Coming up, memorial to 1984 riots victims

Akali leaders vow to continue fight for justice, alleges Congress shielding culprits

Akali leaders vow to continue fight for justice, alleges Congress shielding culprits

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal promised a heritage memorial to be built in New Delhi as a tribute to the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Badal offered prayers at a gurdwara in Greater Kailash-II in New Delhi Sunday on the 25th anniversary of the riots. He later said that a memorial for riot victims would be built in Punjab also.

Nearly 3,000 Sikhs were targeted and killed by violent mobs in New Delhi and other places across India in the aftermath of the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards at her residence in New Delhi on October 31, 1984.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and Shiromani Akali Dal had jointly given a call for observing 'Ardas Divas' (prayer day) on Sunday to keep up the pressure to seek justice for victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

The Akalis demanded that those guilty of instigating and leading riots against Sikhs should be punished.
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"Victims of the 1984 massacre have not got justice in the last 25 years. We want the guilty to be punished.
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The Congress is trying to shield them," Sukhbir Badal, son of the Punjab chief minister, said.

The Badals blamed the Congress government at the centre for going slow against Congress leaders accused of unleashing violence against Sikhs. They charged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, himself the first Sikh prime minister of the country, for deliberately keeping silent on the issue of getting justice for riot victims.

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