Sikh "Militancy" Or Scaremongering

[dalsingh101]

Let's not forget this, which is a first for England as far as I know:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/13/four-britons-arrested-indian-politician-murder-punjab

[singh211]

i'm speculating that these recent reports may be linked to the review of the blacklist of sikhs which the punjab government has asked the indian home ministry to undertake with a view to taking some names off it. the indian reports that i recall reading suggested that the punjab police and intelligence agencies were not happy with this and i would not be surprised if these news stories are suddently being planted in the indian press at the behest of those agencies

[sall]

WJKK WJKF

“FEAR is an acronym in the English language for "False Evidence Appearing Real"”

We as Sikhs need to respect the fear these agencies are creating and find the change and bring it about as challange to it rather than react and retract from it .At present there is just this "fear" created for the Sikhs worldwide that Sikhism will fold up and finish and even our own are involved in this exercise. But they will fail as history is a lesson for us from our enemies of the past who said "ehh sikh taaa marayaaa vee nehhh mukdeeeee"!!!

[Pyara]

Excellent actions by the Canadian Sikhs (see article below). They are trying to do something proactively about the current global media "Sikh Character Assassination" programme. The rest of us need to follow suit, especially the Indian Sikhs.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/849697--sikh-image-tarnished-group-says?bn=1

Sikh image tarnished, group says

Amy Dempsey Staff Reporter

Tired of being portrayed as terrorists, radicals or extremists, a group of Canadian Sikhs have set out to improve their public image.

The community image is tarnished, said Manohar Singh Bal, spokesperson for a newly formed Toronto-based working group on the status of Sikhs.

We as a community need to look at all this and say, how can we make a new beginning?

At a news conference Wednesday, members of the group announced their plan to produce a report they say will highlight the contributions and experiences of Canadian Sikhs.

Bal said Canadian Sikhs have felt more discrimination in the past six months than over the last decade.

The group traces that surge to public upset surrounding the release of the Air India inquirys findings in June and other recent news events they feel have linked the Sikh community as a whole to extremism.

I noticed particularly around incidences that brought awareness about the Sikh community in a negative light that there would be comments made to me, said Jagmeet Singh Dhaliwal, a criminal defence lawyer and community activist who spoke at the news conference.

[sikhs] have a very visible identity with the turban and the beard. So it makes the community more vulnerable, Dhaliwal said.

Comments such as radical or extremist unqualified statements of that nature can be very inflammatory when you have a very visible minority.

Dhaliwal, 31, said he hopes the reports findings will help promote better understanding of the Sikh community.

Canadian Sikhs are a vibrant part of Canada and to understand any community you have to look at the struggles theyre facing, he said.

The working group will ask for input from Sikh people across Canada, religious and cultural organizations, government representatives and academics.

The report will examine the Air India inquirys impact, the way Sikhs are portrayed in the media, how human rights abuses in India have impacted those who live in Canada and the Canadian governments response to Sikh concerns.

The working group aims to release the report in 2013.

Satwinder Gosal, a Mississauga lawyer well connected to the Sikh community, says the media in particular is to blame.

Theres a general feeling that theres been a hatchet job done on the way the [sikh] community is being represented, he said.

Weve gone many steps backwards.

[dalsingh101]

Just reflecting on the situation further, I think that we may always have this whilst we (Sikhs) remain relatively powerless in economical and military terms. I say this because I notice that in the west, they seem to normally suppress their propaganda attacks on other nations who have power in these areas, like China for instance.

Whilst India's motivation for slander is obvious, I'd still like to know why western nations indulge in it. Is it to cement relationships with India? Curtail the independent minded Sikhs? Or is it the plain old 'othering' racist agenda?

I don't think much can be done in the UK to counter this. The media here most often gives a megaphone to some disgruntled element in the community so that they can echo the negative representation and give it more credence as it appears to be coming from 'within' the community.

[Pyara]

Whilst India's motivation for slander is obvious, I'd still like to know why western nations indulge in it. Is it to cement relationships with India? Curtail the independent minded Sikhs? Or is it the plain old 'othering' racist agenda?

All of the above..... There's no denying the racist agenda plays a part in the western media and attitudes of the wider western population. But the political Indian agenda is always there in strength and is still governed by the superior Brahmanical attitude. Regardless of our vast global diasporas and 3rd/4th generations in many western countries, Sikhs will always be seen by the Brahmanical raj as renegade NRI's that need to be put in their place.

What I don't understand is how the vast majority of us self labeled "jujharoos" can't still see this threat in the form of a Community Character Assisination. It's been going on for over 60 years and yet we still have no capability or gobal influence to counter it.

