NEW DELHI, Oct 31: Denouncing the killing of Sikhs during the 1984 riots following the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination, the community leaders today expressed their anguish over justice being delayed to them.
‘It’s been 28 years since the riots took place and nothing has been done by any of the governments,’ Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) leaders said addressing a press conference here on the anniversary of Ms Gandhi’s assassination.
Asked whether the community justified the killing of Ms Gandhi whose death sparked the anti-Sikh riots, Delhi president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) Manjit Singh said, ‘It was unfortunate but she called for it.’
‘Those who live by the gun, die by the gun,’ he said referring to the then Prime Minister’s decision to allow the Army enter the sacred Sikh shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar during Operation Blue Star in June 1984.
Speaking on the occasion, another leader of the Sikh body
Jaththedar Kuldeep Singh said it was highly unfortunate that the Central Government remained a mute spectator of the riots and did not do anything to stop the same.
He also urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to do something about it, as he too belonged to the same community.
The Sikh leaders charged the present government of inaction against Congress leaders like Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar saying ‘the culprits like them were roaming openly in the country and nothing was being done to address the concern of the badly hurt community which lost over fifteen thousand people in the ‘84 riots.’
(UNI)
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