Is This Going to be the Fate of Canadian Sikhs When Visiting in India?

Canadian Sikhs should hope that what is currently happening to a British citizen doesn't happen to them when visiting India. I would hope that Canada's Foreign Affairs Ministry would show more concern for Canadian citizens than what it appears Britain has shown for its own.

From SSNews here's the story of Paramjit Singh

Foreign Office Inaction Leads to Torture of British National
Apr 30, 2007 - 4:24:02 PM

SSNews readers will remember the exclusive news regarding the wrongful arrest of 3 Sikhs on bogus charges of possession of explosives, etc. in India. Punjab Police Ropar arrested a British national Parmjeet Singh Dhadi on December 23, 2006 while he was on his way back from attending a function. Two other persons Mr. Amolak Singh and Mr. Jasvinder Singh were also arrested by the Jalandhar Police. As SSNews reported earlier, the 3 Sikhs were tortured for an prolonged period of time. The three persons were arrested under mysterious circumstances and the police story has many aforementioned gaps and variations that nail the lie to the police version.

On 25 April 2007, Paramjit Singh, Amolak Singh and Jaswinder Singh were scheduled to appear at Jalandhar Central Court. The three were arrested on 23 December 2006 and charged with a string of bogus offences. Since their arrest their trial has been ongoing and it was the last scheduled trial date for the prosecution. After this hearing, the defence would present their case to the court.

On 25 April 2007, the Punjab Police decided to intervene in the trial, which to date had been progressing well. They arrested Paramjit Singh and Amolak Singh from Nabhe jail and took them to Hoshiarpur Police Station. There, the Police sought police remand of 14 days. Police remand was only granted for 3 days. The two are accused of a mugging which led to the death of a man. From the dates the police have produced when this apparent offence took place, 23 November 2005, it has already been proven that Paramjit Singh was in the UK. But still the police are pursuing these charges. Once the charges have been placed, this will result in a long trial during which time the two accused will lose their freedom and will face judicial remand. There is no other reason for the bogus charges other than to derail the current trial, which was going well.

On 28 April 2007, Paramjit Singh and Amolak Singh presented in court in very ill-health. They both stated they had been tortured. The duo’s lawyer produced evidence to the judge, showing that Paramjit Singh was not in India when the alleged offence took place and therefore the charges should be dropped. The judge instead ordered another 2 days police remand. This so the police can continue to torture them. Paramjit Singh made disclosure to the Indian media outside of court that he was being tortured, the police were threatening him and they were trying to force him to sign a confession statement stating he had been paid by Bhai Jasbir Singh Rhode and Ravi Inder Singh to assassinate Prakash Singh Badal. Both are innocent and the two mentioned above had no reason to want to kill Badal. These allegations were made by Badal himself without any proof or evidence.

The family of Paramjit Singh now fear that he too will become another victim of the ‘fake encounter scenario’. Paramjit Singh stated at court today that he was told by the police they would shoot him in a fake encounter. This is a harsh reality of what the police in India are still capable of.

This is the third time Paramjit Singh has been arrested and charged with bogus offences. He is an innocent man. The charges against him will once again be proven to be wrong and untrue. However, how much more torture will he take? How many times will he be arrested and charged with bogus offences which will see his liberty at stake for months whilst he proves his innocence?

The cynic rationale behind this arrest is so obvious that one would assume that the authorities in the UK would be willing to make urgent representations. If Paramjit Singh was Caucasian white and of English descent, would he be in this position? Would he be facing bogus charges for the third time? Of course not.

The Foreign office, by doing nothing is showing the Punjab Police that they can continue to abuse innocent Sikhs.

The family of Paramjit Singh believe that the foreign office has discriminated against them and that had this been an English Caucasian man, intervention would have taken place by now. As time goes on, the Foreign Office have been less and less helpful in the case of Paramjit Singh. The family have again today written to the FCO stating their concerns regarding the inaction of the Foreign Office.

Sikh organizations throughout the globe have been rallying behind human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, which to date as been denied entry into Punjab to investigate the gross human rights violations committed over the past two decades by the Indian government. Evidently Sikh human rights activists and those who advocate reform like Paramjit Singh will continue to be denied fair trials and will be subject to the incompetent and partial kangaroo Indian judiciary. The judge has enough evidence before him today to at the very least order that the two be placed in judicial remand, where the police could not torture them. Despite the strong evidence before the court, he ordered police remand.

The foreign office now needs to ensure an urgent medical is carried out on Paramjit Singh so that evidence of the torture inflicted upon him is on record. To date they have failed to take direct action. The Foreign Office must take immediate action.

