A Special Study Of The Massacre

Sultanpuri

The Sultanpuri colony had a mix of Hindus and Sikhs living there. A large number of Hindus were from the so-called lower castes and were employed as scavengers in different places. Sikhs included masons, iron-smiths, weavers, auto-rickshaw drivers, TV technicians, electricians and shopkeepers. Some Sikhs were also rickshaw-pullers, hawkers and labourers.

It is important to note that before 1984, people of this colony were living in perfect peace and harmony. Many Sikhs living here have vouched that they never had any communal trouble.

The mob attack on the Sikhs on November 1, 1984, therefore, surprised all of them. Eyewitness reports bear out that the mob included some local people and members of the backward Jat community living in the neighbouring areas. For instance, some of them came from Mundka village.

Sikh men were the first target of the mob. While hundreds of them were killed in the first go, some survived, either because they were given up as dead by the killers or because they managed to hide from the mob. The survivors have identified some of the killers as being local political leaders of the Congress party, policemen and some local residents as well.

In the process of identification of some of the killers, one thing that emerges quite clearly is that hardly any of the local killers, who included scavengers, mechanics, hawkers and other menial workers, initiated the attack. A majority of the killer mobs worked on a game plan and under instructions, given openly, by local political workers and leaders who, inflamed passions against Sikhs and helped the killer mobs identify their shops, houses and other establishments. Repeated references have been made by the families of the victims to Chauhan, Bagri and Gupta as those who egged on the mobs. A former member of parliament, who has been identified by survivors, is Congress party’s Sajjan Kumar.

A clear pointer to the involvement of police personnel in the Sikh carnage is evidence given by the survivors in which they have named cops like Bhatti, who was not only involved in openly killing Sikhs but also helped the mob snatch away whatever small weapons of defence the victims could have used. One of the witnesses has said on record that "the police took part in the killings, both directly and indirectly".

The survivors I talked to all gave similar accounts of who played what role in the carnage. For instance, kerosene oil, which was used on a large-scale to burn numerous victims alive, was personally distributed by Mssrs Brahmanand Gupta, Bera Nand, Master and Ved Parkash besides Doctor Changa. Others who played a direct role in the killings, include, Hanuman Rashawala Gujr and Gulab Singh, a go down-owner and a three-wheeler driver Omi. All these goons led the attack.

The attack on Sikh houses and shops started on the night of November 1 and continued unabated until the next evening. The mob was being directed to kill Sikh men and rape Sikh women. The mob was armed with sticks, iron rods and kerosene oil. Many Hindu neighbours tried to hide the Sikhs in their house but in spite of it, not many Sikhs were lucky to escape the subsequent violence. Sikh houses were identified and the mob returned repeatedly to their houses until it succeeded in getting its prey. Whatever could be looted was taken away and the immovable property of the victims was systematically destroyed, mostly gutted.

The killings were savage. One Sardar was pushed into a vehicle and set a fire along with the vehicle. Women were not spared either. The mob knifed to death a pregnant woman and scores of others were gang-raped.

The Ranibagh Shakarpur relief camp had mostly women and young girls. And boys, if at all they were there, were under the age often. One of the families from Sultanpuri had 18 members, including, middle aged and young women besides children. All the four men of the family were killed in that was certainly not an isolated case. There is no earning hand in the family now. One of the women had delivered a baby a day before tragedy struck her husband and the rest of the family’s men.

Soon after the killings, most of the women in the camp were too dazed to speak. It took them days and weeks before they could even bring themselves to shed tears. An elderly woman was heard wailing, imploring the relief workers to "poison us all." "Why should we live? What for?" was her refrain. Each of these women had seen grotesque violence directed against her father, brother and husband and none of them was ready to go back to houses where they lost their most precious relatives. Fourteen years later, they are all still away from their own colonies still roaming free, is it any wonder that these women cannot even imagine going back? That is besides the avalanche of memories that they fear will come back to haunt them. In Sultanpuri, the worst affected blocks were A-4 (65 men were killed and 15 missing), P-1, 2 and 3 (31 dead and five missing) and C-3 and 4. Among the 2,000 people who came to the relief camp from this area, 157 were killed, 25 badly injured and 52 missing. This amounts to saying that one out of every two families lost its members to the violence. According to one observer, the number of those injured is surprisingly low in comparison to that of the killed. The violence did not end until the morning of November 4. According to one report, the SHO Sultanpuri, even summoned the survivors (men) to the police station and asked them to cut their hair and remove their turbans in front of him. At the end of the exercise each Sikh had to pay him 21 rupees (currency in odd number is given on auspicious occasions in India). The man hired to cut the Sikhs’ hair made 500 rupees in one day, the report added.

