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Worldwide Day Of Protest


JagtarSinghKhalsa
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Vaheguroooo jeee kaaa khalsaaa, vahegurooo jeee keeee fateeeeeh!

I have just purchased todays yorkshire evening post and the following article appeared in it:

vigil2.jpg

Hopefully the GOI will see these pics and articles and come to their senses and release the innocent detainees and stop the inhuman torture and human rights abuses.

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Earlier from the Yorkshire Evening Post

Sikhs hold candlelit vigil

14 January 2006

ANTI-death penalty protesters in Leeds will tomorrow join a worldwide candlelit vigil against capital punishment.

The Leeds vigil, in Briggate, is being led by the Sikh community in memory of human rights lawyer Davinderpal Singh.

In 1995, Prof Singh was executed in India after being convicted of taking part in a bomb attack on a politician in New Delhi.

Prof Singh’s supporters maintain he had nothing to do with the attack and that a confession was beaten out of him under threat of death.

He is regarded as a martyr within the Sikh faith.

Tomorrow, on the eleventh anniversary of the execution, Sikhs and non-Sikhs will demonstrate in over 100 major cities around the world.

Supported by human rights organisation Amnesty International, the protests are calling for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty.

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Rights panel for moratorium on death penalty

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 18

Apprehending that any move by the Government of India to hang Prof Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar, presently lodged in Tihar Jail at New Delhi, would leave a permanent scar on the minds of the Sikhs, the Punjab Rights Forum has appealed to the President, Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam to put a moratorium on death penalty in India.

The forum also felt that the forced eviction of Sikh families from Kashipur in Uttranchal was not only reminiscent of “ethnic cleansing of the Sikhs in 1947 and 1984,” but, was also a “direct attack” on Sikhs, which, could lead to a serious situation.

“We are disturbed by the role of the Congress government, which, has held back the proposal of the President to review all cases of death penalty pending before the government.

Prof. Davinder Pal Singh, was sentenced on the basis of a confession, extracted under police duress. Moreover, his death sentence has been confirmed by the Supreme court through a 2-1 split judgement. Hanging a person on the basis of a split judgement, wherein, the presiding judge has held the person totally innocent, is unprecedented in the annals of criminal jurisprudence, not only in India, but, across the world,” said a memorandum, which was handed over to the Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner for submission to the President by a delegation led by Sukhwinder Singh Khalsa, Jagjit Singh Gaba, Satnam Singh Sandhu, and Manjit Singh Reru yesterday.

The forum office-bearers observed that the only way out of the piquant situation was to abolish death penalty from the statute book. “In case, such a decision takes some time, there should be a moratorium on death penalty as is practiced by more than 20 African countries, which, are less developed than India, but, have higher crime figures than prevailing in India,” said Mr. Khalsa.

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wjkk wjkf

Slough vigil had a dissapointing turn out, about 30 ppl in total 90% all youth . Well done to everyone who attend. And to the 10,000 or so Sikhs in tiny slough who didnt please make an effort to come to these events next time. Nice to see such a wicked turn in out in other UK locations.

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Slough protest on radio (30 seconds after about four and a half minutes)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/realmedia/bulletins.ram

I heard about 40 Sikhs turned up and some non-Sikhs joined in, but good media coverage (local press) and a number of Sikh councillors also attended. Must have raised awareness, but agree Slough Sikhs should do much better. Also at least not as bad as Sikhs in Southall, Hounslow etc. who probably did nothing.

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Last night's candle light vigils in Slough, Den Haag & Brussels

Sadh Sangat Jio,

Vahiguru Ji Ka Khalsa Vahiguru Ji Ki Fateh

I joined the Sikhs of Slough last night outside the Queensmere shopping centre, where about 25 people of all ages (and some bibia as well) were present at the Candle Light Vigil. We were interviewed by BBC Radio Berkshire, and by the Slough Observer, which also sent a photographer.

The only snag was that the High Street in Slough is not exactly the busiest place on earth between 5 and 7 pm !

Sikhs in Den Haag (the Netherlands) had a group of roughly similar size (from a much smaller community) demonstrating on the Binnenhof which is a square in the Dutch houses of parliament complex.

In Brussels more than 150 Sikhs were present outside the European parliament. If people present in Brussels read this e-mail, please let us have some more details from your vigil.

