Sikh Nation Demands Immediate Release of Bhai Gurbaksh Singh

‘RECOGNIZE YE ALL THE HUMAN RACE AS ONE’

Guru Gobind  Singh  Ji, the Tenth  Master

730 24^th Street, N.W., #310

Washington, D.C. 20037

Contact: B. Singh 202 337-1904

Release Instructions: Immediate, December 6 2013

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 6, 2013 – Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, today demanded the release of Sardar Gurbaksh Singh, who has been on a hunger strike to demand the release of Sikh political prisoners held beyond the expiration of their sentences. Gubaksh Singh was forcibly picked up by 40-50 policemen, many of them visibly drunk, who invaded Gurdwara Amb Sahib in Mohali dressed as Gursikhs.  He is being held in Ropar jail, charged with attempted suicide and illegal assembly.  Bhai Gurbaskh Singh pledged to continue his hunger strike in jail.

“Since when is it illegal to assemble and to protest in a democracy?,” asked Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, which leads the Sikh struggle for independence.  On October 7, 1987, the Sikh Nation declared the independence of its homeland, Punjab, Khalistan. No Sikh representative has ever signed the Indian constitution. The Council of Khalistan is the government pro tempore of Khalistan.

A coalition of Sikh leaders, including Sardar Simranjit Singh Mann (Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar), Bhai Akal Singh Cheema (Akali Dal Panch Pardhani), Baba Sukhchain Singh Dharampura and Sardar Hari Singh Randhawa of the Sant Samaj, leaders of Dal Khalsa, and others endorsed Bhai Gurbaksh Singh’s fast, which began on November 14.

Two Sikh activists have taken up Bhai Gurbaksh Singh’s hunger strike.  They are Bhai Dhamandeep Singh of Ludhiana and Bibi Manjit Kaur of the Bhai Fauja Singh Trust.  We salute them.  “The undertaking of the effort by Bhai Dhamandeep Singh and Bibi Manjit Kaur shows the world that whenever India tries to suppress the aspirations of the Sikh Nation, Sikhs come back stronger than ever,’ said Dr. Aulakh.  “Shame on the Punjab police and the Akali government of Punjab and shame on those Sikhs who voted for them,” he said.  “Are you proud that you voted for this?  How can these political prisoners still be held when the Akalis have ruled Punjab for so long?,” he said.  In his 1997 election campaign, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal pledged to get all Sikh political prisoners released.  “We’re still waiting,” Dr. Aulakh said.  Instead, Mr. Badal made a governing coalition with the fundamentalist Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“Only a free Khalistan will end this kind of injustice,” said Dr. Aulakh.  “When Khalistan is free, those who have murdered and oppressed the Sikhs will be brought to justice and Sikhs will not be held as political prisoners,” he said.  “As long as Sikhs live under Indian rule, insults and atrocities such as holding Sikh political prisoners and others beyond their sentences and the abduction of Sikh activists like Bhai Gurbaksh Singh will continue.  I call on all Sikhs, Sikh leaders, and Sikh organizations, inside Punjab, Khalistan, and outside, to focus their efforts on the liberation of Khalistan.  We must launch a Shantmai Morcha to liberate Khalistan now.”

The tyranny and violence against the Sikhs have been going on for many years.  After 1984, it was the police who were committing genocide against the Sikh Nation.  A report issued by the Movement Against State Repression (MASR) 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.]”  According to Sardar Mann, the Indian government has murdered over a million Sikhs since 1982.  Sardar Inderjit Singh Jaijee, author of The Politics of Genocide, and Bibi Baljit Kaur of the Movement Against State Repression (MASR) told Dr. Aulakh that if it were not for the efforts of the Council of Khalistan, that number might be ten times as high.  India has also killed more than 300,000 Christians in Nagaland, over 100,000 Muslims in Kashmir, and tens of thousands of Tamils, Assamese, Bodos, Manipuris, and others. The Indian Supreme Court called the Indian government’s murders of Sikhs “worse than a genocide.”

“We need leadership in Punjab that is committed freeing Khalistan, said Dr. Aulakh.  “As Professor Darshan Singh said, ‘If a Sikh is not a Khalistani, he is not a Sikh’,” Dr. Aulakh noted. “The Sikh Nation must reclaim our birthright.”