Mann, Badal Supporters Attack Each Other
Mann, Makkar Turbans Pulled Off

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 12, 2006 – Supporters of former Member of Parliament Simranjit Singh Mann and former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal attacked each other Monday after Mann’s speech was interrupted by jeers from the Badal side. The turbans Mr. Mann and Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee President Avtar Singh Makkar, a Badal supporter, were forcibly removed by supporters of the other side. This follows an incident last week in which the two sides argued with each other and a fight erupted.

Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, condemned both sides. “Both sides are making the Sikh Nation look bad,” he said. “Taking away a Sikh’s turban is seriously offensive to any Sikh,” he said. “It is one of the most fundamental insults that can be inflicted on a Sikh,” he said. He noted that neither Mann nor Badal had been a consistent fighter for Khalistan, the sovereign Sikh homeland that declared its independence from India in 1987. “The Council of Khalistan and some Sikhs in Punjab have been fighting hard for Khalistan for two decades, and all Mann and Badal’s people can find time to do is fight each other,” he said. “It is shameful that they don’t put their resources, time, and energy into something productive for the Sikh Nation such as liberating Khalistan from Indian occupation,” he said.

“The flame of freedom still burns bright in the hearts of Sikhs despite the deployment of over half a million Indian troops to crush it,” Dr. Aulakh said. “This is the most important issue facing the Sikh Nation: will we reclaim our basic sovereignty and freedom in an independent Khalistan or will we continue to live as slaves under India’s brutal repression.

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. Additionally, according to Amnesty International, there are tens of thousands of other minorities being held as political prisoners.

The 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.]” The Indian government has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 1984, 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 Tamils, Assamese, Manipuris, , and others. The Indian Supreme Court called the Indian government's murders of Sikhs "worse than a genocide.”

In the introduction to former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s new book, The Mighty and the Almighty, former U.S. President Bill Clinton writes that “Hindu militants” are responsible for the massacre of 38 Sikhs at Chithisinghpora in March 2000. This reflects previous findings by the Punjab Human Rights Organization, the International Human Rights Organization, the Movement Against State Repression, and New York Times reporter Barry Bearak. President Clinton writes, “During my visit to India in 2000, some Hindu militants decided to vent their outrage by murdering 38 Sikhs in cold blood. If I hadn’t made the trip, the victims would probably still be alive.”

“Only in a free Khalistan will the Sikh Nation prosper and get justice,” said Dr. Aulakh. “This is the only issue. We do not have time for Sikh leaders to get in physical fights with each other, which only serve to advance the negative image of Sikhs that India wants to portray to justify our repression,” he said. “This just perpetuates the image of the Sikhs that was laid out in the Patel memo shortly after independence as a ‘criminal class.’ It harms the Khalsa Panth and the freedom struggle,” he said.

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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.