[dalsingh101]

What I don't understand is how the vast majority of us self labeled "jujharoos" can't still see this threat in the form of a Community Character Assisination. It's been going on for over 60 years and yet we still have no capability or gobal influence to counter it.

The answer to your question is a bitter truth that our people just don't want to face. So I'm not going to post it.

I think a really useful analogy to use visa vis the relationship between Sikhs and the 'institute of India' is one of an overbearing Indian mother and a child who exhibits an independent disposition. The mother in this scenario is a control freak and attempts to stifle, mold and beat the child into the placid form she prefers. The end result of this is that both the child and the mother become degraded in the process. The child on one hand resents the efforts made to control it so minutely whilst on the other hand some of its confidence is damaged from the experience.

Other people are desperate to have 'relationships' with this mother so they turn a blind eye to her barely concealed abuse. On top of that, some also harbor passive-aggressive type ill will towards the child, considering it an upstart, that needs putting in its place. They remember bloody conflicts they had with the young child and how the child nearly worsted them then and this informs their attitude in desiring to keep the child down. So they give tacit support to the mother's abuse, if only through silence.

But truth be told, even close friends of the child say that he/she can be very simple minded or too easily driven by emotion which often leads to rash and poorly considered actions. This leaves the child disposed to fall into traps that other more clever or less temperamental children would be able to dodge or see from far off. Whilst the mother continues to try and 'discipline' the child citing their close relationship as justification, the child is, these days, increasingly admonished for denying or severely underplaying any relationship it has with the mother.

Mom also has other unruly children too.

[Pyara]

At last a more truthful article from the Indian media...There has been "no official communication between the Malaysian and Punjab police forces", yet the rest of the Indian media keep reporting a load of twaddle!

http://sify.com/news/malaysian-police-seeks-clarification-from-punjab-police-on-sikh-militant-suspects-news-international-kiuqudicgab.html

Malaysian Police seeks clarification from Punjab Police on Sikh militant suspects

2010-08-20

Malaysian police has sought clarification from their counterparts in Punjab, India over accusations that the Indian Sikh militants are smuggling firearms into India from Malaysia.

"There had been no official communication between the Malaysian and Punjab police forces. We will be contacting the Indian High Commission here to get details of the issue and hope the Indian government will contact us soon," said Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan.

It was reported yesterday that Punjab police were investigating alleged Khalistan Liberation Front (KLF) terror operators in Malaysia based on evidence linking at least four militants in Malaysia, reports the News Straits Times.here are reports that suspected Sikh militants are hiding in Malaysia, and are allegedly involved in the smuggling of firearms and making plans to launch an attack in Punjab.

The Sikh Malay community, however, has reacted with to the allegations.

"The Sikh community here is peace-loving and does not condone militant acts. We do not want to be perceived as militants and dangerous," said Malaysian Punjabi Chambers of Commerce and Industries President Senator Datuk Daljit Singh Dalliwal. (ANI)

[Pyara]

Article in the Times of India using terminolgy like "Jihadists" and the use of drugs to create some hysteria towards Sikhs. Not the closing paragraph of this article:

Sociologist Sharma says the problem is that Punjabi youth are ripe to be misled. "Most youth in the state are desperate to settle abroad and there is an acute problem of drugs and unemployment at home...(so) one fears such people could be converted by jihadis."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/special-report/The-second-coming/articleshow/6389524.cms

The second coming?

Divya A, TNN, Aug 22, 2010, 12.46am IST

Jihad: (noun) a holy war undertaken as a sacred duty by Muslims; any vigorous, emotional crusade for an idea or principle — Online dictionary

Long before jihad became part of the world's vocabulary, India had suffered one and come out on the other side. For nearly two decades, till the mid-1990s, the Punjab militants' crusade for Khalistan ran its bloody course. Never again, prayed a weary nation, should Punjab — and the rest of India — have to suffer like this. But does any — or do all — of the following suggest we might be heading back to the future?

In late July, five suspected Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) militants were arrested. The BKI is one of the oldest and best organized Khalistani groups and is infamous for masterminding the Kanishka bombing of 1985 and the 1995 assassination of Punjab chief minister Beant Singh.

Pal Singh, a French national, was one of those arrested. Singh, whose age has been variously described as "54" and "in his seventies", was picked up from Dhandowal village in Jalandhar district. Police say Singh was in the area with the ostensible aim of teaching Gurbani, but it was a cover to recruit young people for a terrorist sleeper cell.

