Following objections raised by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) over CBI giving clean chit to former union minister Jagdish Tytler in 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the Punjab Congress on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to set up a special investigation team (SIT) to clear the air over the issue.
“The PM must set up SIT under the direct control of ministry of Home Affairs so that the people could know the truth behind the carnage,” Punjab Congress spokesman Fateh Jang Singh Bajwa said here.
“Setting up of SIT is need of the hour for removing certain shorcomings in the CBI report on the ’84 riots,” he said.
He said that two Congress MPs from Punjab - Ravneet Singh Bittu and Partap Singh Bajwa - too had recently met the Prime Minister seeking setting up of the SIT to get the 84 carnage probed.
Mr. Bajwa, however, lambasted the ruling SAD in Punjab for “politicising” the ’84 riots issue.
“During the NDA regime, in which the SAD was a major ally, the then Government slept over the ’84 riots issue and did nothing for ensuring justice to Sikhs”, he said adding Akalis only shed “crocodile tears” on the issue for vote bank politics at the cost of those who died in the riots.
