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Free Bhai Daljit Singh campaign
enters aggressive protest mode
Sikh protest
at UN drowns India’s voice, brings police atrocities into sharp
focus
WSN Bureau
 NEW YORK/PUNJAB:
In a clear sign that the demand for the immediate release of Bhai
Daljit Singh Bittu, chairperson of Akali Dal (Panch Pardhani) and
his associates, is gathering an aggressive momentum, several Sikh
bodies including the Khalsa Action Committee, the Dal Khalsa, Khalra
Mission Organisation, Sikhs for Human Rights and many others have
now joined hands to add strength to their voice while Sikh sangat in
the US and other countries has launched an unprecedented campaign to
build pressure on Indian establishment.
In New York, a
strong and aggressive Shame India protest on September 26 in front
of the United Nations headquarters sought to drown the address of
Indian foreign minister SM Krishna even as a statement issued by Dr.
Amarjit Singh, Director of the Washington-based Khalistan Affairs
Center, immediately after the protest condemned the arrests of
panthic leadership in Punjab as part of “the ongoing reign of
terror...unleashed by the puppet government.”
“Sikh leaders
like Bhai Daljit Singh Bittu, Chairman Shiromani Akali Dal-Panch
Pardhani, and many other Sikh patriots have been rounded up, and
incarcerated, in India’s medieval jails, without trial, under
India’s draconian ‘Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967’,” Dr.
Singh said.
Outside the UN
headquarters, aggressively raised slogans of Khalistan Zindabad made
everyone sit up and take notice of the goings on in
Punjab.
The protest was organized at a very short notice with active role of
Sikh Youth of America alongside the
Khalistan
Affairs Center, but the enthusiasm of the Sikh sangat from
New York,
New
jersey,
Carteret, Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC gurdwaras and
representatives of a large number of Sikh forums acted as a major
morale booster.
 Protesters
carried placards demanding release of Bhai Bittu and other panthic
leaders while other banners spoke about right to self-determination
and release of Sikh youth languishing in jails for years now in
India.
A demand that
caught everyone’s imagination was about asking the United Nations to
make a direct intervention in Punjab where political opponents and
Sikh leaders were being made targets of police atrocities every day.
In Punjab, the
Akali Dal (Panch Pardhani) has announced a series or protests to
keep up the demand in global limelight all through October 1 to 31.
Protest dharnas will be organised at all district headquarters.
Akali Dal (Panch Pardhani) state level leadership decided to add the
edge to the ongoing agitation by organising dharnas after it met in
Ludhiana. Presidium members Bhai Daya Singh Kakkar and Bhai Kulbir
Singh Barra Pind presided over the meeting.
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The Enthusiasm
With the Sikhs’
protest at the United Nations backing the cause of the Kashmiris,
Kashmir Mission chief Nadeem Malik too backed the Sikh protesters.
What impressed the onlookers and local media was the determination
of the frail and old members of the sangat as well as the enthusiasm
of the younger generation born and brought up in the United States
to engage with the goings on in Punjab.
Among those who
addressed the protest rally were Dr Ranjit Singh, Bhai Narinder
Singh Virginia, Nadeem Malik and Dr. Amarjit Singh. Sikh Youth of
America’s president Gurinderjit Singh Maana thanked the Sikh sangat
for its support and response at such a short notice.
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Bhai Harpal
Singh Cheema, presidium member, said the party would bring it to the
notice of the justice loving people everywhere that police in Punjab
has chosen to arrest Bhai Daljit Singh Bittu not under any of the
clauses that are normally slapped on political prisoners but rather
under the extant Illegal Activity Prevention Act, 1967 which has
been used only 3 or 4 times in the last 42 years in Punjab.
“More than
anything else, this makes clear the malafide intentions of the
Punjab
police and its political masters,” the party said. Incidentally,
ruling Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal, directly controls
and runs the state police as not only the Deputy CM but also as Home
Minister.
Meanwhile, Akali
Dal (Panch Pardhani) leadership’s struggle received a major boost as
the Khalsa Action Committee, the Sikh Students Federation, the Dal
Khalsa, Khalra Mission Organisation, Sikhs for Human Rights
submitted a joint memorandum to Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan
Singh in Amritsar on Tuesday and impressed upon him that the arrest
of Bhai Daljit Singh Bittu was directly linked with the latter’s
efforts to implement the Akal Takht’s edict against Sirsa-based
fraudster dera head.
It may be
mentioned that Bhai Bittu and his organisation, in association with
the Khalsa Action Committee and other like minded forums, led a
highly visible and effective campaign against the Sirsa dera head
that has helped keep the issue in sharp focus and often caused much
embarrassment to the Akali Dal-BJP government.
 Sources said
that the Akal Takht jathedar informed the delegation that met him
that the current regime in Punjab could hardly be termed a “panthic”
one as it is a mere coalition between the Akali Dal and the BJP.
Most experts of
Punjab polity see a clear link between the deafening silence and
almost active collusion of the ruling Akali Dal in embroiling the
radical leadership in false cases and the pressure generated by the
Hindutva-inspired alliance partner BJP. The fact that the state
Congress was hardly likely to speak out against such atrocities
being committed upon panthic leaders has only helped the conspiracy
of silence.
Dr. Amarjit
Singh in New York termed the arrests as “Machiavellian tactics” and
said these will only steel the determination of the Sikh nation.
Voices For
Freedom distributed a color brochure about human rights violations
in Punjab that continue with impunity. Dr. Amarjit Singh termed the
UN protest as a “prelude to the world-wide mass protests being
organized by the world’s 26 million Sikhs on the 25th anniversary of
the Oct.-Nov. 1984 state-sponsored pogrom, on 1 November, 2009.”
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Remand over, but
they languish in jail
LUDHIANA: Taking
a serious note of the failure of the government and the police to
produce Bhai Daljit Singh Bittu’s three associates in a local court
here after their judicial remand ended, the court issued a stern
notice to the Punjab Government answerable on October 9.
While Bhai Bittu
was presented before the court, Palwinder Singh, Gurdeep Singh and
Jaspal Singh Manjhpur were not produced.
Judge Jatinder
Kaur took serious note of the development.
Meanwhile, a
Mansa court sent Bhai Daljit Singh Bittu’s head office’s computer
operator Gurdeep Singh Raju to Central Jail, Amritsar and party’s
general secretary Prof Gurvir Singh to Central Jail, Bathinda till
October 7 in judicial custody.
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Provocations
Galore
At a time when
the Sikhs in India and elsewhere are holding back their emotions and
a retrying to work within the democratic norms of polity to protest
against the arrest of Bhai Daljit Singh Bittu, highly provocative
statements are emerging from the Hindutva brigade.
Sanjeev
Bhardwaj, head of the Hindu Suraksha Samiti, demanded that the
Punjab Government "should make it clear whether Sant Jarnail Singh
Bhindranwale was a terrorist or a sant." He had also announced a
cash award of Rs 7 lakh to catch Jagtar Singh Hawara, who had
escaped from prison.
Convener of the
Khalsa Action Committee (KAC), Bhai Mohkam Singh, has demanded a
case under the Illegal Activity Prevention Act 1967 against the
Hindu Suraksha Samiti leader.
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30
September 2009
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