1984 Anti Sikh Riots:- An Endless Wait For Justice

First day - 31st October 1984 

 

9:20 am: Indira Gandhi is shot by Sardar Beant Singh ji and Sardar Satwant Singh ji at her residence, No. 1 Safdarjung Road, for the Attack on Sri Darbar sahib June 1984.

She is then rushed to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

10:50 am: Indira Gandhi dies.

11:00 am: All India Radio listeners learn that the two security guards who shot Indira Gandhi were Sikhs.

4:00 pm: Rajiv Gandhi returns from West Bengal and reaches AIIMS. Stray incidents of attacks in and around that area. Rajiv Gandhi has already by this time spoken to some high ranking congress officials and politicians.

5:30 pm: The motorcade of President Zail Singh, who is returning from a foreign visit, is stoned as it approaches AIIMS.

EVENING of 31st October 1984 URGENT meetings are taking place at a high ranking congress leaders residences in Delhi.

One of those meetings was at 24 Akbar Road, New Delhi attended by members of Parliament and senior members of the Congress party including Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar, Kamal Nath, Dharam Das Shastri, Vasant Sathe, HKL Bhagat, Lalit Makhen, Arjun Das amongst others.

What is being discussed? The planning of a genocide! How to bring in tyres, kerosene oil, iron rods, and have enough transport to mobilise paid hooligans, rapists, murderers from one point to another...how the police are not to intervene, how state media will be used to show inflammatory speeches and scenes.

Congress MP's are ordered to make pacts with known 'criminal gangs' in their area's to eliminate Sikh men, rape their women and loot their belongings. A memo is sent out to ALL Delhi police stations ordering the immediate 'stand down' of ALL Sikh police officers till further notice AND for all Sikh police officers equipped with fire arms to return their fire arms to the local police station as of immediate effect.

1000's of photocopies of Voters list are being printed, containing ADDRESSES of Sikh houses and businesses in and around Delhi. Organised and well equipped gangs of ruffians set out in different directions from AIIMS. The violence, including violence towards Sikhs and destruction of Sikh properties, spreads. Rajiv Gandhi is sworn in as the Prime Minister.

Senior advocate and BJP leader Ram Jethmalani, meets Home Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and urges him to take immediate steps to protect Sikhs from further attacks. Delhi's Lt. Governor, P.G. Gavai and Police Commissioner, S.C. Tandon, visits some of the affected areas. Late evening, Delhi transport corporation buses are making their way out of Delhi to surrounding states to pick up paid hooligans/mobs.

NIGHT of 31st October 1984 Meetings are still taking place AND now truck loads of Iron rods and tyres are coming into Delhi from surrounding states. Trains and tankers full of kerosene oil are also making their way to OLD Delhi.

Jails around Delhi housing the most ruthless criminals are now being emptied of ALL those criminals including murderers and rapists, on the grounds that they can go FREE if they kill Sikh men and rape Sikh women, they are also told they will be paid for every Sikh that is killed and for every Sikh woman that is raped. 

Second day - 1st November 1984 Congress party MP Sajjan Kumar and Trade Union leader Lalit Maken handed out 100 rupee notes and bottles of liquor to assailants. On the morning of 1st November, Sajjan Kumar was seen holding rallies in, at least, the following Delhi neighborhoods; in Palam Colony from 6:30 AM to 7:00 AM, in Kiran Gardens from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM, and in Sultanpuri from around 8:30 AM to 9:00 AM.

In Kiran Gardens at 8:00 AM, Sajjan Kumar was seen distributing iron rods from a parked truck to a group of 120 people and instructing them to "attack Sikhs, kill them, and loot and burn their properties" The FIRST killing of a Sikh occurs in east Delhi. Armed mobs with guns lead the way.

9:00 am: Armed mobs take over the streets of Delhi and launch a massacre. Among the first targets are Gurdwaras. Sikhs seen in cars, public transport, including buses and trains are being dragged out...Sikh men are being beaten with rods and tyres are being placed around their necks... doused with kerosene oil..they are being set a light! Before they are being burnt they are pinned down and their hair and beards are being forcibly cut off.

120 Sikhs working at the Bokaro Steel Plant Jharkhand thrown alive into burning furnaces.

In Agartala, Tripura 40 Sikh families who took refuge in a police station to save their lives were burnt alive in the police station.

In Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh 12 Sikhs were hanged from the ceiling at the railway platform. Sikh women are being gang raped, beaten...stripped naked they sit next to the burning bodies of their husbands, bothers, sons. 40-50 Sikh girls are kidnapped and taken to a Chilla village where they are raped for 7 days!! Sikh belongings are being looted, their homes and business set alight. The police refuse to help or intervene. In some cases, the Police actually assist the mobs by disarming Sikhs so they could attack them. The worst affected areas are low income colonies like Trilokpuri, Shahdara, geeta colony,Mongolpuri, Sultanpuri and Palam Colony. 100's of Gurdwara are being burnt, Shiri Guru Granth Sahib ji de saroop are being set alight...Waheguru. This scene is being replicated in others parts of India.

The state media show looped video clips of Amitabh Bachchan raising slogans like "Khoon ka badla khoon" (blood for blood) and "Khoon ke chintey sikhon ke ghar tak pahunchni chahiye" (Splashes of blood should reach the doorsteps of Sikhs).

Third day -2nd November 1984 A repeat of 1st November. And A curfew is announced throughout Delhi, but is not enforced. The Army deployed throughout Delhi too but ineffective because the police did not co-operate with soldiers (who are not allowed to open fire without the consent of senior police officers and executive magistrates). The killings, rapes and looting continue.

 

Fourth day -3rd November 1984 Massacre continues. By late evening, the national Army and local police units work together to subdue the violence. After law enforcement intervention, violence is comparatively mild and sporadic. In Delhi the dead bodies of the victims were taken to All India Institute of Medical Sciences New Delhi and Civil Hospital Mortuary Tis hazari, Delhi.

It is now believed that 30,000 plus Sikhs Perished throughout India during these 4 days of State Sponsored Massacre. 100's of Sikh women listed missing / unaccounted for. 100's of young children missing /unaccounted for.

 

Even after 30 years the justice is still far away. And only god know how long it will remain the same.