Dokument #1339258
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
The following information was provided in a
23 March 1995 letter to the DIRB from Dr. Cynthia Keppley Mahmood,
professor of anthropology at the University of Maine in Orono,
Maine. Dr. Keppley Mahmood is a well-known specialist regarding
Sikhs and Sikh militants.
As far as the banning of AISSF goes, in my understanding this
organization was formally banned only from the 1984 attack on the
Golden Temple until the Rajiv-Longwal Accords in 1985. At that time
it was banned as a whole, without regard to factions. The fact that
AISSF is now not a banned organization, however, does not mean that
members are not harrassed/persecuted by authorities. AISSF
continues to have the reputation of a militant separatist
organization, and it doesn't seem to matter which faction (armed or
not) one belongs to in terms of how one is treated. Overall, this
talk of factions seems to be more critical in the refugee sphere
(in which belonging to a violent or nonviolent group matters ) than
on the ground in India. AISSF, or SSF, is one organization.
This response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the DIRB within time constraints. This response is not, and does
not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular
claim to refugee status or asylum.
Dr. Cynthia Keppley Mahmood, professor
of anthropology and specialist regarding Sikhs and Sikh militants.
23 March 1995. Letter received by the DIRB.