Sikhs Can Never Forget Golden Temple Attack

Date: 06 Jun 2008

Comment:

Sikhs Can Never Forget Golden Temple Attack
                                                                            Dr.Gurmit Singh Aulakh
 
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 2, 2008 – This week marks the anniversary of India's brutal military attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the center and seat of the Sikh religion.  According to Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, Sikhs must never forget that attack.  

 
During the Golden Temple attack, young boys ages 8 to 13 were taken outside and asked if they supported Khalistan, the independent Sikh country.  When they answered with the Sikh religious incantation "Bole So Nihal," they were shot to death. The Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy scriptures, written in the time of the Sikh Gurus, were shot full of bullet holes and burned by the Indian forces.  

The Golden Temple attack was a brutal chapter in India's repression of the Sikhs, according to Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, the government pro tempore of Khalistan, which leads the struggle for Khalistan's independence. . "Sikhs cannot forgive or forget this atrocity against the seat of our religion by the Indian government, said Dr. Aulakh "This brutal attack clarified that there is no place in India for Sikhs," he said. On October 7, 1987, the Sikh Nation declared its independence from India, naming its new country Khalistan. 

"Sant Bhindranwale said that attacking the Golden Temple would lay the foundation stone of Khalistan, and he was right," said Dr. Aulakh. "Instead of crushing the Sikh movement for Khalistan, as India intended, the attack strengthened it," he said. "The flame of freedom still burns bright in the hearts of Sikhs despite the deployment of over half a million Indian troops to crush it," he said. "Now that Jathedar Sri Singh Sahib Joginder Singh Vedanti has publicly come out for Khalistan, we are gaining even more momentum," he said.  "The recent seminar in Union City, California moves the cause forward also," he added.  "Self-determination is the essence of democracy and the key to maintaining our religion, language, culture, and heritage.  Remember the words of former Jathedar Professor Darshan Singh: 'If a Sikh is not a Khalistani, he is not a Sikh'"

 A report issued by the Movement Against State Repression (MASR) shows that India admitted that it held 52,268 political prisoners under the repressive "Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act" (TADA) even though it expired in 1995. Many have been in illegal custody since 1984. There has been no list published of those who were acquitted under TADA and those who are still rotting in Indian jails. Additionally, according to Amnesty International, there are tens of thousands of other minorities being held as political prisoners. 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 government has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 1984, 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 Tamils, Assamese, Manipuris, , and others. The Indian Supreme Court called the Indian government's murders of Sikhs "worse than a genocide."

In the introduction to former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's book, The Mighty and the Almighty, former U.S. President Bill Clinton writes that "Hindu militants" are responsible for the massacre of Sikhs at Chithisinghpora in March 2000.  This reflects previous findings by the Punjab Human Rights Organization, the International Human Rights Organization, the Movement Against State Repression, and New York Times reporter Barry Bearak. President Clinton writes, "During my visit to India in 2000, some Hindu militants decided to vent their outrage by murdering 38 Sikhs in cold blood. If I hadn't made the trip, the victims would probably still be alive." 

"Only in a free Khalistan will the Sikh Nation prosper and get justice," said Dr. Aulakh. "When Khalistan is free, we will have our own Ambassadors, our own representation in the UN and other international bodies, and our own leaders to keep this sort of thing from happening.  We won't be at the mercy of the brutal Indian regime and its Hindu militant allies," he said.  "Democracies don't commit genocide.  India should act like a democracy and allow a plebiscite on independence for Khalistan and all the nations of South Asia," Dr. Aulakh said. "We must continue to pray for and work for our God-given birthright of freedom," he said. "Without political power, religions cannot flourish and nations perish."

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This press release is also available on our website, www.khalistan.com

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