Dal Khalsa Alliance USA Holds Seminar on Khalistan

Dal Khalsa Alliance USA Holds Seminar on Khalistan

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 20, 2006 - Dal Khalsa USA held a seminar on Khalistan in Fremont, California from August 25 to August 27. The seminar focused on the need to liberate Khalistan, the Sikh homeland, from Indian occupation. Khalistan is the Sikh homeland that declared its independence from India on October 7, 1987. Speakers included Dr. Gurmit Singh aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, Dr. Awatar Singh Sekhon, Managing Editor of the International Journal of Sikh Affairs, Dr. Ajit Pal Singh Sandhu, Colonel Arjinderpal Singh Sekhon (US Army Reserve), and others. The seminar was organized by Sardar Paramjit Singh Sekhon, President of Dal Khalsa USA, and Sardar Gagandeep Singh, General Secretary of Dal Khalsa USA.

The speakers addressed the need for the Sikh Nation to reclaim it lost sovereignty and escape from the oppression of the Indian government, which has murdered over 250,000 Sikh infants, children, youth, men, women, and elderly since 1984, as well as 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 Assamese, Bodos, Dalits, Manipuris, Tamils, and other minorities.

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. Khalra was murdered in police custody. His body was not given to his family. No one has been brought to justice for the kidnapping and murder of Jaswant Singh Khalra. The only witness to the Khalra kidnapping, Rajiv Singh Randhawa, has been repeatedly harassed by the police, including having been arrested for trying to hand a piece of paper to then-British Home Secretary Jack Straw. The police never released the body of former Jathedar of the Akal Takht Gurdev Singh Kaunke after SSP Swaran Singh Ghotna murdered him. He has never been tried for the Jathedar Kaunke murder. In 1994, the U.S. State Department reported that the Indian government had paid over 41,000 cash bounties for killing Sikhs. A report by the Movement Against State Repression (MASR) 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 Supreme Court called the Indian government's murders of Sikhs "worse than a genocide."

The MASR report states that 52,268 Sikhs are being held as political prisoners in India without charge or trial, mostly under a repressive law known as the "Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act" (TADA), which 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. Tens of thousands of other minorities are also being held as political prisoners, according to Amnesty International. Last year, 35 Sikhs were charged and arrested in Punjab for making speeches in support of Khalistan and raising the Khalistani flag. "How can making speeches and raising a flag be considered crimes in a democratic society?" asked Dr. Aulakh.

Missionary Graham Staines was murdered along with his two sons, ages 8 and 10, by a mob of militant, fundamentalist Hindu nationalists who set fire to the jeep, surrounded it, and chanted "Victory to Hannuman," a Hindu god. Missionary Joseph Cooper was beaten so badly that he had to spend a week in an Indian hospital. Then the Indian government threw him out of the country. None of the people involved has been tried. The persons who have murdered priests, raped nuns, and burned Christian churches have not been charged or tried. Police broke up a Christian religious festival with gunfire. Recently, militant Hindus from the Bharatiya Janata Yuva (a youth movement affiliated with the BJP and the Fascist RSS) attacked the Convent of Loreto and the school there. 13 Catholic schools remain closed and a spokesman for the BJP, Mr. H. Dikshit, demanded an investigation of the school!

The murderers of 2,000 to 5,000 Muslims in Gujarat have never been brought to trial. An Indian newspaper reported that the police were ordered not to get involved in that massacre, a frightening parallel to the Delhi massacre of Sikhs in 1984. The most important mosque in India, the Babri Mosque, was destroyed by militant Hindu fundamentalists who have never been held responsible for their actions.

"I am honored to be a speaker at this seminar and very pleased that Dal Khalsa USA is holding these activities to focus the attention of America and the world on the plight of the Sikhs in Punjab, Khalistan and the need for a sovereign, independent Khalistan," said Dr. Aulakh.

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. Currently, there are 17 freedom movements within India's borders. It has 18 official languages. "We hope that India's breakup will be peaceful like Czechoslovakia's, not violent like Yugoslavia's," Dr. Aulakh said.

Dr. Aulakh stressed his commitment to the peaceful, democratic, nonviolent struggle to liberate Khalistan. "The only way that the repression will stop and Sikhs will live in freedom, dignity, and prosperity is to liberate Khalistan," said Dr. Aulakh. "As Professor Darshan Singh, former Jathedar of the Akal Takht, said, 'If a Sikh is not a Khalistani, he is not a Sikh.'," Dr. Aulakh said. "We must free Khalistan now."

##30##

This material is circulated by the Council of Khalistan, which is registered with the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington, DC under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as an agent of the Council of Khalistan, Golden Temple, Amritsar, Punjab. The material is filed with the DOJ where the required registration is available for inspection. 
Registration does not indicate approval of the contents by the U.S. Government.

Parmjit Singh Sekhon (Dakha)

President

Dal Khalsa Alliance

510-774-5909