NEW YORK, NY: A demonstration was held at the Immigration and Naturalization Service Detention Facility in lower Manhattan here to ask the INS to release Jasbir Singh Sandhu and Virinder ‘Singh from custody and let them stay in this country. They have been in INS custody since September 2, 1988 after they finished Serving their three year sentence.
The World Sikh Organization and the Sikh Youth of New York had organized the protest to high light the suffering of these political activists. About fifty people dis tribute flyers and shouted slogans in front of the jail from 9 am to 10:30 am on the cold morning of November 29.
Jasbir Singh Sandhu and Virinder Singh along with Dr. Gurpratap Singh Birk and Sukhm inder Singh were sentenced to varying prison terms after they pleaded “no contest” to charges that they had conspired to assassinate the then Haryana state Chief Minister Bhajan Lal during his visit to New Orleans in 1985.
Another respondent Jatinder Si ngh Ahluwalia was acequitted by Judge Patric E. Carr.
Lal had come for eye treatment and while in that country, he had earned a dubious title of “the most corrupt politician in India.” And a Sikh baiter. He recently won parliamentary elections in India amidst allegations of rigging, booth capturing and other strong arm tactics.
Dr. Birk and others had maintained that they were innocent and said they came to New Orleans to stage a demonstration against Lal for his harassment and humiliation of the Sikhs in Haryana during the Asian Games in 1984. They pleaded “no contest” under the “Alford us North Carolina which allowed them to plead guilty while maintaining their innocence.
Dr. Birk is currently under detention at Lewisburg W.Va. He scheduled to be released next year. Sukhwinder Singh is also still in custody.
A memorandum to Mr. Scott Blackman, Director INS, signed by Harbhajan Singh Gill, Vice President of the World Sikh Organization said, “We have gathered here to appeal to the US. Immigration and Naturalization Service to stop the deportation of Virinder Singh and Jasbir Singh Sandhu. If these two men are sent back they will certainly face torture and perhaps even be killed.
“In the past 5 years about 80,000 Sikhs have been killed by the police and the Hindu mobs. Today, the Sikhs in India are in the same position as the Jews were before the Second World War.
“We request the INS to help save the lives of these two members of our community by not deporting them to India but allowing them to live in this country.
“In recent months a number of the Judges of the INS have recognized the persecution of the Sikhs in India and have granted political asylum to the Sikh respondents.
“United States stands as a beacon of Freedom, Liberty and Jus tice. Let the actions of the INS reflect its commitments to these values,” it concluded.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 8, 1989
