Post by gigteam on Mar 17, 2005 13:26:55 GMT
Malik, Bagri Acquitted of All Charges in Air India Case
Justice Has Been Done Despite Pressure From Indian Regime
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 16, 2005 - Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib
Singh Bagri have been acquitted of all charges in the Air India
bombing case, in a major rebuke to the Indian regime. Malik and
Bagri were found not guilty today in the deaths of 329 people who
perished when Air India Flight 182 was brought down by a bomb on
June 23, 1985 in Canada's worst case of mass murder. Justice Ian
Josephson delivered the verdicts this afternoon, saying he didn't
believe many of the witnesses.
"Justice has been done for these Sikhs," said Dr. Gurmit Singh
Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, which leads the Sikh
struggle for independence. "Despite the effort of the Indian
government to blame these Sikhs for its own acts, they have been
found innocent. This is a major setback for the Hindustani regime,"
he said. Canadian Member of Parliament wrote in 1989 that the
Canadian government had spent $60 million on the case. "On behalf
of over 600,000 Sikhs in Canada and the 25 million Sikhs worldwide,
we would like to express our gratitude to Judge Josephson for doing
the right thing and not caving in to the pressure of the Indian
government," Dr. Aulakh said.
Air India flight 182 was blown up off Ireland in 1985. It was on
its way from Toronto to Bombay. It was supposed to be blown up at
the London airport when no passengers would be aboard, but due to
delays it blew up over Ireland. The book Soft Target by Canadian
journalists Zuhair Kashmeri of the Toronto Globe and Mail and Brian
McAndrew of the Toronto Star exposed India's responsibility for this
bombing. In the book, Kashmeri and McAndrew quoted a Canadian
Security Investigative Service (CSIS) investigator 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."
The book shows that within hours after the flight was blown up, the
Indian Consul General in Toronto, Surinder Malik (no relation to
Ripudaman Singh Malik), called in a detailed description of the
bombing and the names of those he said were involved, information
that the Canadian government didn't discover until weeks later. Mr.
Malik said to look on the passenger manifest for the name "L.
Singh." This would turn out to be Lal Singh, who told the press
that he was offered "two million dollars and settlement in a nice
country" by the Indian regime to give false testimony in the case.
In his book Betrayal: The Spy Canada Abandoned, Member of Parliament
David Kilgour wrote that Canadian-Polish double agent Ryszard
Paszkowski was approached to join a plot to carry out a second
bombing. The people who approached Paszkowski were connected to the
Indian government.
The main backer of the group that was supposedly behind the Air
India bombing had received a $2 million loan from the State Bank of
India just before the plane was attacked, according to Soft Target.
The year after the bombing, three Indian consuls general were asked
to leave the country. At the time of the bombing, the Congress
Party needed the Sikhs as scapegoats to win votes on a law-and-order
platform. The attack also served as justification for the
government to shed more Sikh blood.
The Indian government has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 1984,
more than 300,000 Christians since 1948, over 90,000 Muslims in
Kashmir since 1988, and tens of thousands of Tamils, Assamese,
Manipuris, Dalits, Bodos, and others. The Indian Supreme Court
called the Indian government's murders of Sikhs "worse than a
genocide." According to a report by the Movement Against State
Repression (MASR), 52,268 Sikhs and tens of thousands of other
minorities are being held as political prisoners in India without
charge or trial. Some have been in illegal custody since 1984! We
demand the immediate release of all these political prisoners.
The Sikh Nation declared its independence from India on October 7,
1987 and formed the Council of Khalistan at that time to lead the
struggle for independence. When India became independent, Sikhs
were equal partners in the transfer of power and were to receive
their own state, but the weak and ignorant Sikh leaders of the time
were tricked into staying with India on the promise that they would
have "the glow of freedom" and no law affecting the Sikhs would pass
without their consent. Sikhs ruled an independent and sovereign
Punjab from 1710 to 1716 and again from 1765 to 1849 and were
recognized by most of the countries of the world at that time.
Sikhs do not accept the Indian constitution. No Sikh representative
has ever signed it.
V.P. Singh, who was the Indian Consul General in Toronto when Soft
Target came out, was quoted in the June 22, 1989 issue of the
Washington Times, as saying that Sikhs who support Khalistan are
terrorists. The Council of Khalistan, which leads the Sikh struggle
to liberate Khalistan, openly repudiated militancy and has an 18-
year record of working to free Khalistan by peaceful, democratic,
nonviolent means.
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 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.
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. 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. 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.
India is not one country; it is a polyglot thrown together for the
convenience of the British colonialists. It is doomed to break up
as they did. Last year, the Punjab Legislative Assembly passed a
bill cancelling the government's daylight robbery of Punjab river
water. The Assembly explicitly stated the sovereignty of Punjab.
"The Indian regime stands exposed for the bloody tyranny that it
is," said Dr. Aulakh. "This verdict is a major setback to their
repressive drive for hegemony over all of South Asia," he
said. "This is a victory not only for the Sikh Nation, but for
freedom-loving people everywhere."
"I urge the international community to help us free Khalistan from
Indian occupation," Dr. Aulakh said. "Freedom is the birthright of
all people and nations," he said. "As Professor Darshan Singh, a
former Jathedar of the Akal Takht, said, `If a Sikh is not for
Khalistan, he is not a Sikh'," Dr. Aulakh noted. "We must continue
to press for freedom," he said. "Without political power, religions
cannot flourish and nations perish. A sovereign Khalistan is
essential for the survival of the Sikh religion and the Sikh
Nation."
