New Delhi: Sikhs demand justice for 1984 riots victims

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New Delhi: Sikhs demand justice for 1984 riots victims

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The families of deceased victims of 1984 anti-Sikh demanded riots have demanded justice.

03 November,2011 04:05 pm

The bereaved families of deceased victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots showed their angst by staging a mass protest onThursday (November 03) in New Delhi, demanding punishment for those responsible for the brutal killings.Indias former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984.The anti-Sikh riots, considered among the countrys bloodiest in modern times, were in retaliation to the assassination of Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards that led to the killing of 3,000 people.Raising slogans against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and chief of ruling Congress party Sonia Gandhi, the protestors demanded punishment to those culpable for the riots. Members of the regional Shiromani Akali Dal group organised this protest.Slamming the PM, leader of main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Vijay Kumar Malhotra said Singh had not fulfilled his promises of taking stringent action against the guilty. Moreover, he pointed out that the kin of victims have neither received compensation nor monetary assistance.Gandhis assassination, in October 1984, was carried out in revenge for her decision to send the army to flush Sikh separatists out of the Golden Temple, Sikhisms holiest shrine, in the northern city of Amritsar in June 1984. The raid damaged the shrine, enraging Sikhs.In March 2009, Indias federal police or Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) gave a clean chit to Jagdish Tytler, accused of inciting mobs during the 1984 anti- Sikh riots.The government says nearly 3,000 Sikhs were killed in the riots following her death, while human rights activists say the figure was closer to 4,000.Over 3,000 Sikhs across Delhi were killed in communal frenzy in the days following the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.Activists accuse Congress of having turned a blind eye to the killing of Sikhs and say some of its leaders helped orchestrate the rioting. Sikhs make up around two percent of Hindu-majority Indias population of 1.2 billion.