Continues under new Government
WASHINGTON: Indian police prevented Sikhs from entering the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the center and seat of the Sikh religion, last week after Simranjit Singh Mann had issued a call for all Sikhs to come to the Golden Temple to observe the twelfth anniversary of the June 1984 massacre there. On that Black Day 38 other Sikh Gurdwaras throughout Punjab, Khalistan, were attacked simultaneously. More than 20,000 Sikhs were killed in those attacks.
Sikh leaders, including Mann, Mohkam Singh, and Bhai Manjit Singh were put under house arrest to prevent them from coming to the Golden Temple. They were released later in the day. Other Sikhs were stopped at the door by uniformed police, who would not let them in without screening them. Additional police, in civilian clothes, were stationed inside the Golden Temple.
Last week, the US Congress defeated an amendment by Representative Dan Burton (RIN) which would have frozen US development aid to India at last year’s level rather than increasing it as the Administration requested. The amendment was designed to send a message to India that it must stop its human rights violations. Opponents of the amendment argued that India had cleaned up its human rights record and that the new regime must be given a chance. Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, of the Council of Khalistan said: “The oppression of the Sikh Nation continues under the new regime. The new regime is picking up right where the old one left off. How can the U.S.Congress vote to increase aid to India on the very day when the new regime desecrates the Golden Temple, the Sikh Nation’s holiest shrine, yet again?, The Golden Temple massacre was the equivalent of attacking the Vatican or Mecca, would the U.S. Congress tolerate either of those events?”
Article extracted from this publication >> June 12, 1996
