The national Capital on Saturday witnessed a massive protest on the 34-anniversary of the 1984 anti-sikh riots. The protesters, led by Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal, Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, and Delhi MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa, wanted to march towards former Congress President Sonia Gandhi's residence, but were detained by the police near the Parliament Street Police Station.
"We are going to surround Sonia Gandhi's house. Congress has been defending its leaders Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler, and we demand that they should stop doing so. It has been 34 years and Rahul Gandhi says that Congress had no role it. We allege that Congress is trying to save its leader because they only masterminded this massacre," said Sirsa.
The protesters, who began their march from Gurudwara Rakabganj Sahib, were seeking justice for the families of those who were killed in the riots.
"It has been more than 34 years and the victim families have still been waiting for justice. Thousands of Sikhs were massacred, several women were raped and several people lost their homes. Such atrocity is a blot on the history of India. No one received justice. Why is judiciary not taking suo-motu action?" Harsimrat Kaur Badal told reporters before she was detained by police.
The Akali Dal has been seeking justice for the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in which a large number of Sikhs were killed in the national Capital and in other parts of the country in the aftermath of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination by her Sikh bodyguards. (With agency inputs)
