Dr. Aulakh, 139 Others Removed From Indian Blacklist

Dr. Aulakh, 139 Others Removed From Indian Blacklist

Will Have No Effect on Effort to Liberate Khalistan

Beware of Secret Agenda

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 25, 2011 – The Indian government has removed Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, and 139 other Sikhs from their blacklist, which prevents their entry into India.  The Council of Khalistan is the government pro tempore of Khalistan, the Sikh homeland, which declared its independence from India on October 7, 1987.  The Council of Khalistan was formed at that time to lead the struggle to liberate Khalistan.  It is committed to the liberation of Khalistan by peaceful, nonviolent, democratic means.

“This will not make any difference to the movement to free Khalistan,” Dr. Aulakh said.  “I will be happy to go to Punjab to hoist the flag of a sovereign, independent Khalistan.  Only in a free Khalistan will the Sikh Nation prosper and get justice,” he said.  “But  there should not be  such a list.  How is it that a democracy maintains a list barring peaceful activists from the country?” he said.

Among those also removed from the list were Dr. Paramjit Singh Ajrawat, a doctor and pro-Khalsitan activist from Maryland, and U.S.-based Sikh activist Sardar Ganga Singh Dhillon.  Although Mr. Dhillon talks about Khalistan to American audiences and sometimes wears a saffron turban in public, he and Dr. Sohan Singh told the magazine Fateh Nama, printed in Amritsar, that they have never asked for Khalistan.  The book Chakravyuh: Web of Indian Secularism includes correspondence from Indian intelligence saying that Dhillon and others, including Didar Singh Bains and Dr. Jagjit Singh Chohan, had pledged to help suppress the Sikh freedom movement in North America after the 1984 attack on the Golden Temple.

Dr. Aulakh warned that there might be a hidden agenda in the government's action.  “They could be sending a signal that there is no Khalistan struggle anymore, to discourage Sikhs from supporting the cause,” he warned.  Dr. Aulakh noted that the Indian government started the militancy themselves to terrorize the population and give the cause of Sikh freedom a bad name.  Police would pose as militants, demand food and money, and rape Sikh women, then the next day the police would come back, charge the residents with “harboring militants”, and beat them.

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. 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.]” According to Sardar Mann, the Indian government has murdered over a million Sikhs since 1982.  This aligns with a threat made by the former Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Balram Jakhar, who said, "If we have to kill a million Sikhs to preserve our territorial integrity, so be it." India has also killed more than 300,000 Christians in Nagaland, over 100,000 Muslims in Kashmir, tens of thousands of other 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.”

“Khalistan’s freedom is nearer than ever,” said Dr. Aulakh.  “India is destined to fall apart soon.”  Last year, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) predicted that India will break up by 2015.  India is a multinational state thrown together by the British colonialists for their administrative convenience.   The breakup of India is inevitable.  On February 27 in Jalandhar, former Member of Parliament Sardar Atinder Pal Singh, President of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Khalistani), was arrested along with four other members of his party while putting up banners supporting Khalistan.  He was putting up the banners in preparation for a press conference about Khalistan.  Sardar Atinder Pal Singh was elected to Parliament in 1986 as an independent from Patiala.  In 2009, Sardar Daljit Singh Bittu, President of the Akali Dal (Panch Pardhani), was arrested for displaying pictures of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and speaking out in support of an independent Khalistan.  Two leading Sikh activists were arrested for peacefully protesting the construction of a statue to honor Beant Singh, the late Chief Minister who presided over the murder of tens of thousands of Sikhs.  A few years ago, 35 Sikh activists were arrested for making speeches and raising the flag of Khalistan.  Sedition charges were filed against 19 Sikh activists, including Dal Khalsa President Harcharanjit Singh Dhami.  Yet Dal Khalsa and other organizations had events to mark Khalistan Resolution Day on April 29, the anniversary of the 1986 resolution supporting an independent Khalistan.

“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. “Two other Jathedars, Bhai Ranjit Singh and Joginder Singh Vedanti, have taken the same position.  The Sikh Nation should listen to these Jathedars,” he said.  “It is time to liberate Khalistan.”