Justice Has Been Done Despite Pressure From Indian Regime
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 16, 2005 - Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib
Singh Bagri have been acquitted of all charges in the Air India
bombing case, in a major rebuke to the Indian regime. Malik and
Bagri were found not guilty today in the deaths of 329 people who
perished when Air India Flight 182 was brought down by a bomb on
June 23, 1985 in Canada's worst case of mass murder. Justice Ian
Josephson delivered the verdicts this afternoon, saying he didn't
believe many of the witnesses.
"Justice has been done for these Sikhs," said Dr. Gurmit Singh
Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, which leads the Sikh
struggle for independence. "Despite the effort of the Indian
government to blame these Sikhs for its own acts, they have been
found innocent. This is a major setback for the Hindustani regime,"
he said. Canadian Member of Parliament wrote in 1989 that the
Canadian government had spent $60 million on the case. "On behalf
of over 600,000 Sikhs in Canada and the 25 million Sikhs worldwide,
we would like to express our gratitude to Judge Josephson for doing
the right thing and not caving in to the pressure of the Indian
government," Dr. Aulakh said.
Air India flight 182 was blown up off Ireland in 1985. It was on
its way from Toronto to Bombay. It was supposed to be blown up at
the London airport when no passengers would be aboard, but due to
delays it blew up over Ireland. The book Soft Target by Canadian
journalists Zuhair Kashmeri of the Toronto Globe and Mail and Brian
McAndrew of the Toronto Star exposed India's responsibility for this
bombing. In the book, Kashmeri and McAndrew quoted a Canadian
Security Investigative Service (CSIS) investigator 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."
The book shows that within hours after the flight was blown up, the
Indian Consul General in Toronto, Surinder Malik (no relation to
Ripudaman Singh Malik), called in a detailed description of the
bombing and the names of those he said were involved, information
that the Canadian government didn't discover until weeks later. Mr.
Malik said to look on the passenger manifest for the name "L.
Singh." This would turn out to be Lal Singh, who told the press
that he was offered "two million dollars and settlement in a nice
country" by the Indian regime to give false testimony in the case.
In his book Betrayal: The Spy Canada Abandoned, Member of Parliament
David Kilgour wrote that Canadian-Polish double agent Ryszard
Paszkowski was approached to join a plot to carry out a second
bombing. The people who approached Paszkowski were connected to the
Indian government.
The main backer of the group that was supposedly behind the Air
India bombing had received a $2 million loan from the State Bank of
India just before the plane was attacked, according to Soft Target.
The year after the bombing, three Indian consuls general were asked
to leave the country. At the time of the bombing, the Congress
Party needed the Sikhs as scapegoats to win votes on a law-and-order
platform. The attack also served as justification for the
government to shed more Sikh blood.
The Indian government has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 1984,
more than 300,000 Christians since 1948, over 90,000 Muslims in
Kashmir since 1988, and tens of thousands of Tamils, Assamese,
Manipuris, Dalits, Bodos, and others. The Indian Supreme Court
called the Indian government's murders of Sikhs "worse than a
genocide." According to a report by the Movement Against State
Repression (MASR), 52,268 Sikhs and tens of thousands of other
minorities are being held as political prisoners in India without
charge or trial. Some have been in illegal custody since 1984! We
demand the immediate release of all these political prisoners.
The Sikh Nation declared its independence from India on October 7,
1987 and formed the Council of Khalistan at that time to lead the
struggle for independence. When India became independent, Sikhs
were equal partners in the transfer of power and were to receive
their own state, but the weak and ignorant Sikh leaders of the time
were tricked into staying with India on the promise that they would
have "the glow of freedom" and no law affecting the Sikhs would pass
without their consent. Sikhs ruled an independent and sovereign
Punjab from 1710 to 1716 and again from 1765 to 1849 and were
recognized by most of the countries of the world at that time.
Sikhs do not accept the Indian constitution. No Sikh representative
has ever signed it.
V.P. Singh, who was the Indian Consul General in Toronto when Soft
Target came out, was quoted in the June 22, 1989 issue of the
Washington Times, as saying that Sikhs who support Khalistan are
terrorists. The Council of Khalistan, which leads the Sikh struggle
to liberate Khalistan, openly repudiated militancy and has an 18-
year record of working to free Khalistan by peaceful, democratic,
nonviolent means.
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 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.
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. 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. 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.
India is not one country; it is a polyglot thrown together for the
convenience of the British colonialists. It is doomed to break up
as they did. Last year, the Punjab Legislative Assembly passed a
bill cancelling the government's daylight robbery of Punjab river
water. The Assembly explicitly stated the sovereignty of Punjab.
"The Indian regime stands exposed for the bloody tyranny that it
is," said Dr. Aulakh. "This verdict is a major setback to their
repressive drive for hegemony over all of South Asia," he
said. "This is a victory not only for the Sikh Nation, but for
freedom-loving people everywhere."
"I urge the international community to help us free Khalistan from
Indian occupation," Dr. Aulakh said. "Freedom is the birthright of
all people and nations," he said. "As Professor Darshan Singh, a
former Jathedar of the Akal Takht, said, `If a Sikh is not for
Khalistan, he is not a Sikh'," Dr. Aulakh noted. "We must continue
to press for freedom," he said. "Without political power, religions
cannot flourish and nations perish. A sovereign Khalistan is
essential for the survival of the Sikh religion and the Sikh
Nation."
