Candle march, seminar in Delhi mark anniv of ’84 riots

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 1

To mark the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the Sikh community on Monday took out a candle march dedicated to those killed in the riots, while at a seminar, lawyer Harvinder Singh Phoolka asked the Sikh intelligentsia to come forward and condemn the incidents such as hoisting of a flag at the Red Fort as it defamed the community.

As per official figures, some 2,700 persons were killed in Delhi alone during the riots which had broken out following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) organised a candle march from Gurdwara Rakabganj to the ‘wall of truth’. DSGMC chief Manjinder Singh Sirsa and general secretary Harmeet Singh Kalka led the march.

Sirsa said the 1984 massacre could never be forgotten. “The Congress has been defending the main culprits for the last 37 years and the community has been struggling to bring the culprits to justice,” he said. Kalka said the DSGMC would ensure rehabilitation and compensation for the riot victims. The Sikh forum organised a seminar ‘Legacies of 1984 and challenges before the Sikhs today’. HS Phoolka, a noted lawyer who has spent 37 years contesting cases of riot victims, said: “We have to be relentless in our quest for justice and in seeking punishment for the rioters.”

Candle march, seminar in Delhi mark anniv of ’84 riots
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