Sikhs Will Protest Saturday In Memory of Golden Temple Massacre and Against Indian Nuclear Tests

WASHINGTON, June 2 -- This coming Saturday, June 6, Sikhs from around the East Coast will demonstrate here in Washington, D.C. The demonstration will protest India's nuclear weapons tests and the deployment of missiles in Punjab. It will also commemorate the Indian government's brutal June 1984 desecration and military attack on the holiest shrine of the Sikh religion, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, and 38 other Sikh temples throughout Punjab, Khalistan. Over 20,000 Sikhs were murdered in these attacks.

The demonstration will convene in Lafayette Park, across from the White House, at noon. There will be speeches, then the demonstrators will march to the Indian Embassy. The demonstration will disperse about 4:00 p.m. "India's testing of nuclear weapons and its deployment of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles in Punjab, Khalistan put the lives of the Sikh Nation, not the Hindu Nationalists, at grave risk," said Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan.

The Council is the government pro tempore charged with leading the Sikh Nation's peaceful, nonviolent struggle for an independent, secular and democratic homeland, Khalistan. "Nuclear tests are just the latest facet of India's ongoing effort to establish hegemony over all of South Asia," Dr. Aulakh said. "This is consistent with the murders of over 20,000 Sikhs by Indian forces in June 1984 and of more than 250,000 Sikhs by the Indian government in the last 14 years according to the Punjab State court and human rights groups."

He noted that two leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recently called for Pakistan and Bangladesh to become part of India. "India is now openly expressing its imperial designs in South Asia," Dr. Aulakh said. "If there is a war, the Sikhs and other minorities will not fight for India," Dr. Aulakh predicted. "The best way to keep peace and ensure stability and prosperity in South Asia is by addressing the underlying issues of national self-determination which have been long denied the minority peoples of South Asia," he said. "We demand a plebiscite on the question of independence for Punjab, Khalistan and we call on both India and Pakistan to denuclearize South Asia and pull the region away from the brink of nuclear holocaust."

WHERE: Lafayette Park, Washington, D.C., then march to the Indian Embassy (about 2:15 p.m.) WHEN: 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m., Saturday, June 6, 1998 WHY: To protest the Indian nuclear threat to South Asia and India's desecration of the Golden Temple.

Click here for
new page index