The Hindu : National : Sikh diaspora seeks explanation for injustice to victims of 1984 carnage

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Sikh diaspora seeks explanation for injustice to victims of 1984 carnage

Sarabjit Pandher

CHANDIGARH: On the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s arrival in the U.S., different advocacy, human rights groups, networks and Sikh organisations, have put up a coordinated campaign across North America and Europe to expose the denial of justice to the thousands of victims of the November 1984 anti-Sikh carnage.

According to a release on Saturday, these groups have appealed to President Barack Obama, members of the U.S. Congress, human rights organisations, the media and the people of the U.S., to ask Dr. Singh to explain the events of November 1984 and their aftermath.

They demanded that Dr. Singh should tell the world community how continuous mistreatment, abuse and killings of Sikhs, Dalits and other religious minorities, did not establish an ongoing pattern of targeting minorities in a “supposedly democratic India.” They asked the international community to negate India’s claim of respect for human rights, justice for all, and democracy.

One such campaign is spearheaded by a New York-based attorney, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is the legal adviser to Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), a U.S.-based human advocacy, which in collaboration with the All-India Sikh Students Federation and its president Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad, want to disseminate true and correct information, statistics, figures and data regarding the “Genocide of Sikhs in November 1984.”

‘Indicted shielded’

In the appeal to President Obama, the SFJ emphasised that the aftermath was worse than the riots themselves as successive Indian governments not only failed to prosecute the guilty, but continued to shield those leaders indicted by inquiry commissions. Most of them were given seats in parliament and positions in the Union Cabinet.

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