Gurfateh,

Harjinder Singh

Heston UK

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Some pictures from Canadian protests are online at

http://www.sikhstudents.ca/2006/01/18/protest-a-success/

To quote (but do visit the URL) from that post:

"We extend a very warm thanks;

It rained, hailed and at times became very windy, all of this combined did not have enough strength to break the courage of the individuals in Ontario who wanted to make a difference in the fight against abolishing the death penalty. All of the 8 Ontario protests faced harsh weather conditions; however, this did not stop the determined and passionate individuals. I would like to formally thank all of the individuals that participated and supported the fight against abolishing the death penalty and for the release of the innocent Professor Davinderpal Singh Bhullar.  We would like to mark the outstanding efforts of protest organizers at each city locations, with their hard work and dedication we were able to make this event a national success. Outlining the importance of freeing innocent individuals is a battle that cannot stop here; these protests marked the beginning of a battle to free the innocent and to abolish barbaric torture and death penalty practices across the world.  We thank the Sikh Federation (UK) for provoking thought and inspiring young individuals all across the world. We would like to thank the affiliate Sikh Student Associations; U of T (Mississauga), Ryerson University, York University, University of Toronto, University of Western Ontario, University of Waterloo, University of Guelph, University of Ottawa, University of Queens, University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University for their hard work in organizing the protests for their respective communities in Canada.  We would like to encourage everyone to join the petition campaign below to strengthen our battle against freeing an innocent man and abolishing the death penalty.

http://www.petitiononline.com/shrg01/petition.html

We would like to thank:

Erindale Campus Students Union, Students Admin Council U of T, United Sikh Federation, Sikh Federation (UK), Amnesty Intl, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, and other organizations who we have supported us from day one.

Sincerely,

Jasdev Singh

Canadian Organization of Sikh Students "

Despite the conditions they turned up - that is the Sikh Spirit.

For those who didn't or couldn't - maybe next time?

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Great work by COSS and the Sadh Sangat in Ontario and other parts of Canada. The Sikh Federation (UK) are indebted to you for taking the lead in the candle lit vigils. We look forward to working with you in the coming years on issues and campaigns. It is hoped we can develop a network of Young Sikh activists across the globe that will the leaders of tomorrow.

We must get COSS and Young Sikhs (UK) to liaise, network and arrange exchanges.

Once again a big thank you to you all.

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This was in the Leics Merc this morning.

CANDLELIT VIGIL MARKS DAY OF PROTEST OVER DEATH PENALTY

10:30 - 19 January 2006

People gathered at a candlelit vigil to call for an end to the death penalty around the world.

The two-hour event, held on Tuesday night beneath Leicester's Clocktower, was organised by the Leicester branch of the Sikh Federation, a UK political party.

It joined with other Sikh organisations to hold a day of protest in cities in Britain and across the world.

The group is calling for the release of political prisoners in India and an end to torture and the death penalty worldwide.

The vigil was held 11 years to the day after Davinderpal Singh Bhullar, a political activist living in Germany, was deported to India where, it is claimed, he was tortured and sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit.

The events were supported by global anti-death penalty groups Amnesty International and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

Gurjeet Singh Samara, an executive member of the Leicester branch of the Sikh Federation, said: "We are against the death penalty taking place in India and any other country. There have been executions of people who were later found to be innocent."

Randeep Singh, 21, from Stoneygate, said: "I'm here to remember all those people who are detained and facing the death penalty in India.

"It is important that we abolish this practice all over the world and I'm glad that tonight people have come together in support of the issue."

Balbir Singh, 42, from Humberstone Gate, said: "This is important because there are people all over the world being tortured. It needs to be stopped."

Non-Sikhs were also encouraged to take part in the event.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork/news/

Sikh vigil for release for political prisoners

Tuesday 17th January, 2006, 09:30 GMT

Sikh groups are to hold candle lit vigils this evening across Britain and the rest of  the world urging the Indian Government to release Sikhs who they say are political  prisoners . They are also calling for an end to the death penalty in India. The Indian High Commission in London told the Asian Network that the death penalty is only imposed in rare cases and they deny there are any political prisoners.

Have your say by going on the web site . . . 

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www.newsmax.com

India: Allies or Instigators?

