New Delhi, India (July 16, 2014): Having lost faith and disgruntled with the Indian legal system, 1984 Sikh Genocide victims and human rights activists have decided to go international with their quest after being constantly denied justice by successive governments in India.
On the 30th year of India-wide killing of Sikhs, misnomered as “anti-Sikh riots” victims of 1984 announced to carry the “Torch of Justice” from Delhi to United Nations Headquarters in New York.
A march carrying the “Torch of Justice” will start from Amritsar and will reach Delhi on October 31. Two and half month long march will pass through all the States where Sikhs were massacred during November 1984. A delegation of survivors and human rights activists will carry the “Torch of Justice” from Delhi to New York reaching U.N. headquarters on November 3rd.
AISSF President Karnail Singh Peermohammad stated that despite recommendation of Nanavati Commission, successive governments shielded the high ranking Congress leaders from prosecution for their role in November 1984. We will be carrying the “Torch of Justice” to United Nations in New York to highlight the three decades of impunity to those who orchestrated genocidal violence against Sikhs, added Peermohammad.
In 2005 Justice Nanavati Commission reported that 1984 violence against the Sikh community was well planned and organized by Congress leaders. Justice Nanavati recommended prosecution and filing murder charges against Congress leaders Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and others for inciting and leading death squads that killed Sikhs during November 1984.
After the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the Congress leaders organized and orchestrated attacks targeting Sikhs throughout India. The attacks on Sikh lives, properties and places of worship were carried out in a meticulous and identical manner resulting in more than 30,000 (thirty thousand) Sikhs being killed most of them burnt alive, hundreds of Sikh women being raped, Sikh Gurudwaras (Temples) being burnt; Sikh properties looted and more than three hundred thousand (300,000) Sikhs being uprooted and displaced.
A delegation of “All India Sikh Students Federation” (AISSF) and “National November 1984 Victims Justice and Welfare Society” will join New York based human rights group “Sikhs for Justice” (SFJ) in submitting a report to Honorable Ivan Šimonović, UN Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights. The report “1984 Sikh Genocide” will carry details of systematic, organized and deliberate killings of Sikhs in 19 states, eyewash investigations by the government and zero convictions by the courts.