Amritsar: In the backdrop of United Nations Secretary-General urging the Sri Lanka government to redress wrongs of war as victims of decade long war “cannot wait forever” for justice, the Dal Khalsa today asked Ban Ki-Moon as to why the world body (UN) has chosen to remain silent on India’s wrongdoings on Kashmiris, Sikhs and other minorities since last four decades.
It’s noteworthy that Mr. Ban who is on his three-day visit to Sri Lanka has suggested the country leadership a slew of measures and steps to address the issue of rights abuses and acknowledge the voices of victims of state repression.
Dal Khalsa leader Kanwar Pal Singh
Dal Khalsa’s spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh on Monday said what applied to Sri Lanka, applied to India as well. “India is suppressing aspirations of Kashmiris and Sikhs, refusing to recognize their right to self-determination and committing grave human rights abuses,” he stated.
“Kashmir is bleeding. People are mourning the deaths of their kin and dear ones since last two months. Pellet guns are ruining the lives of young generation. Indian establishment is non-serious and non-committal for the peaceful and political resolution to the conflict”, he remarked. “Will you explain despite all human sufferings in Kashmir, why the UN and the world powers were still maintaining stoic silence”, he asked Mr Ban.
Drawing parallels between the positions of Sikhs in India and Tamils in Sri Lanka, Dal Khalsa spokesperson said both faced persecution at the hands of tyrant regimes and justice eluded both.
Citing the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution adopted last September asking Sri Lanka to set up a “hybrid court” with foreign judges to investigate allegations of war crimes and systemic abuses by the military in 2009, he said the Sri Lankan state is accused of carrying out “anti-Tamil pogroms, sexual violence and acts of cultural and linguistic destruction, while Indian state conspired, engineered and carried out massacres and acts of cultural and linguistic destruction against the Sikh minority”.
Dal Khalsa sought UN led credible probe into the November 1984 carnage and killings of hundreds of youths illegally and extra-judicially in Punjab and elsewhere.