Tim Phares

Wednesday, March 27, 2002

Trouble is brewing again in South Asia, as India and Pakistan move troops to their border. The recent violence in Gujarat, in which over 540 people have been killed, has merely heightened tensions.

It follows an attack by Muslims on a train full of Hindu activists headed for Ayodhya, where the BJP government in India is seeking to build a Hindu temple on the site where the most revered mosque in India was destroyed by Hindu militants a few years ago. It was reported that the passengers were taunting the Muslims by chanting slogans about rebuilding the temple.

Unfortunately, India, which proclaims itself "the world’s largest democracy," has made moves that undermine America’s war on terrorism. Indian military maneuvers have forced Pakistan to divert troops from the border with Afghanistan to the Line of Control in Kashmir, creating a potential opening for terrorists to escape.

On January 2, Tony Blankley wrote in the Washington Times that India is sponsoring cross-border terrorism in the Pakistani province of Sindh.

Journalist Tavleen Singh has reported in India’s leading newsmagazine, India Today, that the Indian government created the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which the U.S. government has identified as a "terrorist organization."

According to Internet journalist Justin Raimondo, the Indian Defense Minister, George Fernandes, raised money and arms for the LTTE.

Pakistan and minorities within India’s borders charge that India is seeking hegemony in the South Asian subcontinent. Certainly its deployment of new missiles that can reach deep into Pakistan and its tests that began the nuclear escalation in the region suggest that this may be true.

While India blames Pakistan for the attack on its Parliament, President Pervez Musharraf says he has evidence that the Indian government itself was responsible. No Indian soldiers were killed, just guards, workers, and other lower-caste people.

The book "Soft Target," written by Canadian journalists Brian McAndrew of the Toronto Star and Zuhair Kashmeri of the Toronto Globe and Mail, shows that India blew up its own airliner in 1985, killing 329 people, apparently in order to blame Sikhs for the atrocity and create a pretext for more violence against them.

It shows that the Indian Consul General in Toronto pulled his daughter off the flight shortly before it was due to depart. An auto dealer who was a friend of the Consul General also cancelled his reservation at the last minute. Surinder Singh, director of North American Affairs for the External Affairs office in New Delhi, also cancelled his reservation on that flight.

The Consul General also called to finger a suspect in the case before the public knew that the bombing had taken place. The book quotes an agent of the Canadian State Investigative Service (CSIS) as saying, "If you really want to clear the incidents quickly, take vans down to the Indian High Commission and the consulates in Toronto and Vancouver, load up everybody and take them down for questioning. We know it and they know it that they are involved."

India has a long record of anti-Americanism. On May 18, 1999, the Indian Express reported that Mr. Fernandes, the Defense Minister, organized and led a meeting with the ambassadors from Red China, Cuba, Russia, Yugoslavia, Libya, and Iraq to discuss setting up a security alliance "to stop the U.S."

India votes against the United States at the United Nations more often than any country except Cuba. It had a long-term friendship with the former Soviet Union and supported its invasion of Afghanistan.

India’s implicit support for terrorist activity is consistent with its internal behavior. It has a record of repression of minorities that undermines its proclamation of democratic values.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads a 23-party coalition, is a branch of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), an organization founded in 1925 in support of the Fascists.

The governing ideology of the BJP and all the branches of the RSS is Hindutva, the subjugation of society, politics, and culture to Hinduism. Last year, a cabinet member said that everyone living in India must either be a Hindu or be subservient to Hinduism. And in New York in 2000, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said, "I will always be a Swayamsewak." This is the ideology behind the attacks on Christians, Sikhs, Muslims, and other minorities.

The target of choice these days seems to be Christians. Human-rights organizations report that more than 200,000 Christians in Nagaland have been killed by the Indian government.

On February 17, the Associated Press reported an attack on a Catholic church on the outskirts of Bangalore in which several people were injured. The assailants threw stones at the church, then broke in, breaking furniture and smashing windows before attacking worshippers. The February 25 issue of the Washington Times reported another church attack in which 20 people were wounded.

In February, two church workers and a teenage boy were shot at while they prayed. The boy was injured. Two Christian missionaries were beaten with iron rods while they rode their bicycles home. A Christian cemetery in Port Blair was vandalized.

