1984 and 2000 anti-Sikh Massacres: Parliamentarians Seek Justice for Victims
Posted: 12 Aug 2016
NEW DELHI—During different occasions, two incidents of anti-Sikh massacres have again come to the fore where prominent Punjab MPs have sought justice for the victims.
During November 1984, where thousands of Sikhs were killed across India; on March 20, 2000, 36 Sikhs were killed in cold blooded murders by members of the Indian border security forces. So far, culprits of the massacres have not been brought to justice and the topic has been brought up time after time by different politicians without any fruit.
Earlier today, addressing the Indian Parliamentarians, MP Prem Chandumajra demanded re-investigation of the cases registered against Jagdish Tytler for leading Hindu mobs responsible for massacring Sikhs in Delhi during 1984 Sikh genocide attacks. Jagdish Tytler is one of the chief accused 1984 Sikh genocide following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The mobs were facilitated hassle free for over 72 hours by Indian government officials to mercilessly massacre the Sikhs resulting in killing of more than 3,000 Sikhs.
Presenting a legal document in the Parliament, Chandumajra said that during its investigations, the CBI had found a case against arms dealer Abhishek Verma, who is a close-associate of Jagdish Tytler. Chandumajra claimed that Jagdish Tytler was responsible for acquiring arms through Verma. “Also, he (Tytler) had threatened the witness Surinder Singh in his case,” Chandumajra accused as he sought re-investigations in the case.
Surinder Singh was the head Granthi of Gurdwara Sahib ‘Majnu ka Tilla’ in New Delhi when he had seen and heard Jagdish Tytler telling his supporters on November 1, 1984, outside Gurdwara Sahib Pulbangash to loot and kill the Sikhs. While Surinder Singh had earlier backed out from his testimony against Jagdish Tytler’s involvement in killings of Sikhs in November 1984, he finally came to the fore in 2007 when he testified to having seen Tytler lead mods during November 1984. Surinder Singh passed away on July 13, 2009.
Similarly, Rajya Sabha member Sukhdev Dhindsa also raised the issue of Sikh massacres in Chittisinghpura during March 2000. “The victims are still deprived of justice and the commission appointed to probe the massacres didn’t even present its report about the investigations. Justice was far apart, the victim families were not even facilitated any relief package by the Government,” Dhindsa said earlier.
Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa said that as now the BJP was ruling in Kashmir as well as in the Centre, it was a time for it to do something for the families of Chittisinghpura massacre.
In March 2000, in Chittisinghpura, a small village two-and-a-half-hours drive from Srinagar, the summer capital of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, 35 innocent Sikhs were cold bloodily murdered. The massacre coincided with the visit of United States president Bill Clinton to India. When Bill Clinton went to India in March, it was the first visit by an American president in 22 years. Bill Clinton had apparently done some risk analysis of his own. Not long before his India trip, he called the region “the most dangerous place in the world.”
35 Sikhs were killed, but Nanak Singh, survived and was an eyewitness to the carnage. He was at first saved by the shield of a toppling body. Then he was wounded in the hip during the second round of shooting. He tried to lie perfectly still.
He remembers that some of the gunmen had faces painted in the raucous fashion of Holi, a Hindu holiday being celebrated that day. As the killers marched off, a few called out the parting words “Jai Mata Di,” a Hindi phrase of praise for a Hindu goddess. The entire attack lasted about half an hour.