There are many Pal Singhs moving around Punjab's villages, according to intelligence sources. They have foreign connections and operate under the garb of "religious or social services". Sources allege that their real agenda is to "brainwash the jobless into taking up arms".

On the eve of the May 2009 Lok Sabha elections, posters of the dead separatist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale mysteriously came up around polling booths in the state. Since then, Bhindranwale posters are increasingly being seen on cars and buses and pamphlets with extremist propaganda are being circulated.

Harcharanjit Singh Dhami, president of Dal Khalsa in Amritsar, which aims to "establish a sovereign Sikh state, Khalistan, through peaceful means", says it is important to note that arms are increasingly being seized in the last year from scores of young men. "The guns may have fallen silent since 1995 but the Punjab problem will continue to resurface till it is not properly addressed," rages Dhami, adding that the Sikhs need to see justice done for the 1984 Sikh riots.

Punjab DGP P S Gill informed the home ministry on Tuesday that terrorists wanted in Punjab had set up base in Malaysia and were sending arms and explosives to Punjab, as well as men to carry out attacks. This comes soon after reports that the Khalistan Liberation Force has set up a base there. The police believes the illegal immigrants in Malaysia, particularly from Punjab, are KLF's target recruits.

It's a frightening thought, if you believe any or all of this. Intelligence reports say Sikh hardliners settled abroad are colluding with the ISI and Babbar Khalsa militants based in Pakistan and have now taken it upon themselves to provoke rural youths into committing themselves to the "cause of Sikhism". The brainwashed young men are encouraged to aim to achieve separatist goals through violent means, if necessary. In return, says a senior intelligence official, these young men are promised solid and sustained care for their families. They are also assured of support — financial as well as logistical — if they finish the tasks they are set and want to settle abroad. "The strategy is clear — with funds from hardline groups in the US and Europe and weapons and training from Pakistan, the Babbar Khalsa is planning to convert normal young Punjabis into extremists," says an official.

The plan, sources claim, is for many Pal Singhs to fan out across Punjab. But the Sikh Organization for Prisoner Welfare (SOPW), a registered charity operated by UK-based Sikhs, has denounced Pal Singh's "illegal abduction and detention" and describe him as a civil rights campaigner. SOPW has been lobbying with the French and Indian governments to secure Pal Singh's release. But police insist he provided a valuable tip-off within the week of his arrest, enabling them to recover a cache of explosives and ammunition from Jalandhar district. They say he has admitted to "close links" with dreaded Babbar Khalsa terrorists.

Sociologist Nirmal Sharma says: "Although the movement for Khalistan was comprehensively defeated in 1993, a handful of terrorist outfits chiefly supported by Pakistan and some non-resident Indian Sikh groups, such as the Babbar Khalsa International, continue to propagate the ideology of Khalistan."

But exactly how vulnerable is the young Punjabi? And why is he vulnerable at all, 15 years after the militancy ended and Punjab was seen to turn the corner?

Parmar Singh may be a good place to start on the story of why India's breadbasket may be about to repeat its tragic history. He is 24 and belongs to Ramdas village in Amritsar district, near the Indo-Pakistan border. He says his father, a farmer, "came under heavy debt in the last decade. We had to sell off our land to pay it off and sustain ourselves with what was left over. Today, I have no land to till, nor do I have a job. There are many boys in our village who have nothing much to do. Ours is a border village and there is a huge influx of drugs; many of my friends have become addicts."

Sharma says Parmar is describing a displacement that can be statistically tracked. "As per the state's last Economic Census, there are 14.72 lakh unemployed youth in the age group of 18-35. There are hardly any opportunities or social security schemes for the unemployed. The young Sikhs of Punjab may not relate to Bhindranwale and his ideology, but they are definitely feeling alienated in the aftermath of the 1984 riots and are put off with both the Central and the state governments for neither giving them justice nor jobs."

Many seem willing to allow their frustration to push them to desperate acts and often enough, these are meant to be their ticket to a glittering future overseas. Rattandeep Singh was arrested for planting a bomb in a car in Amritsar in May this year. His family was in Canada and he was keen to save money to immigrate. Harmohinder Singh, accused in the 2007 Ludhiana Shingar Cinema blast, had fled to Pakistan after the blasts, but returned recently to make "arrangements" for his family to immigrate to Canada.

Pal Singh. Parmar Singh. Rattandeep Singh. A lengthening roll-call but not everyone is willing to sound the alarm bells just yet. Pramod Kumar, director of Chandigarh's Institute for Development and Communication, prefers to call it "footloose terrorism" rather than a "revival" of Sikh separatism. "There is evidently increased terrorist activity in the state, but it would be better if we don't call it terrorism," Kumar cautions.