All the above facts bear out that the anti-Sikh violence was not spontaneous, as claimed by many important people in India, but, systematic and pre-planned.

Mongolpuri

In west Delhi’s Mongolpuri colony, an announcement from a police vehicle in Block G-1, saying that the Capital’s water had been poisoned on November 1 is what sparked off the anti-Sikh violence. Two other rumours, that Sikhs were celebrating Mrs. Gandhi’s assassination by distributing sweets and that train loads of dead Hindus were arriving from Punjab, added fuel to the fire.

Anticipating trouble, Sikhs from several blocks went to the police station to seek protection. A woman from the relief camp later told us that the police had turned away the men from her family, saying, "We cannot help you. In any case, you have to pay for what you did." Many eye-witness accounts confirm that police vehicles were used to transport the arsenal used in the violence, mainly kerosene oil. Some Sikh men from block X, who survived the carnage, said that the police was directly involved in dragging people out of their homes to be killed. Cops would raid a house and then hand over Sikh men to the mob.

The killers included Jats from a neighbouring village and some scheduled casts men from their own area. Workers and local leaders of the Congress party, according to several accounts, supervised the killings sitting in stationary jeeps and other vehicles around the attackers. In Mongolpuri, one Congress party member who finds a repeated mention in the eyewitness accounts is Malaram, said to have led about 300 people who attacked Sikhs. Others who are mentioned in these reports, include, Ishwar Singh, Salim Quereshi and Shukin, all Congress workers.

Former member of parliament, Sajjan Kumar, tops the list of those Congressmen who led the attack. A majority of the victims’ families say that the violence was master-minded by Sajjan Kumar. Allegations against him of having paid cash and other incentives, such as, liquor bottles to the killers are also quite common. A measure of the survivors’ belief that Sajjan Kumar was responsible for the violence is that when he visited a relief camp on November 4, the survivors openly told him he was a killer. The families of those killed refused to touch the food that he had brought to the relief camp. Nor did they allow him to speak.

The story on every woman’s lips was the same: The utter brutality with which men and children were killed, some of them forced to cut their hair before being done to death. All the 26 blocks in Mongolpuri were attacked and hardly any Sikh family was spared. As per the government list, however, only nine people were killed in this area whereas an independent survey by the Community party of India (Marxist), at least 51 men were killed. We were taken to several spots where dead bodies had been disposed off, including, a sewerage drain, where, according to some people, more than a hundred dead bodies were dumped.

The army went to the area on November 3 rescue Sikhs. A man in the relief camp later said that he was about to be set a fire when the army trucks rolled into the park, where he had been made to stand with much ceremony by the killer mob. Before the arrival of the army, if there was any help available to Sikhs, it was from their neighbours and friends. Hindus as well as Muslims who put their own lives at risk by giving shelter to Sikhs. A Hindu resident of the area, Mr. C Lal’s story makes an obvious point. A victim of India’s partition in 1947, Mr. Lal says, he never imagined that he would ever witness the same kind of bloodbath again. His brother’s shop was burnt down because the mobs suspected he had given shelter to some Sikhs. Mr. Lal was instrumental in forming a peace committee in his area for the protection of the Sikh community during the days of violence.

Trilokpuri Violence

The most heart-rending tales of violence were reported from east Delhi’s Trilokpuri colony. Five hundred Sikh men and children were burnt alive here in two days (from the night of October 31 to November 2). This chapter was authored by Congress party parliamentarian H K L Bhagat and the local police.

The violence here too was preceded by rumours that Sikhs were celebrating Mrs. Gandhi’s assassination and that they had attacked a group of Hindus from inside the local Gurudwara first. According to one version, the violence here was triggered off by Sikhs. However, from among any number of eye-witnesses we talked to, mostly Hindus, nobody could not confirm that he had indeed seen or heard Sikhs celebrating the killing of the prime minister. Some of them did say that, when a group of Hindus were approaching the Gurudwara, Sikhs from inside came out with swords to defend the structure. The swords only drawn, not used.

