Author: Ramaninder K Bhatia
Publication: The Times of India
Date: February 25, 2011
URL: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-02-25/india/28633678_1_riot-victims-hondh-chillar-sikhs
Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh,
who visited Hondh Chillar village in Rewari district - the site of November-1984
Sikhs massacre - on Thursday, declared that the PM Manmohan Singh and AICC
President Sonia Gandhi should visit the place, if they had any feelings for
the victims of the crime against Sikhs.
The Jathedar was apparently moved by the ruins
of the abandoned village and said that it appeared as if the Sikhs were "still
living like slaves in a free country`` since the perpetrators of the crime
were roaming free even after 26 years of having committed it.
"Till the time, the guilty are not punished,
Sikhs would continue to suffer the agony of the massacres,`` he told mediapersons
at the site.
In Amritsar, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak
Committee (SGPC) urged the Prime Minister to hold a detailed and time-bound
investigation into the massacre. The Akal Takht Jathedar has also asked the
All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) and Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) to
look for similar incidents in places like Bokaro and Kanpur where Sikhs were
targeted in 1984 but not many details could emerge "just like the Hondh
village``.
Meanwhile, reacting to observations on why
the victims had kept quiet for so long, thus raising questions about timings
of the "discovery" of the new site, riot victims expressed anger
and disappointment at those asking such questions. Babu Singh Dukhiya, president
of the National 1984 victims justice society, who hails from Tilak Vihar in
Delhi said, "Can you tell us what justice have we got in the cases where
the perpetrators were identified and reported to police, 26 years ago. Can
you cite even a single instance, where action has been taken against those
who organized these dastardly acts in November 1984. People forget that the
victims were barely able to survive and find shelter after the riots in inhospitable
places where even the governments were biased against us. Who would have given
us justice.``
Pointing out that many of the victims were
still not able to earn two square meals after having lost their home and hearth
twice in a span of 40 years (first, the partition of 1947 and then the 1984
riots), Dukhiya said it was unfortunate that instead of understanding their
plight, people were attributing motives to their ``helpless silence.``
AISSF president Karnail Singh Peermohammad
said, even in the cases, where victims were persuaded to come out and stand
witness before courts, the perpetrators had been able to threaten or pressurize
them till recently. ``One of the witness, Giani Surinder Singh, even lost
his life under this kind of pressure. How can anyone expect the victims to
speak without fear and pressure under such circumstances.``
Meanwhile, in a letter written to Prime Minister
on Thursday the SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar has demanded that the investigation
should be carried by a sitting judge of High Court. Makkar had also appealed
to Manmohan Singh as well as home minister P Chidambram to personally visit
the unfortunate village for first hand information.
- (with inputs by Yudhvir Rana)
