Visitation scheduled for Friday for the victims in the Sikh Temple shooting

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Several thousand people are expected to attend tomorrow’s visitation for the six worshippers killed in last Sunday’s attack at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek. All six families plan to take part in the visitation – and they’ll be joined by mourners from as far away as India, England, and Canada. The visitation will be held from 9-to-11 tomorrow morning at Oak Creek High School. It will include readings from the Sikh’s holy book. Afterward, families and close friends will take part in a private gathering before the bodies are cremated. A ritual bathing of the bodies took place yesterday. Four of the six fatal victims were Indian nationals, and two of their families are planning burials back in India. The government from India’s state of Punjab will handle those arrangements. Punjab’s chief minister, Parkash Badal, arrived in Milwaukee on Tuesday – something he was planning to do for months, so he could attend a wedding Saturday for the daughter of Mequon businessman Darshan Dhaliwal. Yesterday, Badal visited Milwaukee’s Froedtert Hospital where three survivors of the shootings were in critical condition at last word. He also met with some families of the dead, saying he wanted to share their grief.

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New evidence and reports are giving us a clearer picture of last Sunday’s shooting massacre in Oak Creek. But F-B-I national security chief Steven Conley says we may never know why Wade Michael Page chose the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin to kill six people and wound four others before killing himself. Conley said quote, “That may have died with Page.” The carnage extended from the temple’s parking area to the bedroom of a living quarters to the prayer hall. The white supremist went from room-to-room, shooting worshippers who arrived early for the Sunday service and those cooking a meal. The only woman who was killed, 41-year-old Paramjit Kaur, was praying when she was murdered – and her husband said he found that incredulous. The temple’s president, Satwant Kaleka, was shot multiple times in a bedroom of a living facility attached to the temple. He tried but failed to fend off the gunman. Reports said at least 20 bullets hit their victims. Videotape from a police car showed that Page shot himself in the head, after he was wounded in the stomach by Oak Creek officer Sam Lenda. But authorities said the stomach wounds would have been enough to kill him had he not shot himself. There’s no record of what happened inside, because the temple’s indoor security cameras were not on at the time. The F-B-I says it has conducted 100 interviews and has 180 subpoenas for more evidence. As of yesterday, over 100 leads were pending both in-and-out of the United States.

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The governors of Wisconsin and Colorado had a talk yesterday about dealing with the recent shooting massacres in their respective states. Democrat John Hickenlooper of Colorado called Republican Scott Walker, and urged him to keep making sure victims and others get the support they need in the wake of the Oak Creek tragedy. The two have gotten to know each other at meetings of the National Governors Association and the U-S Chamber of Commerce. Walker called Hickenlooper soon after a man shot 12 people to death and wounded five dozen others at a Batman movie outside of Denver last month.

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A federal lawsuit has been filed in Milwaukee against the chief minister of the state of Punjab in India. A human rights group called Sikhs-for-Justice claims that Parkash Badal ordered law enforcement to inflict inhumane treatment and cause “extra-judicial death” to thousands of Sikhs in India. The 30-page lawsuit says the federal court in Milwaukee has jurisdiction under protection laws for torture victims. That’s because Badal is in Wisconsin for tomorrow’s visitation for six Sikhs killed in last weekend’s Oak Creek massacre. And Badal will stay in the Badger State through the weekend to attend a wedding for a friend’s daughter. The lawsuit alleges crimes against humanity, battery, negligence, and emotional distress – and it said there are no adequate remedies to the plaintiffs under the court system in India. Badal said yesterday he has not seen the lawsuit, and would not comment on it.

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