The following
KHALISTAN CALLING newsletter has been published in the leading Punjabi-English newspaper of the Sikh diaspora, Surrey Canada-based
CHARHDI KALA, (Issue of April 17-April 23, 2002 : Vol. 18 : No. 16). (http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/)
It was also published in the third week of April, 2002, in the
Vancouver-based PUNJAB GUARDIAN, Toronto-based SANJH SAVERA,
Calgary-based SIKH VIRSA and numerous other Punjabi/English weekly and
monthly publications which cater to the three million strong Sikh diaspora in
Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. It can be viewed on the Khalistan Affairs
Centre web site: (http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/main/k_calling/kc04172002.htm) The Overseas Sikhs,
unlike their 20 million compatriots captive in India, are free and prosperous
and they are determined - as they believe it is their destiny and pray for it
every day; Raj Karay Ga
Khalsa; Sikhs will rule - to carve a sovereign, democratic, egalitarian Sikh
buffer state of KHALISTAN in South Asia, stretching from the Jumna
river on the East to the Pakistan border on the West, China on the Northeast and
Kashmir on the North.
Khalistan
Calling newsletter
dated April 17,
2002.
* Please
E-mail newsletter to a friend, opinion
maker & / or a newspaper.
====================================================================
Saga of Simranjit Singh Mann's solo pilgrimage
to Gurdwara Punja Sahib in Pakistan
following Indian government's ban on annual visit by Sikh Jathas
------
MEMBER OF INDIAN PARLIAMENT MANN URGES PAKISTAN NOT TO
HAND OVER ANY SIKH FREEDOM FIGHTERS TO INDIA
BY
Dr. Amarjit
Singh
956-National Press
Building, Washington DC 20045 USA
Tel: 202-637-9210 ::
Fax: 202-637-9211
INTERNET SITE
INFORMATION:-
Web Site: http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/
E-mail
Address:
Washington DC: April 17, 2002 : Member of Indian parliament and President, Akali Dal (A), Sirdar Simranjit Singh Mann, returned triumphantly to Amritsar last Sunday, from Pakistan after representing the 20 million Sikhs - captive in India - in a solo pilgrimage to the Baisakhi celebrations at the Panja Sahib Gurdawara located 30 miles from that neighbouring country's capitol city of Islamabad.
According to a Times of India report (April 15, 2002 - headlined, "Mann is back from Pak. Mann plays PSGPC gamble in Pakistan"), member of Indian parliament and President Akali Dal (Amritsar) Sirdar Simranjit Singh Mann was accorded a very warm welcome, during his short visit to Pakistan. He was met not only by the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) Co-Chairman and Chairman, Sirdar Sham Singh and General (Retired) A. K. A. Niazi, but he also met Pakistan's Federal minister for minorities, Col. (Retired) J. Tressler, other high Pakistani officials and several Sikh devotees who had come from Canada, the US, Ecuador, UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Kenya, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Hongkong, Iran, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Pakistan and Afghanistan who had packed the holy Sikh shrine, located near Hassan Abdal, about thirty miles from Pakistan's leafy capital city of Islamabad.
According to a report in the Chandigarh English language newspaper, Tribune, Sirdar Simranjit Singh Mann also met a delegation of Sikhs from Afghanistan who informed him that two Gurdwaras, at Jalalabad and Lagman, were attacked by angry Afghans ruffians, who claimed afterwards that they mistook them for Hindu temples, after the recent destruction of mosques and carnage against Indian Muslims in BJP-run Gujarat state of India.
Earlier, according to eye witnesses and Indian media reports, Sirdar Simranjit Singh Mann, in a superb and impulsive, on the spot 'thumb-in-your-eye' gesture of defiance - which has thrilled the 3 million strong Sikh diaspora - decided last Thursday (April 11, 2002) to go solo (alone) to the Panja Sahib Gurdwara, in Pakistan, to celebrate Baisakhi. Mann took the above action even after members of his group, including his personal medical attendant carrying his medicines, were barred by the Indian authorities from crossing into Pakistan along with him by road at the Amritsar/Lahore border. The action of trying to block Sirdar Simranjit Singh Mann and party at the border was in line with the Amritsar-based Badal-run SGPC's (Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee) earlier decision to block the 3,000 strong Sikh Jatha (pilgrim group) from going to Pakistan for the annual pilgrimage as the morally repugnant, Swastika-worshipping, Brahmin rulers in Delhi (and their Sikh puppets and quislings in the Amritsar-based SGPC) do not recognize the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) which maintains numerous Sikh holy shrines located inside Pakistan.
