Dokument #1161164
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
According to the attachment from the
Australian Refugees, Immigration and Asylum Section (RIAS), the
United Akali Dal, which was formed in 1991, brought together all
the various Akali Dal factions (June 1994, 7). Due to internal
fighting, it fell apart but reunited, except for Akali Dal (Badal),
on 1 May 1994 as the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) (ibid.).
The BBC Summary attachment of 3 November
1993 describes the 1 November 1993 Akali Dal "protest march" to
Delhi, which was banned by the Punjab government. This march was to
protest the "sacrilege" of a Ludhiana shrine (ibid.). Akali Dal
leaders and supporters were detained, while others went underground
to escape arrest (ibid.).
According to a 3 December 1994 BBC Summary
report, the president of Akali Dal (Badal), Mr. Prakash Singh
Badal, was arrested with others for breaching Section 144, which
bans the assembly of five or more individuals. Over 300 other party
members were detained while attempting to begin their march from
Amritsar to Delhi (ibid.).
According to Revolutionary and Dissident
Movements, the All India Sikh Student Federation (AISSF) is the
militant youth group of the Akali Dal (1991, 139). AISSF was banned
in March 1984 (ibid.). A 23 March 1995 letter to the DIRB from Dr.
Cynthia Keppley-Mahmood, a professor of Anthropology at the
University of Maine at Orono, who is a specialist on Sikh
militants, states that
in my understanding this organization
[AISSF] 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 the 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.
According to the RIAS attachment, AISSF was "briefly proscribed in
1984/5 with the ban being lifted in April 1985 (June 1994, 7).
For additional information on the Akali
Dal, its factions, its role in Punjab's 1993 parliamentary and 1994
state assembly elections, its relationship with AISSF, and AISSF's
legal status, please consult the following Responses to Information
Requests, all of which are available at Regional Documentation
Centres: IND20501.E and IND20502.E of 26 April 1995, IND18528.E of
3 October 1994, IND17758.E of 2 August 1994, and IND17954.E of 25
July 1994.
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.
BBC Summary of World Broadcasts. 3
December 1994. "Two Sikh Party Leaders, 300 Others Detained in
Punjab." (NEXIS)
_____. 3 November 1993. "Akali Dal
Leaders Arrested as Police Thwart March to Delhi." (NEXIS)
Keppley-Mahmood, Cynthia, Department of
Anthropology, University of Maine, Orono. 23 March 1995. Letter
sent to the DIRB.
Revolutionary and Dissident
Movements: An International Guide. 1991. 3rd. ed. Edited by
Henry W. Degenhardt. London: Longman Group UK.
Refugees, Immigration and Asylum Section
(RIAS), Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia. June
1994. Country Profile: India. Parkes, ACT: Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade.
BBC Summary of World Broadcasts. 3
December 1994. "Two Sikh Party Leaders, 300 Others Detained in
Punjab." (NEXIS)
_____. 3 November 1993. "Akali Dal
Leaders Arrested as Police Thwart March to Delhi." (NEXIS)
Refugees, Immigration and Asylum Section
(RIAS), Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia. June
1994. Country Profile: India. Parkes, ACT: Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade, pp. 6-7.