booklet last year on how to implicate Christians
and other minorities in false criminal cases.
Democracies don't commit genocide. Support self-
determination for the people of Khalistan.

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