Clinton: Hindu Militants Murdered 38 Sikhs In Cold Blood

Council Of Khalistan, Washington D.C, 4th June 2006

Clinton: India Responsible for Chithisinghpora Massacre

In the introduction to former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s new book, The Mighty and the Almighty, former U.S. President Bill Clinton writes that “Hindu militants” are responsible for the massacre of 38 Sikhs at Chithisinghpora in March 2000. This reflects previous findings by the Punjab Human Rights Organization, the International Human Rights Organization, the Movement Against State Repression, and New York Times reporter Barry Bearak.

President Clinton writes, “During my visit to India in 2000, some Hindu militants decided to vent their outrage by murdering 38 Sikhs in cold blood. If I hadn’t made the trip, the victims would probably still be alive. If I hadn’t made the trip, I couldn’t have done my job as president of the United States.”

According to Amnesty International, “the attackers wore uniforms of the armed forces and were led by a tall man whom they addressed as Commanding Officer (CO). All Sikh men were rounded up, ostensibly to check their identities, and made to sit on the ground in two groups against the walls of the gurdwaras [Sikh temples] a few hundred metres from each other; they were shot at point blank range. As the attackers withdrew, they reportedly shouted Hindu slogans.” On August 2, 2002, the Washington Times reported that the Indian government admitted that its forces were responsible for the massacre. India finally admitted that the evidence it used to implicate alleged Kashmiri “militants” in the murders was faked.

At the time of the Chithisinghpora massacre, Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, strongly condemned the murders. “What motive would Kashmiri freedom fighters have to kill Sikhs? This would be especially stupid when President Clinton is visiting. The freedom movements in Kashmir, Khalistan, Nagaland, and throughout India need the support of the United States,” he said. Khalistan is the Sikh homeland declared independent on October 7, 1987.

The massacres continued a pattern of repression and terrorism against minorities by the Indian government, which it attempts to blame on other minorities to divide and rule the minority peoples within its artificial borders. The Indian newspaper Hitavada reported that the Indian government paid the late governor of Punjab, Surendra Nath, $1.5 billion to organize and support covert terrorist activity in Punjab, Khalistan, and in neighboring Kashmir.

A report issued by the Movement Against State Repression (MASR) shows that India admitted that it held 52,268 political prisoners under the repressive “Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act” (TADA) even though it expired in 1995. Many have been in illegal custody since 1984. There has been no list published of those who were acquitted under TADA and those who are still rotting in Indian jails. Additionally, according to Amnesty International, there are tens of thousands of other minorities being held as political prisoners. MASR report quotes the Punjab Civil Magistracy as writing “if we add up the figures of the last few years the number of innocent persons killed would run into lakhs [hundreds of thousands.]”

The Indian government has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 1984, more than 300,000 Christians in Nagaland, over 90,000 Muslims in Kashmir, tens of thousands of Christians and Muslims throughout the country, and tens of thousands of Tamils, Assamese, Manipuris, , and others. The Indian Supreme Court called the Indian government's murders of Sikhs "worse than a genocide.”

The book Soft Target by Canadian journalists Zuhair Kashmeri and Brian McAndrew , shows that the Indian government blew up its own airliner in 1985 to blame Sikhs and justify further repression. It quotes an agent of the Canadian Security Investigation Service (CSIS) as saying, “If you really want to clear up the incidents quickly, take vans down to the Indian High Commission and the consulates in Toronto and Vancouver. We know it and they know it that they are involved.” On January 2, 2002, the Washington Times reported that India sponsors cross-border terrorism in the Pakistani province of Sindh.

“Only in a free Khalistan will the Sikh Nation prosper and get justice,” said Dr. Aulakh. “When Khalistan is free, we will have our own Ambassadors, our own representation in the UN and other international bodies, and our own leaders to keep this sort of thing from happening. We won’t be at the mercy of the brutal Indian regime and its Hindu militant allies,” he said. “Democracies don’t commit genocide. India should act like a democracy and allow a plebiscite on independence for Khalistan and all the nations of South Asia,” Dr. Aulakh said. “We must free Khalistan now.”