After talking to the survivors from this area, the Hindu residents and some press reporters, who were there on the scene of the violence, it can be said that the role of the police in the carnage here was similar to its role in the violence elsewhere. Kalyanpuri police station, under which falls Trilokpuri, there are 113 police personnel, an inspector, who was doubling as station house officer (SHO) and 90 constables. The SHO reached Trilokpuri just when the violence started on November 1. The first thing he did was to remove the Head Constable and the other cops posted in the colony. With this step, he removed whatever fear the mob might have had of the police and whatever confidence the hapless Sikhs might have had of being protected.

The pattern of violence here was even more cruel. While men were brutally killed, women and young girls, barely in their teens were gang-raped. Seven cases of rapes were formally acknowledged by a medical report of J. P. Hospital. There was no attempt by the police at any point of time throughout the three days of violence to stem it although the then Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Nikhil Kumar, who went on to become the Chief of Delhi police later had specific information about the unabated anti-Sikh violence in Block 32 of Trilokpuri.

Rows upon rows of Sikh houses were set on fire along with the inmates but the police control room recorded just three deaths in the area. A reporter from a Delhi-based daily newspaper, who went to Trilokpuri’s Block 28 at about 2 p.m. on November 2, was threatened by the mobs and his car was stoned. From there, he went to the police station where the SHO, Shoorvir Singh, told him that there was absolute peace in his area. This, when the reporter himself saw four dead bodies in a truck stationed outside the SHO’s office. One of the victims, he reported, was still half alive. Helplessly, the reporter left the police station only to see a crowd of 70 women and children wailing and howling as they were walking down Nizzamuddin flyover. The reporter spotted some army men close by. He sought their intervention but they said they had no orders to intervene. Finally, the reporter made it to the police headquarters at ITO and met the area ACP, Nikhil Kumar. What he heard from Nikhil Kumar shocked him: "I can only be a conduit for your message to the top but, otherwise, I am helpless, just a guest artists."

The determined reporter went back to Trilokpuri in the evening and saw heaps of dead bodies and burnt houses. The SHO he had met in the morning (who told him that all was quiet in the area) was there along with two constables taking a walk. The reporter went back to the police headquarters and was told by another ACP that there was no trouble in Trilokpuri as per their information. The reporter told him that he had personally seen about 500 dead bodies and had seen the cops doing a head count. Most of the bodies were beyond recognition, according to the reporter.

Senior police officers reached Trilokpuri on the evening of November 2, when the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) had already been posted there and the survivors were making a beeline to some or the other relief camp. Some of the survivors including old men, women and children were either badly burnt or injured. Women were howling and narrating how their entire area had been "handed over to the mob by the police." Several witnesses accused Dr. Ashok Kumar of congress party of having personally directed the mob to violence. The gravity of the violence in Trilokpuri can be gauged from the fact that stench of half-burnt bodies hit one’s nose much before reaching there and, on reaching there, what did one see? Dogs and rats nibbling at the corpses.

And, in the middle of all this violence and media reports about it, what did Delhi’s Lt. Governor have to say? "The situation is under control." The situation sure was under control of killers and rioters who had the full support of the police to do what they pleased in the two days and nights of November 1 and 2.

With the police actively involved in the massacre and the administration looking the other way, it was only natural that the first help, at least in the relief camps for the survivors, came from volunteers of different organisations. Food and medicines came from these organisations. A woman gave birth to a baby on the same night as she arrived in the camp, in what is one of the many indications of the poignancy of the situation. The authorities, however, sent no help either for her for those who were badly injured.

It was the volunteers who went to the rescue of Sikhs hiding in their neighbours’ houses and shops. The District magistrate had to be literally coaxed into lending a helping hand in the rescue operation. The survivors were later assured all help from the authorities but got none. Farash Bazar camp, where the survivors from the worst-affected Trilokpuri were sent, saw lots of relief measures taken by voluntary organisations but hardly any by the government and, yet, it has been held up by the government as a perfect specimen of its relief work. Such claims are as true as the authorities’ claims about there being no threat to peace in Trilokpuri at the peak of violence.