Ludhiana (November 14, 2011): According to certain media reports the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), which is a group of Indian Muslim diaspora in United States of American, has called on the government of India to mark the 27th anniversary of the anti-Sikh pogrom in 1984, by taking concrete steps to secure justice for the victims, and rehabilitation for the survivors.
“The 1984 anti-Sikh massacres and the failure on the part of successive governments to apprehend the culprits even after 27 years, represents one of the lowest points in the history of Indian democracy,” said Shaheen Khateeb, president, IAMC is reported to have said on November 02, 2011 in a press release issued by the organization.
Khateeb further added that it was absolutely unconscionable that all the victims of the pogrom haven’t got justice despite 10 official commissions. The failure of the Congress Party to hold accountable individuals like Jagdish Tytler, Kamal Nath and Sajjan Kumar whose political careers were untouched by their implications in the November 1984 massacre, shows that the ruling party is still in a state of denial about its own responsibility for the mass killing of Sikhs, added the president of IAMC.
The horrific violence that engulfed Delhi and parts of northern India, claimed the lives of over 3000 people in Delhi alone and displaced thousands of others, in violence against the Sikhs after assassination of Mrs. Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.
The discovery of mass graves in Haryana in 2011 shows that a full accounting of the 1984 pogrom has not yet happened.
IAMC has called upon the government of India, even at this late juncture, to reverse the miscarriages of justice that have taken place over the last 27 years. By bringing to justice those responsible for the mass violence and killings, regardless of their political and social standing, the country can heal the wounds of countless victims, while ensuring that targeted killings of members of any community.