‘Guilty must be punished in 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases’

Sikh activists on Friday deplored the way the government has denied justice to the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots by not bringing the guilty to book.

‘It has been 28 years since the gruesome killings of Sikhs. But the guilty have not been brought to justice. It was not a riot but a conspiracy against the Sikhs. The guilty must be punished’  said advocate H.S. Phoolka, who is fighting the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases.

Around 2,700 Sikhs were killed as mobs roamed Delhi streets in the aftermath of the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984.

‘Congress leaders who butchered people were rewarded with ministerial berths and Sikhs were gunned down on the basis of suspicion,’ said former journalist Jarnail Singh, who had hurled a shoe at the then home minster P Chidambaram in 2009 to protest the lack of action against the guilty.

‘There is strong evidence against Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, who were involved in the pogrom but they are still roaming free,’ Singh said.

Singh said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is himself a Sikh, must visit the Sikh families who lost their relatives in the killings.

‘The country is asked not to forget 2002 [Gujarat] but when it comes to 1984, they want us to forget it,’ said Singh.