He may have a point. At present, the dominant discourse in the state is not terrorism but its very real problems — the plight of farmers, joblessness and water disputes. Kumar adds that insurgency cannot really take wing unless it has an academic blueprint and students and intellectuals are discussing it.

Interestingly, Kumar is one of the few to point up a key fear — that the police is happy to stoke rumours of a revivalist insurgency in a bid to get extra powers. "It's better for them to nip such a movement in the bud and control this footloose terrorism here and now than to term it as a revival," he says.

Former Punjab police chief K P S Gill, who played a key role in stamping out terrorism from Punjab, says that although there is "no significant pro-terrorist constituency" within the state, there is no reason to be complacent. "It's an open secret that efforts to fuel a revival have been constant on the part of ISI, exploiting the surviving rump of Khalistani groups in Pakistan as well as diaspora elements, principally in Europe, Canada and the US."

Sociologist Sharma says the problem is that Punjabi youth are ripe to be misled. "Most youth in the state are desperate to settle abroad and there is an acute problem of drugs and unemployment at home...(so) one fears such people could be converted by jihadis."

Read more: The second coming? - Special Report - Sunday TOI - Home - The Times of India <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/special-report/The-second-coming/articleshow/6389524.cms#ixzz0xRkKEq4l> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/special-report/The-second-coming/articleshow/6389524.cms#ixzz0xRkKEq4l

[Pyara]

This official communication issued by Punjab's Intelligence just seems to be an excuse for the lack of any real proof.

http://sify.com/news/punjab-s-new-worry-militants-not-using-mobiles-news-national-kiyp4dgfijc.html

Punjab's new worry - militants not using mobiles

2010-08-24 15:30:00

Chandigarh: Militants who are trying to re-group in Punjab have a new tactic to avoid capture - not using mobile phones, which, say security agencies, has become a 'major handicap' in tracking these terror elements.

A confidential communication from the office of Suresh Arora, Punjab's additional director general of police (intelligence), to top security officials has revealed that the state police and other security agencies are feeling a major handicap in nabbing militants trying to revive terrorism in the state.

The communication, which is in possession of IANS, reads: 'Further learnt that foreign-based activists are not using local cell (mobile) numbers. They are predominantly making use of PCOs (public call offices or STD phone booths) to contact their conduits.'

'Militants not using cell phones is emerging as a major handicap for security agencies, making it difficult to track the movement of foreign-based militants in Punjab,' it adds.

With hundreds of STD PCOs dotting villages, towns and cities across Punjab, given the state's big NRI population, Punjab Police officials say it is difficult to keep a tab on all of them.

'We can always track some suspect mobile phone numbers and listen to conversations. But when the militants and their conduits use PCOs, it becomes difficult to track them when they call up numbers in other countries,' a senior Punjab Police official told IANS here.

With mobile phone numbers giving away information about their activities, militants are now using local phones to call up their links in other countries as they try to regroup. Sikh militancy raised its head in Punjab in 1981, but was stamped out almost completely by 1995.

Punjab's Director General of Police P.S. Gill wrote to the Ministry of Home Affairs this month, pointing out that recent activities of militants trying to revive terrorism in the state indicated that Malaysia was being used as a new base by Sikh militants and their sympathisers.

At least two to three militants arrested recently in Punjab have used Malaysia as a transit or stay point, police officials say.

The input came following the arrest of some militants in recent months. Their interrogation revealed that militants are using their support base in Nepal, Malaysia, Pakistan, Germany and a few other countries to try to revive terrorism in Punjab.

'Though there is no question of mass support for the revival of militancy in Punjab, foreign-based militants are luring youth from Punjab by offering to get them settled in other countries if they join militant ranks,' the police official added.

In the last three months alone, Punjab Police have recovered over 30 kg of RDX and other explosives.

The explosives and arms and ammunition are being smuggled into the state from neighbouring Pakistan through the barbed wire-fenced border with that country in Punjab and Rajasthan.

Much of the support for militant elements in Punjab is coming from foreign-based militants in other countries.

Punjab Police are particularly monitoring the activities of militants based abroad owing their allegiance to terror outfits like Babbar Khalsa International, Khalistan Zindabad Force and Khalistan Commando Force.

The Punjab Police communication says: 'Trends clearly indicate that the Sikh militants are depending upon foreign-based contacts. After coming to Punjab, they coordinate with their local conduits for accommodation, conveyance, etc., to carry out nefarious designs.'