New Delhi, December 3
Akali Dal leader Kuldip Singh Bhogal today told the Nanavati Commission that some personnel of the Haryana police also took part in the anti-Sikh violence during the 1984 riots.
Mr Bhogal said the cops were part of a group of Gujjars who came to the Capital on a train from Haryana on November 2, 1984 two days after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
They were thousands in number and armed with identical lathis and iron rods. They immediately formed groups and started indulging in arson, looting, killing and burning of Sikhs, he said about the rioting that took place in the Hari Nagar Ashram area in South Delhi.
The Akali leader said he caught hold of one of the rioters who carried a Haryana police identity card. This was a clear indication and evidence that the mob to which he belonged were members of the Madhuban Police Training Centre near Karnal in Haryana. They were sent to create chaos, lawlessness and destruction.
This mob, Mr Bhogal said, damaged houses and killed about six Sikhs in the area. Four of the victims belonged to one Sikh family. They were first injured and then burnt alive by the mob.
Mr Bhogal, who was the then general secretary of the Akali Dal (Youth wing) also told the commission that on November 1 when a communal mob was attacking the Sikhs in the area, the personnel of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) deployed there instigated rioters to continue with their activities.
They instead of controlling and dispersing the mob threatened us that they will fire on us if we do not go back to our houses, he said.
After the police forced the Sikhs to go back to their houses, they instigated the mob to continue with its activities and the mob started looting and burning shops belonging to Sikhs, he added. UNI