Babbar Khalsa banned at last

by John Thompson

06/23/03

In 1978, in Clearbrook, BC, a Canadian Sikh named Beant Dhalawi was found dead after a C-clamp was placed on his skull and slowly tightened until his skull fractured.  He was the first Canadian citizen to be murdered by Sikh fundamentalists--over the next 30 years, more than 160 others would join him.

On June 19th, 2003, the Canadian Federal government finally listed Babbar Khalsa, the International Sikh Youth Federation, and the Khalistan Commando Force as terrorist groups--making membership or any act on behalf of these organizations illegal.  It took a long time.

The Canadian Sikh community in Canada began over 90 years ago, although its fastest growth was in the 1970s, when hundreds of thousands more began to arrive.  Like any group in Canada, the Sikhs have their portion of criminals, career politicians, and similar disappointments, but the vast majority proved to be stalwart citizens with a strong civic spirit.

Devout Sikhs tend to contribute 10% of their income into their temple funds; which in turn are used not just for the benefit of the temple, but are also invested back into the community for its development.  As a result, temple funds eventually become large holdings that generate a considerable income--attractive money for terrorists as it turned out.

Starting in the 1970s, and escalating after the Indian Army attacked the Golden Temple of Amritsar (to quell a force raised by a Sikh extremist) in 1984, a series of terrorist groups in India began to agitate for an independent Sikh homeland in the Punjab.  Like most militant insurgents, the terrorists attempted to represent themselves as the leaders of all Sikhs everywhere, and numbers of them moved out of India to Sikh communities in Great Britain and North America, to generate more support for their cause.

Although most Sikhs swung behind the militants in the aftermath of the attack on the Golden Temple (the central temple of their faith) and after thousands of Sikhs were massacred after the 1985 assassination of Indira Gandhi, this support for the militants did not last for very long.  For a start, the militants of the Babbar Khalsa, Khalistan Commando Force, and the International Sikh Youth Federation were using violence to take control of temple fund committees among the overseas Sikhs, and were quick to use intimidation and murder to get their way.

The militants also presented themselves as being 'holier than thou,' and tried to enforce their ideas of orthodox behavior on Canadian Sikhs.  However, among the admirable characteristics of the Sikhs is a strong appetite for justice, and a near universal dislike for bullying.  The early Sikhs were subjected to ferocious persecution by the Muslims--which resulted in the adoption of their many martial characteristics.  Start pushing any Sikh around and he will stand fast; push hard and he will push back.

There were Canadian Sikhs who resisted the militants with violence--but perhaps the greatest hero was the publisher of the Indo-Canadian Times, Tara Singh Hayer.  He denounced the militants' violence, and was paralyzed below the waist by a cowardly attack in 1988.  He kept writing.  The militants put a firebomb in his office.  He kept writing.  In 1998, the wheelchair-bound Hayer was murdered.  He had never wavered in his criticism of terrorist violence and refused to yield to intimidation.

Yet terrorists are also activists, and tend to be much more politically involved than ordinary folks are.  They are also predatory opportunists.  Perhaps the poster child for contemporary Sikh terrorists is Pupiduman Singh Malik--currently on trial with two others for the 1985 Air India Bombing in which 329 people (including 154 Canadian citizens) were killed.

Malik organized and ran the Khalsa Credit Union and the Khalsa School in British Columbia.  He had earlier expressed open disdain for Canadian society and its values, and stated that the reason for creating the Khalsa School was a means of isolating Sikh children from it--but seemingly saw nothing wrong in getting citizenship and multiculturalism grants for his project.  The Khalsa School received $2,000,000 annually in provincial government grants.  In 1998, The RCMP raided the school looking for evidence of misappropriation of these funds.  More disturbing was the allegation that a convicted hijacker who entered Canada with a false passport was allowed to live at the school.  The Khalsa Credit Union was served search warrants in an investigation surrounding the financial activities of the Khalsa School.

Citizens like Hayer make nations.  Parasites like Malik undermine them.  Let's hope Ottawa acts faster next time. 

John Thompson is President of the Mackenzie Institute which studies political instability and terrorism. He can be reached at: mackenzieinstitute@bellnet.ca