Technorati Tags: Human Rights, Punjab, Police, Britain, Sikh, Khalsa,

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I was Wondering What Layton was Talking About...

So Sikhs weren't allowed to wear a Kirpan on Via rail trains until a week or so ago. Where have these guys been? When I was at the Khalsa Day parade, Jack Layton spoke about Sikhs being allowed to wear Kirpans on Via Rail, and I recall wondering what the big deal was about that... anyways, now I know.

Apr 26, 2007 04:30 AM
San Grewal
STAFF REPORTER

VIA Rail has changed its policy and now allows Sikh passengers to wear kirpans on trains, following a recent human rights settlement.

"It's not only weird, it's mindblowing that they're only changing their policy now," said Mississauga lawyer Sat Gosal after hearing of the settlement.

The new policy came to light after Balpreet Singh, a 26-year-old law student at the University of Ottawa, was informed last week about the settlement by the Canadian Human Rights Commission after he filed a complaint in October, 2005.

Singh was removed from a VIA train in Ottawa, destined for Toronto, after a passenger complained he was wearing a weapon.

Since the Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into force in 1982, the Supreme Court of Canada has repeatedly ruled against policies denying Sikhs the right to wear a kirpan.

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How Should Canada Handle Terrorists in Afghanistan?

There's a debate going on about handing over captured Taliban and terrorists in Afghanistan to Afghan authorities. I don't understand why Canada is being asked by some quarters to apply Canadian law to Afghan nationals in Afghanistan? Basically, people want Canada to violate Afghan sovereignty and the Mandate under which Canada effectively entered Afghanistan and Canada's commitments under that mandate...

Canada has agreed to work with Afghanistan's government to provide security and military assistance to the Afghan's in securing THEIR country. The people who fight Canada there do so because they want to destroy Afghanistan's government. Its in the interest of Afghans to interrogate those people and to provide whatever justice they deem appropriate. Canadians should understand Afghanistan's need for self-preservation, after all it's their country, not ours.Why is the G n' M asking Canadians to mollycoddle our enemies? No one knows if anyone Canada has handed over has been tortured, the Globe's article spoke of interviewing the detainees themselves. Anyone who has read anything knows that Al-Qaeda and Islamo-Terrorists have been trained to claim torture any and every time they've been detained.

The Liberals stand on bringing our enemies to Canada is absolutely absurd and in fact dangerous. Who in their right mind wants to bring our sworn enemies to the comforts of Canada?

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Sikh Coalition Library Project...

This is a great initiative. If there's one thing that's come out of all the bad since 9/11, it's that Sikhs are more aware of how little people know about us and how much work we have to do in order to change that. Towards that end, Sikh Coalition has come up with a great project.

Here's info on the initiative as read in the NY area Metro paper... If you want to participate go to the Sikh Coalition website...

new library project launched recently by the nonprofit Sikh Coalition could combat bias with education. The project aims to place a packages of 10 books and two DVDs in every library in North America.

“I think if people will know more about our culture, then they will not be going to attack us,” Khalsa said. “Because of the turban, they think you’re a Taliban or you’re Bin Laden. They think we’re Iranian, but we come from Northern India. ... This is the fifth largest religion in the world.”

Khalsa’s attackers were eventually found guilty of a hate crime, receiving sentences ranging from five days to two years in state prison. But Khalsa said people in his community continue to be victims of hate crimes.

A few days ago, some young people threw stones and broke the window of his friend’s storefront in Rockaway.

“When I came to America, I was thinking I was in a place where I finally can live freely and safely,” said Khalsa, a Queens resident who operated a car service before his injuries.

“I don’t know where in the world I would feel safe,” Khalsa said. He left India for fear of religious persecution.

The coalition is calling on their community to donate the packages to their local libraries and have received orders from libraries in New York, Boston, Wisconsin, Ohio, Georgia, Rhode Island, Ontario and beyond, said Manbeena Kaur, the Sikh Coalition’s operations manager.

“A lot of libraries don’t have any information on Sikh, or even if they do, it might be outdated,” Kaur said.

Khalsa, who donated books to a library in Texas where some of his Sikh friends live, said, “Sikh means ‘student of life’ and this time I want to save my people from ignorance.”

Building up

The Sikh Coalition spent a year and a half reviewing more than 50 books and DVDS — and even traveling to India to talk to authors and publishers of out of print editions — before culling the selection and it worked with a librarian from the city’s University Club, who wrote synopses for the books. They expect the project to take five years.

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The Most Balanced Story So Far on the Surrey Nagar Kirtan...

