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We fear for our life, ’84 riot survivors tell Modi

NEW DELHI:Prime Minister Narendra Modi today met three Punjab-based survivors of the 1984 Sikh carnage whose testimonies led to the life sentence of former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, and hailed their bravery and struggle over 34 years.

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Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 2

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today met three Punjab-based survivors of the 1984 Sikh carnage whose testimonies led to the life sentence of former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, and hailed their bravery and struggle over 34 years.

In a half-an-hour meeting at Parliament House annexe this afternoon, the PM promised enhanced security to Amritsar-based Jagdish Kaur, her cousin Jagsher Singh and to Mohali-based Nirpreet Kaur, all witnesses and survivors of the Delhi Cantonment killing of Sikhs on November 1 and 2, 1984. All currently have two security officers each, but want more to protect their wards.

Sajjan Kumar, former local MP of that area, was recently held guilty of abetting the murder of five members of Jagdish Kaur and Jagsher Singh’s family in the aftermath of former PM Indira Gandhi’s assassination on October 31, 1984. He surrendered on December 31 last year.

The three survivors flagged the concerns of their safety to the PM, saying Sajjan Kumar and his accomplices were likely to seek revenge now.

The survivors also demanded daily trial in all the remaining cases of riots, besides the reopening of the case against Congress veteran Kamal Nath, now the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. “We told the PM that our actual struggle has begun only now. Our lives are at greater risk today than ever before because Sajjan Kumar is in jail and should anything happen to us, he can always say he is in jail and doesn’t know anything. We sought enhanced security and the PM promised to look into that,” Nirpreet Kaur told The Tribune.

The survivors further said that like their case against Sajjan Kumar was tried on a daily basis from the sessions court right up to the Delhi HC, all other Sikh carnage cases should be decided on a day-to-day basis to instill confidence in the community.

“The key question is of our lives and the safety of our children. Witnesses have been killed in the past and we fear for the lives of our kin. We told the PM our concern and also sought rehabilitation of other survivors,” Jagdish Kaur said.

The survivors also spoke of the need to fast-track the pending case in a local Delhi court against another former Congress MP, Jagdish Tytler.

“We have also demanded that the Special Investigation Team of the Centre should reinvestigate the case against Kamal Nath. This is a long pending demand,” Nirpreet Kaur said. The case is due for hearing in Delhi’s Karkardooma court on January 31.

The meeting was facilitated by Union Minister Harsimrat Badal. It was attended by 1984 survivors, who were accompanied by SAD chief Sukhbir Badal, all SAD MPs, Delhi Akali Dal leaders Manjit Singh GK and Manjinder Singh Sirsa and SGPC chief Gobind Singh Longowal.

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