NEW DELHI: Manjit Singh was a 10-year-old when his family members fell prey to the 1984 anti-Sikh massacre. They were among the 3,000 who were slaughtered during the pogrom. Thirty-four years to the day, he still has a vivid recollection of how he, along with his family members had to vacate their house after it was set on fire by a murderous mob. His mother kept arguing with the men, who were on a killing spree at their locality, Raj Nagar, in east Delhi.
“They climbed on a Gurudwara adjacent to our house and set it on fire. My husband and his brother were not at home at the time and my children were watching television. I was the only one out there protesting as they set fire to the Gurdwara. Soon, I was running for life with my family members, as everything around me went up in flames,” 85-year-old Baint Kaur, Manjit's mother, told this newspaper.
The family found temporary shelter on a vacant plot opposite their house. “Without food and water and with children, who were too small to realize what was happening around them, we stayed there for three days, frozen with fear. There were snakes and other reptiles around, but we couldn’t less as we had no choice,” Kaur recalled.
She said a majority of Sikhs living in Raj Nagar migrated to Punjab and other places. Manjit said even as years rolled and he grew into an adult, the fear and trauma never left him. He said the Delhi High Court judgment, convicting Sajjan Kumar for his alleged role in the ’84 riots, cannot bring back the ones he lost.
Asked if he is satisfied with the verdict, he said, “It’s been 34 years. The judgment, after all these years, can barely atone for our losses. He is a politician and will be out on bail sooner or later. He doesn’t have too many years to live.”
A horror story retold
Now 45. Manjit Singh was 10 years old when a mob, on a killing spree in his then east Delhi locality, gathered outside his home and set fire to a gurdwara. They then set fire to his house.