The Indian action to thwart and block a Sikh member of parliament, Sirdar Simranjit Singh Mann, at the Indo/Pakistan border was a last minute effort by the Delhi government but Mann 'elbowed', argued and pushed his way through. Obviously the Indian immigration people and police backed off from a physical confrontation with Mann as they knew that, at this point in time, it is 'persecution time' for only the Muslim community in India. It is not the turn of the muscular Sikh community or the 'low key', but well-connected, Indian Christian minority yet. Obviously the minions of the BJP government at the border realized that it would not be good PR (public relations) for the Indian rulers to arrest and/or persecute a prominent leader of the Sikh minority at a point in time when the eyes of the world are focused on the bloody anti/Muslim pogroms in India - in BJP-run Gujarat state - where hundreds of mosques have been demolished, over two thousand innocent Muslim men, women and children have been murdered/raped/burnt and over a hundred thousand members of the persecuted Muslim minority have been forced to seek safety, solace and refuge in various dilapidated and make-shift refugee camps from prowling, frenzied, blood-thirsty armed Hindu rent-a-mobs.
According to our sources in Pakistan, Sirdar Simranjit Mann was very warmly received not only by Pakistani officials but by the general public as well where ever he went in that country and was interviewd by the influential Lahore mass circulation Urdu Daily newspaper, Nawai-Waqt. Sirdar Simranjit Singh Mann was also seen on different channels of the Pakistan TV where he talked of the historical and cultural connection between the two Punjabs and called for peace and an end to the current Indo/Pakistan military confrontation in which over a million Indian troops are massed on the border where their activities are destroying fertile farmlands owned exclusively by Sikh ex-servicemen who want no part of a war which they know will surely destroy Sikh holy shrines located in both the Punjabs - Sikh and Pakistani.
While addressing the huge congregation at the Sikh holy shrine of Punja Sahib Gurdwara, Mann announced his party's decision to recognize and support the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (PSGPC) and its PakistaniSikh Co-chairman Sirdar Sham Singh, which three years old organization, the Brahmin-fundamentalist rulers in Delhi (and the corrupt Amritsar-based Badal-run SGPC) have been fighting tooth and nail. The Sikh quislings and puppets who control the Amritsar-based SGPC (Shrimoni Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee) are opposed to a Pakistani Muslim Chairman of the PSGPC (Lt. General - Retired - A. K. A. Niazi) despite the fact that the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar - who can be of any religion - presides over the Indian Amritsar-based SGPC. Answering a question during his speech to the packed Punja Sahib Gurdwara, Sirdar Simranjit Singh Mann said that his mission of going to Pakistan was to break the 'blockade' put up by the Delhi central government in the way of Sikh pilgrims and that he (Mann) had come on a peace mission to a neighbour - Pakistan.
Mr. Mann also publicly urged the Government of Pakistan NOT to hand over any Sikh militant to India unless both countries signed an extradition treaty and proper international legal procedures were adopted. Readers may recall that the Indian government, with an eye on the United States, has been pressuring Pakistan to hand over twenty men, on a socalled 'terrorist list', which includes the names of a number of well known and admired Sikh Freedom fighters who, like most Sikhs, want - and pray daily - for a democratic, egalitarian Sikh buffer-state of Khalistan East of the Pakistan border, South of Kashmir and West of the Jumna river. Pakistan has so far refused any action on the stupid and childish Indian request as no evidence of wrong-doing has been submitted. Some Pakistani press reports suggest that many of the persons on the socalled list are Pakistani citizens now and therefore will have to be tried in Pakistani courts, under Pakistani law, if any valid evidence against them of wrong-doing surfaces from India.
Last week's 'Mann episode' at the border where the Indian government let him pass, and backed off from a physical confrontation, confirms that the morally repugnant, Swastika-worshipping, Brahmin-fundamentalist, fascist rulers in Delhi are just biding their time before they try to do a 'number', a la Gujarat and November 1984, on the 'uppity' Sikh community captive in the Indian map, since 1947, when the British Colonials quit South Asia in haste. Compatriots in Indian-occupied Punjab are urged to read once again the Khalistan Calling of April 03, 2002, headlined,"A Wake-up call for the Sikhs" and Khalistan Calling dated March 13, 2002, headlined, "Is India's 20 million Sikh minority the next target of the Brahmin fascist thugs?" on our website at: <http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/main/k_calling/kc04032002.htm> and <http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/main/k_calling/kc03132002.htm> respectively.
We congratulate Sirdar Simranjit Singh Mann for his courage, his 'a thumb in your eye' defiance, his successful pilgrimage to Gurdwara Punja Sahib in Pakistan, and his to-the-point interviews to the Pakistani media which have been impressive and patriotic. We commend him for his courage and for standing by the Sikh Freedom fighters the Indian rulers want, if indeed these patriots are living in Pakistan.
KHALISTAN
ZINDABAD :
LONG LIVE KHALISTAN
Thank you for
browsing
www.khalistan-affairs.org<
o:p>Internet site
of
Khalistan Affairs
Centre
956-National Press
Building, Washington DC 20045 USA
Tel: 202-637-9210 ::
Fax: 202-637-9211
Permission to quote or reprint
material from this site is granted in advance as long as you make the proper
acknowledgment
* Please
E-mail to a friend,
Think-Tank, Library, opinion-maker & or
newspaper/Magazine.