Amritsar , Punjab (August 15, 2014): While India’s 67 Independence day was celebrated with fervor, November 1984 Sikh Genocide victims and human rights activists have decided to go international with their quest for justice. Being constantly denied justice, the victims of 1984 violence launched the “Torch of Justice” after paying obeisance at Sri Akal Takht Sahib, the highest temporal seat of Sikhism.
Having lost faith and disgruntled with the Indian legal system, on October 1, “AISSF” and 1984 survivors will start their journey carrying the “Torch of Justice” from Delhi to United Nations Headquarters in New York.
AISSF President Karnail Singh Peermohammad stated that month long “Torch of Justice” campaign 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.
Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad addressing media
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.