These attacks continue a pattern of oppression of Christians that has been going on since Christmas 1998. Since then, members of the RSS have murdered priests, raped nuns, burned churches, and committed other atrocities with impunity.

The RSS published a booklet last year detailing how to file false criminal cases against Christians and other religious minorities. The RSS objects to the presence of missionaries in India.

The missionaries are having a good deal of success in converting members of the lower castes, especially Dalits, also known as "Untouchables." This removes the lower-caste people from the stratification of the caste system, which is essential to the Hindu religion and social structure.

RSS activists also burned a missionary and his two sons to death while they slept in their jeep. They surrounded the jeep and chanted "Victory to Hannuman," a Hindu god. Now the Indian authorities have found a single individual to blame and they are moving to throw the missionary’s widow out of the country. In 1997, Indian police broke up a Christian religious festival with gunfire.

In 1994, the U.S. State Department reported that the Indian government paid out over 41,000 cash bounties to police officers for killing members of the Sikh minority. In the same year, the Indian newspaper Hitavada reported that the Indian government paid the late governor of Punjab, Surendra Nath, the equivalent of $1.5 billion to foment terrorist activity in Punjab and in Kashmir.

According to the book "The Politics of Genocide," over 250,000 Sikhs have been killed by the Indian government’s forces. According to human-rights groups, Indian forces have killed over 75,000 Muslims in Kashmir and thousands of other minorities, including Dalit "untouchables," Tamils, and other groups.

A report issued last year by the Movement Against State Repression (MASR) showed that India admitted to holding 52,268 political prisoners. Amnesty International reports that tens of thousands of other minorities are also being held as political prisoners.

These prisoners continue to be held under a law called the "Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act" (TADA), which expired in 1995. It empowered the government to hold people virtually indefinitely for any offense or for no offense at all.

According to many reports, some of these political prisoners have been in custody for almost two decades. Amnesty International reported last year that tens of thousands of minorities are being held as political prisoners. On February 28, 42 Members of the U.S. Congress wrote to President Bush asking him to work for freedom for these political prisoners.

MASR also co-sponsored with the Punjab Human Rights Organization an investigation of the March 2000 massacre of 35 Sikhs in Chithisinghpora. It concluded that Indian forces carried out the massacre. A separate investigation conducted by the International Human Rights Organization came to the same conclusion.

As Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Cal., said on the floor of Congress on August 2, 1999, "for the people in Kashmir and Punjab and Jammu, India might as well be Nazi Germany."

In the words of Narinder Singh, a spokesman for the Golden Temple, the seat of the Sikh religion, who was interviewed in August 1997 by National Public Radio, "The Indian government, all the time they boast that they are secular, that they are democratic. But they have nothing to do with a democracy, nothing to do with a secularism. They just kill Sikhs to please the majority."

In the March 4 issue of Forbes, Steve Forbes compared India to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, arguing that as a multinational state, India is inherently unstable. Prior to the British conquest of the subcontinent, there was no political entity called India. It was a series of princely states brought together by the British.

The Kashmiri people were promised a referendum on their status in 1948, but that vote has never been held. The Sikhs, who were supposed to receive independence, have never had any of their representatives sign the Indian constitution. Instead of respecting "the glow of freedom" that Nehru and Patel promised the Sikhs, the government declared them a "criminal class" as soon as the ink was dry on the constitution. Currently, 17 freedom movements are going on within India’s borders.

Some Members of Congress have called for sanctions against India and for an end to American aid. Some have also endorsed self-determination for the peoples seeking freedom from India through a plebiscite on independence.

While these events seem unlikely to occur any time soon, the Indian government has held negotiations with the freedom fighters in predominantly Christian Nagaland. Home Minister L.K. Advani recently admitted that if Kashmir achieves freedom (which now seems more likely than ever), it will cause India to break apart.

Some experts have predicted that within a decade, neither India nor Pakistan will exist in its current form. The Indian subcontinent will continue to be a region that bears close attention by American policymakers.

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Coventry vigil was disappionting only about 20 people

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i wouldn't worry about the numbers of ppl turning out, some places it wasn't even advertised..

but it's wicked to see that much of the Sikh community throughout the world united to campaign for the release of innocent persons

thats what you determination and commitment... :e:

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