CHANDIGARH: The All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) president Bhai Manjit Singh said on Wednesday his organization could convince the government Of India about the legitimacy of Khalistan and offered to drop the demand if a settlement better than a sovereign Sikh slate was possible.
So far as the AISSF was concerned it considered Khalistan to be the remedy of the Sikh problem created by continuous excesses repression and injustice Bhai Manjit Singh said at a news conference.
He however made it clear that the government would have to discuss the Khalistan issue with militant organizations including the panthi committees of Dr.Sohan Singh Baba Gurbachan Singh Manochahal and Bhai Wasim Singh Zaffarwal and their allies the Babbar Khalsa International the A.I.S.S.F and the Damdami Taksal. The Akali leaders including G.S.Tohra Parkash Singh Badal and Simarnjit Singh Mann would have to be Kept out of this exercise as they were “no more relevant” to the Sikh struggle.
Bhai Manjit Singh said that the federations participation in the all-party meeting on Punjab in Delhi on December 12/has been misunderstood. “We had not attended the meeting for any settlement but to appraise the Center about the Sikh problem and its remedy”.
According to him the report that the AISSF representative at the meeting had resisted from the demand of Khalistan was planted by the government.
He demanded that any meeting between the government and the militants would have to be open to the press so that its proceedings could not be distorted.
Asked the AISSF would contest the elections he sad “let the govt announce elections and we will consult militant organizations on whether we should contest. He reiterated that the govt should first accept the federation demands withdrawal of the army abrogation of the black laws imposed in the state an apology for the attack on the Darbar Sahib punishment to those guilty for the 1984 riots and release of the attested Sikhs. Afterwards the govt should initiates talks with militants He also wanted that the ban on recruitment to govt jobs should go.
Bhai Manjit Singh and the Aka factions and the SGPC should adopt a resolution in support of the demand for Khalistan to achieve credibility.
The AISSF would discuss the present station at a meeting of its central com: mince on December 22 at Amritsar and also review its performance at the all party meeting besides deciding its agitational program the federation leader Indian newspaper report)
LUDHIANA: Gurcharan Singh Tohra said here Tuesday that the SGPC would publish a booklet containing biographical sketches of the Sikh martyrs in the Sikh struggle.
Tohra assailed Simarnjit Singh Mann president of the Akali Dal (Mann) for his accusations against him and Parkash Singh Badal and asked him to stop the mudslinging.
He called upon Mann to make a Joint declaration with him and Badal about boycotting the elections in Punjab.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 10, 1992
