Several hundred Sikhs, waving ‘swords and banners, protested in Bonn last week against Germany’s deportation of compatriots to India, They said returnees: were sometimes tortured and killed by ‘security forces.
‘The demonstrators demanded an independent homeland in Punjab state, which Sikhs call Khalistan,” and delivered protest letters to Chancellor Helmut Kohl at the chancellery and Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel at the foreign ministry.
Wearing turbans and robes, and brandishing traditional Sikh swords, the crowd, which organizers put at 500strong and police at 300, then raffled outside the Indian embassy.
Sikh militants have battled for independence from New Delhi for ad evades intestate! Punjab. But the fight has waned in the past year.
Two human rights groups, Human Rights Wateh /Asia and the Physicians for Human Rights, said in May that Indian police execute torture and “disappear” Sikhs, ‘The Indian government says militants are to blame for targeting citizens in their independence struggle.
“The demonstrators in Bonn said a young Sikh, Kuldeep Singh, depend from Germany in May after his application for political asylum was rejected, was tortured and murdered by the polite in New Delhi just two days after arriving in India.
“We are protecting against people being deported to be murdered,” an organizer of the march said. “Punjab police not protection buta nightmare,” read one of the banners carried by protestors. Others read “Sikh desire freedom, peace, liberty, equality and self-determination” and demanded an end to arms Sales to India.
A representative of the Indian embassy said he would accept any Jesters for the ambassador that the protestors wished to hand over. The ambassador was not in residence.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 9, 1994
