WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Council of Khalistan sent a telegram, December 28, to Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, timed for her meeting with India’s Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. The telegram calls on India to end its genocidal policies against the Sikhs. This is Gandhi’s first official visit to Pakistan. India and Pakistan have had hostile relations for 40 years. Both Prime Ministers are attending the SAARC (South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation) conference. Bhutto and Gandhi will use the occasion for summit talks.

The Council of Khalistan stressed that in order to achieve peace and tranquility on the Indian subcontinent and among its neighboring countries, Rajiv Gandhi must stop his repressive and geocidal policies against the Sikh nation and other minorities. Rajiv Gandhi should immediately remove the occupying Indian forces from the Sikh homeland of Khalistan. He should stop killing the Sikhs in fake encounters, close the torture centers at Amritsar and various other places, release political prisoners, including the Jodhpur detainees, and negotiate peacefully with the Sikh nation the boundaries between the two countries.

Rajiv Gandhi is well aware of the history of the Sikhs: that they have never submitted to oppression in the past, that they are not submitting to it now, and that they shall not submit to it in the future.

The only option left to the Sikh nation for its own survival is a sovereign. And independent Khalistan.The text of the telegram to Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is as follows:

“Your Excellency: As a host of the SAARC conference, we request you and the other participating nations to prevail upon Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to stop the repressive and genocidal policies against the Sikhs and other minorities in India. Sikhs, like any other nation have the right to be masters of their own destiny. For peace in the Indian subcontinent to prevail, India must remove its occupying army from the Sikh homeland Khalistan and settle peacefully, by negotiating with the Sikhs the boundaries between the two countries. We request. you, as a host, to read this telegram to the participating nations, and request them, on behalf of the Sikhs, to use their influence to stop the oppression and genocide of the Sikh nation and ensure its freedom. May God bring peace to our area of the World,” The telegram was signed by Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President, and Council of Khalistan.

The Council further asked the countries of the Free World to ensure the freedom of the Sikh nation and to make India stop the genocide of the Sikhs. “The time has come for the world to recognize the Sikhs as freedom fighters,’ it asserted. Dr. Alakh’s telegram received wide coverage in Pakistani newspapers.

Article extracted from this publication >>  January 6, 1989