--- Original Message ---
 Islamic News and Information Network  Wrote on
 Mon, 26 Jun 2000 11:42:50 -0500 (CDT)
  ------------------
 Assalamu'alaikum,

 21 U.S. Congress Members Declare India A Terrorist Country

 http://www.paknews.org/cgi-paknews/paknews.cgi?news=100/June/22-6-1


 WASHINGTON, June 20, 2000 (InfoTimes): Twenty-one Members of the United
 States Congress have expressed deep concern over the daily and systematic
 repression of Christians committed by Hindu rulers and terrorist, militant
 and extremist Hindu fundamentalists in India. The 21 American legislators
 have strongly urged U.S. President Bill Clinton to declare India a
 terrorist state and to cut off American aid to India because the Indian
 Government has committed a large number of terrorist crimes against
 Christians, Sikhs, Kashmiris, Muslims, Dalits, Manipuris, Assamese, Tamils
 and other minorities during 1947-2000.

 In their joint letter to U.S. President Bill Clinton, dated June 15, 2000,
 the 21 influential U.S. Congress Members wrote: "Dear Mr. President:
 We are deeply concerned by the ongoing repression of Christians in India.
 A wave of violence against Christians that has been going on since
 Christmas 1998 has intensified recently."

 The letter of 21 U.S. law-makers, who have declared India a terrorist
 state, says the current Indian rulers and their private Hindu armies have
 massacred, murdered, tortured, bombed, raped, kidnapped, terrorized,
 beaten and burned innocent Christians in India. The 21 U.S. Congress
 Members wrote: "On May 21, a prayer meeting of a Christian women's group
 was bombed. An investigation by the All-India Christian Conference shows
 that the Sangh Parivar, a branch of the Fascist RSS, the parent
 organization of the ruling BJP, carried out the bombing, which injured 30,
 four of them very seriously. Also in May, six Christian missionaries who
 were distributing Bibles and religious literature were beaten by militant
 Hindu fundamentalists. One of them may lose his arms and legs due to the
 savage beating. On April 21 in Agra, a group of Hindu militants affiliated
 with the Bajrang Dal attacked a Christian group and burned Biblical
 literature. The Bajrang Dal is a wing of the RSS. In Haryana, three nuns
 were run down by a motor scooter while they were on their way to Easter
 services. The RSS recently published a booklet on how to implicate
 Christians and other minorities in false criminal cases, the Hindustan
 Times reported."

 The 21 U.S. Congress Members further wrote: "Missionary Graham Staines was
 burned to death along with his sons, who were 8 years old and 10 years
 old, while they were asleep in their jeep. The killers chanted 'Victory to
 Hannuman.' Hannuman is a Hindu god with the face of a monkey. Hindu
 nationalists have murdered at least four priests, raped four nuns and
 kidnapped another, whom they forced to drink her own bodily fluids. More
 than 200,000 Christians in predominantly Christian Nagaland have been
 killed by the Indian government. No one is punished for any of these
 acts."

 The letter of 21 U.S. Representatives to President Clinton points out that
 the Indian Government has also committed many terrorist acts against
 Sikhs, Kashmiris and Muslims in India. The letter states: "India has also
 committed similar acts of terrorism against its Sikh and Muslim
 minorities, among others. It has killed over 250,000 Sikhs. In March, the
 [Indian] government massacred 35 Sikhs in the village of Chatti Singhpora.
 According to the State Department, between 1991 and 1993, India paid out
 more than 41,000 cash bounties to police officers for killing Sikhs. India
 has killed more than 70,000 Kashmiri Muslims and destroyed the most
 revered mosque in Kashmir. Tens of thousands of Sikhs, Kashmiris,
 Christians and others are being held as political prisoners."

 The official letter of 21 U.S. Congress Members to President Clinton
 concludes: "Mr. President, America cannot just watch these atrocities
 happen. We call on you to declare India a terrorist nation. We further
 urge an end to U.S. aid to India until human rights are enjoyed by all
 people there. And we ask the United States to support self-determination
 for all the peoples and nations of the subcontinent. Let the light of
 freedom shine everywhere in South Asia."

 The Congressional letter to President Clinton was sponsored and signed by
 U.S. Representative Cynthia A. McKinney (D-GA). The following 20 U.S.
 Congress Members have also signed the letter: Chairman of the Government
 Reform and Oversight Committee Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), Rep. Edolphus Towns
 (D-NY), Rep. Donald M. Payne (D-NJ), Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-LA),
 Rep. Major R. Owens (D-NY), Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), Rep. Roscoe G.
 Bartlett (R-MD), Rep. Peter T. King (R-NY), Rep. James A. Traficant, Jr.
 (D-OH), Rep. Carlos A. Romero-Barcelo (D-PR), Rep. John T. Doolittle
 (R-CA), Rep. Eni F.H. Faleomavaega (D-AS), Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-CA),
 Rep. Wally Herger (R-CA), Rep. Gary A. Condit (D-CA), Rep. John Conyers,
 Jr. (D-MI), Rep. Nick Lampson (D-TX), Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-CA),
 Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-MN), and Rep. Eva M. Clayton (D-NC).

 "We thank Representative McKinney and all the courageous representatives
 who wrote this letter to President Clinton asking him to declare India a
 terrorist state," said Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the
 Washington-based Council of Khalistan. "These Members of Congress have
 exposed the reality of Indian democracy," said Dr. Aulakh. "What is
 happening to Christians is the same kind of tyranny and repression that
 India has previously inflicted on Sikhs, Muslims and others," he added.
 "It shows that India is democratic in name only," he said. "It is time for
 America to support self-determination for Christians, Sikhs, Muslims and
 all the peoples and nations of India," Dr. Aulakh said.

 Pakistani 'Ambassador' to the U.S. Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistani diplomats and
 Pakistan Government's lobbyists in the United States have miserably failed
 to play any role in convincing the 21 U.S. Congress Members to write, sign
 and send their letter to President Clinton. 'Ambassador' Lodhi, her highly
 paid, useless, incompetent and unproductive lobbyists, and Pakistani
 diplomats were not even aware that 21 honorable U.S. law-makers have sent
 the aforementioned letter to the American President.

 [Syed Adeeb, an investigative journalist, is Chief Editor of the
 Information Times and Washington Bureau Chief of the Pakistan News Service
 (PNS).]

  >>

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