An Analysis
By A Staff Writer
Poorly researched, poorly put together, full of factual inaccuracies and misinformation. This is not how one is expected to react to documents produced by the United States Government but a reading of the “Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1987” and the Vice President’s Task Force on combating terrorism’s report titled “Terrorist Group Profiles” make one think and feel on these lines.
In spite of the then Vice President Task Force’s attempt to define the difference between a terrorist and a freedom fighter the distinction remains quite blurred and it is often the strategic and economic interests of governments which shape the perception of freedom movements as either resistance movements or terrorist movements.
It is obvious that the State’s Department’s strategic and economic interests have induced it to toe the line of the repressive regime of Rajiv Gandhi and call the freedom movement in Punjab as “terrorist” in spite of the fact that it meets the criterion of freedom fighters laid down by President Bush.
‘What Vice President’s Task Force said about terrorists holds good for the Rajiv regime. Terrorists he said, deliberately target noncombatants for their cynical purposes. They kill and maim defenseless men, women and children. They murder those who defend the values of the civilized society. The murder of what government of India has admitted were over 3,000 innocent men, women and children at the hands of those who have been rewarded with cabinet positions in Rajiv Gandhi’s government would certainly be recognized as one of the worst terrorist acts in the present day world.
Why the State Department should violate the norms of decency and negatively identify a religious group with terrorism confounds the reader.
The State Department’s report however omits such facts which could embarrass the Gandhi regime: the regular torture of Sikh prisoners in Punjab, the extrajudicial killings in that state by the police and the use of special repressive laws in Punjab, the dismissal of five popularly elected Sikh governments in the state, all are but a few examples of the repression in Punjab as documented by various international organizations including Amnesty International and the United States Congress, which find no mention in the department’s report.
The report includes a chapter called “Sikh Terrorists”. It is the only one in which purported terrorists are identified by their religion. This is, unfortunately quite like what the Indian government has been doing over the years. Why the State Department should violate the norms of decency and negatively identify a religious group with terrorism confounds the reader.
The chapter on Asian terrorism says that Sikhs, have been bombing civilian targets, assassinating government officials and moderate Sikhs.” It makes no mention of the vigilante squads run by the government officials including police officers to make it look that these hideous crimes have been committed by the groups fighting for an independent Sikh state of Khalistan. The New York Times and the Observer in London had published interviews with a Surinder Singh Kala leader of one such group. He had admitted that police had provided him with jeeps, arms, money and the freedom to kill people which the police wanted’ to exterminate,
An assistant sub inspector of police was killed after he shot dead a Superintendent of Police in Patiala. Investigations revealed the assailant to have been a notorious criminal who was commissioned in the police expressly to kill Sikh religious leaders and freedom about his alleged involvement in some unauthorized crimes of extortion and kidnaping.
The report also does not mention the well documented inhuman third degree physical torture by the police. A number of such tortures have been killed in Punjab but in a recent interview an important Khalistani freedom fighter pointed out that most of the killings of innocent people were by police squads. “No Sikh would kill an innocent person,” he had added.
The report also attributes the bombing of Air India plane in 1985 to the Sikhs in spite of the fact that no one has been invited for it in Canada which had launched a massive investigation into the affair.
The report also does not recognize that there has been no anti Hindu mob violence in Punjab. However in the rest of India, in Delhi, in Bombay, in Bidar and in Jammu, to name a few places, Sikhs have been targets of government abetted violence and thousands of lives have been lost.
The Canadian Daily Globe and Mail had published a report which alluded to the involvement of Indian Intelligence Agents in the crash, The crash is widely believed to have been engineered by Indian agents so as to discredit the Sikh and their movement abroad just before Gandhi’s forthcoming trip to the U.S. Official and Media attitude did change and Sikhs were thereafter portrayed as “terrorist” rather than as the victims of state repression and terrorism.
Also how can the assassination of people who were directly responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent people and unleashing a massive repression on a peace loving nation be condemned. Rajiv Gandhi promoted the persons responsible for terrorizing the Sikhs in Delhi and other places. He is a terrorist, not his Sikh victim.
The report also refers to the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane to Pakistan by Dal Khalsa members. No one was injured or harmed in any way. The hijackers surrendered to the government in Pakistan and are still serving a sentence there.
