WASHINGTON, DC: Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of Council of Khalistan has written a letter to “The Washington Post to correct a very misleading statistic in the otherwise accurate story “India hangs 2 Sikhs for Gandhi killing” published in its issue January 6. India and the Sikhs
”The writer (of the Post) assets that following the assassination, at least 2,000 Sikhs died when they were attacked by Hindu mobs in New Delhi and elsewhere. The Indian Government itself acknowledged that 2,906 Sikhs were killed. Even this figure, however, 1s excessively small. Sikh sources estimate that nearly 20,000 Sikhs were killed in New Delhi alone, and another 20,000 in other pars of India. Since 1984, Sikhs estimate that at least 80,000 Sikhs have been slain.
The article acknowledges the Indian government’s collusion in the 1984 killings, when the government controlled Indian radio was broadcasting chants of “Blood for blood.”
“In September 1988, Sikh students in the college town of Bidar were massacred by Shiv Sena, the fanatical Hindu ‘Army of Shiva’, while the police stood by or actively participated according to witnesses. Four Sikh colleges in Bidar were set afire.
It is for such reasons that Sikhs have come to believe that the Indian government has embarked on a policy of genocide against the Sikh people. Delhi fears that Khalistan, the independent Sikh nation proclaimed in 1987, will become a sovereign nation.
Were the Indian government truly interested in reconciliation with the Sikhs, it would have ensured a fair trial for the two Sikhs, especially in the case of Kehar Singh, whose involvement in the killing is very questionable, or granted the two Sikhs pardon. But New Delhi prefers, instead, the policy of provoking the Sikhs and giving the Indian government further excuse to continue the bloodbath.”
Article extracted from this publication >> February 10, 1989