I've been following the news regarding the Nagar Kirtan in Surrey. For the most part, the news have been parroting the line that T.S. Parmar is a co-conspirator in a terrorist act and have at various times labeled a children's martial arts (gatka?) team as either wearing ISYF vests or their martial arts vests. The bias has been palpable and the headlines inflammatory.

At least in this news filing the reporter attempts to get two sides to the story. The reporter also acknowledges what Amnesty Int'l itself has documented in terms of state terrorism against Sikhs. If India really is concerned about Sikhs and secessionism, then why not acknowledge the fact that its security forces, police, judiciary, and political organizations are all culpable in the murder of innocent civilians in the past and even today?

Numerous human rights organizations were denied access to Punjab in the past and even today to document the atrocities and violence against Sikhs. If India really wants peace then why doesn't it at least acknowledge the truth and jail those abusers of human rights and the Indian law? That would go a long way in showing the sincerity of India towards Sikhs. Canadian based Sikhs have easy access to both sides of the story. Trying to silence Sikhs in Canada only makes the Indian government look bad and shows its fragility. If India was truly confident in its position it wouldn't make a mountain out of one parade and display such histrionics.

The article is in the G n' M today. Here's an excerpt...

As a Canadian Sikh, he considers those who die fighting terrorism in Afghanistan to be not much different than historic figures within his religion who fought injustices, and more recently Talwinder Singh Parmar, who was part of a violent campaign in the 1980s for an independent Sikh state that would have been called Khalistan.

"For us, they [Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan] are martyrs," Mr. Dulai said during a recent interview about a parade in Surrey that included a tribute to Mr. Parmar.

"Why did we go to Afghanistan?" he said. "It is because of state oppression. The Taliban were going off, killing their own citizens. Other than that, there was no need for us to be there."

In a similar fashion, many in the Sikh community consider those who were killed in India fighting state terrorism to be martyrs. They confronted the government after its forces killed people at the Golden Temple in 1984, Mr. Dulai said. They went to protect their families and villages from state terrorism, he added.

"I know it is hard to believe for an outsider, but ... basically, whoever stood up against state oppression [in India] was killed," Mr. Dulai said.

Mr. Dulai was one of the organizers of the community's Vaisakhi parade in Surrey, an annual event to celebrate the Punjabi new year and the beginning of the harvest in Punjab. The parade, organized by the Gurdwara Sahib Dasmesh Darbar in Surrey, included two floats paying tribute to those regarded by the Sikh temple as martyrs. Photographs of Talwinder Singh Parmar and Canadian Sikhs from Toronto, Calgary and Abbotsford were among the 80 to 90 tributes on the two floats.

The Indian consulate in Vancouver has expressed concern about Canadian politicians who participated in the event, saying they were showing support for banned terrorist groups.

The RCMP continues to regard Mr. Parmar as one of the conspirators responsible for the death of 331 people, mostly Canadians, in the Air-India disaster on June 23, 1985.

"[Mr. Parmar] was very central and an integral part of the plan," RCMP Staff Sergeant John Ward said yesterday in an interview.

Evidence in a court case in 2005 alleged that Mr. Parmar was the mastermind behind the disaster, motivated by revenge against the Indian government and support for Khalistan.

Mr. Parmar, who was born in 1944, came to Canada in 1970. He embraced fundamental Sikhism in 1977 and became a self-appointed leader of a group in a violent political and religious campaign for a Sikh homeland in 1979.

Mr. Parmar was accused of killing two policemen in November, 1981, during a visit to his home village of Panchta in the province of Punjab but he left the country before he was detained. He was arrested in 1983 in West Germany on an international warrant. German authorities subsequently let him go for lack of evidence. He had been held in custody for almost a year.

Authorities considered Mr. Parmar as a prime suspect in the Air-India bombing within moments of the explosion. Canada's spy agency had began watching him in early 1985 at the behest of the FBI to track Sikh radicals before a visit by Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi to the United States. The spy agency had him under surveillance as he tested a homemade bomb with others in the forest three weeks before the Air-India disaster and as he met other alleged co-conspirators in the days before the disaster.

The RCMP detained Mr. Parmar on Nov. 6, 1985. But he was once again released without being charged. He was arrested a third time, in June, 1986, and charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts in India. He was subsequently acquitted.

Mr. Parmar fled Canada in 1988 after Inderjit Singh Reyat was arrested on charges related to the disaster. He was killed by police in India in 1992. Indian authorities cremated the body without taking fingerprints to confirm his identity and without notifying Mr. Parmar's family or the Canadian government. Despite the unusual circumstances of his death, the Canadian government never asked India for a full investigation. The Air-India disaster remains the deadliest terrorist episode in Canadian history.

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