It may be pointed out that two of Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s supporters (the Panday Brothers) had hijacked a plane in 1978 to demand her release after the opposition Janata Party arrested her.
In the next election, Mrs. Gandhi rewarded the hijackers with party nominations in Uttar Pradesh and inducted them into the legislature.
Both hijackings were political actions, but government of India’s reaction to each was very different.
The page titled Sikh Terrorism says that numerous Sikh terrorist organizations worldwide have been involved in violent activities. It names only two: and as we will see the information on eyen these two is flawed.
The report says that a small but violent movement emerged in 1981 when Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale began preaching Sikh fundamentalism and urging the Sikh community in India to pressure the government for an independent Sikh state. This is untrue, Sant Bhindranwale was described as a religious leader by no less person than the present Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi. He never asked for a separate Sikh state, but while speaking against the oppression of the government, he said he wanted Sikhs to live in dignity and freedom. He did say that he would not make the mistake which: other Sikh leaders had done and would not say no to a Khalistan if it was given to him, this is substantiated by his interview with the “60 minutes” TV program.
The department’s report does not mention the years long peaceful Akali movement for more autonomy in Punjab and other states in which tens of thousands of Sikhs, courted political arrest and suffered at the hands of the police. Their numbers were more than the entire Indian population’s contribution in its struggle to free itself from British colonialism. At that time also, the Sikhs, one of the smallest minorities in India contributed the largest number of freedom fighters.
When it refers to the Indian army’s assault in the Golden Temple as a part of a under action on 34 Sikhs religious Gurdwaras it does not mention the killing of over a thousand innocent pilgrims including women and children by artillery shelling and mounted machine guns on tanks the cold blooded execution of those who were captured including women and children as reported by the Associated Press the raping of the wives of the Temple priests by the Army, the torching of the Sikh reference library and the Temple management committee’s records as well as the looting by the army as reported elsewhere. Over 300 innocent people were detained at Jodhpur since 1984 without any charges against them. They were released with great fanfare few weeks ago but 87 of them were immediately rearrested.
The report also does not recognize that there has been no anti Hindu mob violence in Punjab. However in the rest of India, in Delhi, in Bombay, in Bidar and in Jammu to name a few places, Sikhs have been targets of government abetted violence and thousands of lives have been lost.
The selected incident chronology is similarly lopsided and myopic. The one sheet on Dal Khalsa is purported terrorist organization is notable for its rudimentary and naive nature; Gurbachan Singh Manochal is identified as the leader of the group. He is a widely respected figure who was a member of the Panthic Committee which declared the formation of an independent Khalistan from the Golden Temple a few years ago. He is no terrorist and the incidents attributed to the group like hijacking a plane, an incident in which no one was hurt or injured, the killing of General Vaidya and one in which 12 people were killed in 2 incidents in a village are well known incidents which the Indian government uses to tarnish its detractors with.
It would be in the fitness of things if it acknowledged its folly and apologized to the Sikhs. It does not befit the State Department to play as a puppet at the hands of a repressive foreign regime.
The information on Dashmesh regiment is even less illuminating. It says that its leadership as well as its membership is “unknown” Perhaps it exists only as a figment of imagination of those who drafted the report.
The killing of the Delhi Gurdwara Committee Chief, whose name is also not stated correctly, was an act of an individual as was the attempt on Prime Minister Gandhi, as reported in the Indian Press. The individual who made the attempt on Gandhi was himself a victim of, Gandhi’s goons in 1984 and his whole family had been burnt alive in front of him.
‘Such is the stuff which comprises the so called report of the State Department. It would be in the fitness of. Things if it acknowledged its folly and apologized to the Sikhs. It does not befit the State Department to play as a’ puppet at the hands of a repressive foreign regime.
The judiciary in the United States is now recognizing increasingly that the Sikhs are persecuted in Punjab. This is evident from the rising number of political asylums: given to Sikh activists during the last few months. The House of Representatives has also recognized this and has witnessed the introduction of several bills condemning the human rights violations in Punjab. ‘The latest being the one introduced by’ Congressman Wally Herger.
It is time the Executive Branch also Recognizes the plight of the freedom: fighters all over the world who ‘look upon America as a beacon of freedom, take note of the persecution of the Sikhs in India, and help them enjoy a glow of freedom in their motherland.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 31, 1989
