Rights Group Condemns "Government" Silence Over Rape of Sikh Women in 1984

Declares Reward of $10k For Identification of Each 1984 "Rapist"

TIMES OF INDIA

As there is strong anger in the country against the rape and rapists, Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), an international human rights group advocating justice for the victims of November 1984, while showing solidarity and sending its "deepest condolences" to the family of the Delhi gang rape victim, questioned the silence of the Indian administration, politicians and the justice system over the rape of Sikh women in broad daylight during first week of November 1984.

The NGO has announced a reward of $10,000 for the identification and prosecution of those who raped Sikh women during November 1984. "The reward of $10,000 will be given to the witnesses who come forward with the identification of rapist and their prosecution," said SFJ legal advisor Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in a statement issued on Monday.

While sharing the pain with Delhi gang rape victims for the loss of their daughter who was gang raped in a Delhi Transport Bus, Rights group held that it was an irony that public transport buses were then used to transport death squads that raped Sikh women in broad day light during November 1984 massacre of Sikhs. "Successive governments have not only given impunity to those who perpetrated violent crime of rape against Sikh women but also have rewarded those with official positions," SFJ said.

While responding to Sonia Gandhi's, statement that "As a woman, and mother, I understand how protesters feel," "Today we pledge that the victim will get justice,"?, SFJ asked her stand on the plight of the victims of 1984.

THE HINDU

Rights group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), while seeking to send its "deepest condolences" to the family of the Delhi gang-rape victim, has questioned the silence of the administration, politicians and the justice system over the rape of women of the Sikh community in broad daylight during the genocide that followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.

Through a release, the SFJ said it shared the pain of the family who lost her for no fault of her own. During the November 1984 riots, Delhi public buses were used to transport squads that raped Sikh women in November 1984, it alleged.

Responding to Congress president Sonia Gandhi's statement that as a woman and a mother, she could understand the protesters' emotions, the SFJ wondered if she had conveniently forgotten the "vicious cycle of rape and murder let loose against Sikh women in 1984 at the behest of her husband." Why did she or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh never visited the hundreds of Sikh victims languishing in "Widow Colony" just a few miles from the Parliament of the greatest democratic country, it asked. For the last 28 years, successive Indian governments had given open impunity to those who perpetrated violent crimes against Sikh women, it said.

Meanwhile, the Haryana CPI(M) unit has taken strong exception to certain utterances by the "so-called Khap leaders." They reportedly described most of the rape complaints as fake and consensual. The party objected to their reported opinion that most of the rape complaints were made for extorting money from the accused persons. Party's State unit secretary Inderjit Singh, in a statement, expressed grave concern at such "outrageous" remarks, particularly at a time when the entire country was displaying its anger against incidents of rapes and sexual assault on women. It also took a serious view that while cases were being perpetrated unabated, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who also holds the Home portfolio, had maintained astonishing silence.