By Narain Kataria In New York
Overseas Friends of BJP, along with
approximately 20 prominent associations (including three Jewish groups)
organized a boisterous demonstration in front of the United Nations in
New York on Friday 1, 2001 in which more than 200 people representing various
shades of public opinion enthusiastically participated. The purpose
of the demonstration was to express anguish and indignation at the decree
issued by Taliban Government forcing Hindus women to put on veil and Hindu
men to wear tags to distinguish themselves from the majority Muslim population.
The atmosphere outside the United
Nations building was surcharged with intensity, emotions and anger. In
a rare display of unity, exuding an aura of confidence and authority, prominent
Hindu, Sikh and Jewish leaders who addressed the protesters, unequivocally,
but vehemently condemned the brutish savagery perpetrated by uncivilized
and backward Talibans on innocent civilians whose only fault is that they
do not the follow the religion of the rulers.
The demonstrators carried banners
depicting "Taliban = Nazism", "Declare Taliban a Terrorist Group", "Stop
Hindu-Sikh Genocide in Afghanistan", "United Nations Wake UP", "Down with
Talibans", Down with Terrorism", "Who is backing Taliban, Pakistan, Pakistan",
and so on. The protesters placed yellow bands on their clothes in protest
against the orders issued by Talibans requiring Hindu and Sikhs citizens
to wear and display on their houses a distinctive yellow cloth, and follow
Islamic Shariat.
Earlier in the day, in a memorandum
handed over to the United Nations officials in New York, the organizers,
inter alia, said that Talibans have already ethnically cleansed Hindus,
Sikhs, Buddhists and Christians from Afghanistan. Their intolerance and
hatred could well be gauged from the manner in which they destroyed the
stone statutes of Budhas in Bamiyan. Talibans are indiscriminately and
ruthlessly violating the human rights of a sizeable section of their own
citizens and are a blot on human civilization. Their diabolical misdeeds
against humanity are so stark in their evil and so huge in their proportion
as to demand eternal outrage of the entire world community.
The memorandum further said that
"Talibans are responsible for spreading murder and mayhem all over the
world. In the name of 'true Islam', Talibans, educated in madrasas and
trained in military warfare are murdering innocent people in Israel, Chechnia,
Kashmir and other flash points of the world. The memo exhorted the world
organization either to take military action againt Talibans or declare
them a terrorist group. That is the only way to inoculate the world from
impending doom and imminent disaster. The memo also chastised the members
of the security council for their feeble-minded reaction against these
"barbarians", who have inflicted pain and misery on hapless Hindus and
Sikhs and compared the atrocities against Hindus with those of Nazi Germany
against Jews during the Second World War.
(Vice President of OFBJP, Dr. Rajesh
Shukla, introduced the speakers and conducted the proceedings.)
