Washington Sikh Protest

[lsingh]

http://www.khalistan.com

Council of Khalistan

PRESS RELEASE

Contact B. Singh, Esq. 202-337-1904

(email khalistan@khalistan.com)

Sikhs Will Protest Indian Independence Day,

Monday August 15, 2005

What: Demonstration to protest Indian Independence Day celebration

When: Monday, August 15, 2005, 9:15 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Where: In front of Gandhi statue at Indian Embassy,

Q St. between Massachusetts Ave. and 21st St. NW, Washington, DC

Why: To commemorate the Sikhs and other minorities murdered by the Indian government since Indian independence, to demand the release of all political prisoners,

and to demand a sovereign, independent Khalistan.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 12, 2005 –Sikhs from around the East Coast will gather by the Gandhi statue at the Indian Embassy on Q St. between 21st St. and Massachusetts Ave. NW in Washington, DC on Monday, August 15, 2005, at 9:15 a.m. to protest the celebration of Indian Independence Day. Sometimes India moves the celebration to the Ambassador’s residence. If they do, the demonstration will move there. India has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 1984, according to figures compiled by the Punjab State Magistracy and human-rights groups and reported in the book The Politics of Genocide by Inderjeet Singh Jaijee. It has also killed over 89,000 Kashmiri Muslims since 1988, more than 300,000 Christians in Nagaland since 1947, and thousands of Christians and Muslims elsewhere in the country, as well as tens of thousands of Assamese, Bodos, Dalits (“Untouchables,” the dark-skinned aboriginal people of South Asia), Manipuris, Tamils, and other minorities. The Indian Supreme Court called the Indian government's murders of Sikhs "worse than a genocide."

According to a report by the Movement Against State Repression (MASR), 52,268 Sikhs are being held as political prisoners in India without charge or trial. Some have been in illegal custody since 1984! Amnesty International reported that tens of thousands of other minorities are also being held as political prisoners.

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, then their bodies were declared unidentified and secretly cremated. He was murdered in police custody. His body was not given to his family. The police never released the body of former Jathedar of the Akal Takht Gurdev Singh Kaunke after SSP Swaran Singh Ghotna murdered him. Ghotna has never been brought to trial for the Jathedar Kaunke murder. No one has been brought to justice for the kidnapping and murder of Jaswant Singh Khalra.

“Although Sikhs gave 80 percent of the sacrifices for India’s independence, India has massacred Sikhs since achieving independence,” said Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, which is leading the demonstration. On October 7, 1987, the Sikh Nation declared its independence from India, naming its new country Khalistan. “Only a sovereign, independent Khalistan will end the repression and lift the standard of living for the people of Punjab. We are here to demand freedom and self-determination, rather than the genocide that has been inflicted on us for so many years,” he said. “Democracies don’t commit genocide.”

History shows that multinational states such as India are doomed to failure. Countries like Austria-Hungary, India’s longtime friend the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and others prove this point. India is not one country; it is a polyglot like those countries, thrown together for the convenience of the British colonialists. It is doomed to break up as they did. Recently, the Punjab Legislative Assembly passed a bill annulling all water agreements with the Indian government, preventing the government’s daylight robbery of Punjab river water. Punjab needs its river water for its crops. In the bill, the Assembly explicitly stated the sovereignty of Punjab.

“As Professor Darshan Singh, a former Jathedar of the Akal Takht, said, ‘If a Sikh is not a Khalistani, he is not a Sikh’,” Dr. Aulakh noted. “We must continue to press for our God-given birthright of freedom,” he said. “Without political power, religions cannot flourish and nations perish. We must make our voices heard for our fellow Sikhs and all oppressed minorities in India.”

[japmans]

what ever happened to the one from a month ago... we heard that it was supposed to take place, but no pictures and no info weer ever put up...

[maltonak47]

the one a month ago went good... the pics were in the local newspapers..but i guess ottawa ppl ain't connected.. but ya it was pretty ill

[japmans]

hahaha way to get in an ottawa stab

[lsingh]

15th August Day of protest

Reuters

Thursday August 11, 10:58 PM

Sikh groups reject PM's apology for 1984 riots

By Indo Asian News Service

Chandigarh, Aug 11 (IANS) Sikh political and religious groups Thursday rejected the apology made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that left hundreds of Sikhs dead in New Delhi and elsewhere.

The Sikh groups - led by Shiromani Akali Dal - said the apology from the Sikh prime minister was unacceptable and inadequate.

The Punjab Rights Forum called a protest day Aug 15 against what it said was the ruling Congress party's 'anti-Sikh stand'.

It asked Sikh men to wear black turbans and women to adorn black 'dupattas' Aug 15 as a mark of protest. It also urged Sikhs not to celebrate Independence Day.

The groups demanded that the apology for the ghastly killing of innocent Sikhs - allegedly by Congress activists and leaders in the wake of the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards, should come from the Nehru-Gandhi family and particularly from Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Intervening in a discussion on the Nanavati Commission report on the riots in the Rajya Sabha, Manmohan Singh apologised to his Sikh community and the nation for the violence that some leaders of his Congress were accused of instigating.

'I have no hesitation in apologising not only to the Sikh community but to the nation because (the riots) negated the concept of nationhood,' he said. 'I bow my head in shame for what happened... but there are ebbs and tides in a nation's history.'

But an Akali Dal spokesman said the prime minister's apology was misplaced since he was not even a primary member of the Congress when the killings took place in 1984.

Others who rejected the prime minister's apology included the Dal Khalsa and the Akali Dal headed by radical leader Simranjit Singh Mann.

They said the Congress had been shielding its leaders who got hundreds of Sikhs killed in 1984 and had been part of a conspiracy against the community.

The organisations said that Sikhs would never forget atrocities against them even if they forgave the perpetrators of crimes against them.