‘We Will Stop Protesting Only After We Get Justice’

New Delhi: Declaring that those affected by the anti-Sikh riots in the capital in 1984 would stop protesting only when justice was served, Atma Singh Lubana, an eyewitness in one of the cases, said, “We have waited for almost 40 years and will wait for 40 more if we have to.” He was reacting to the framing of charges against Congress leader of the time, Jagdish Tytler, by a Rouse Avenue court on Friday.Lubana, who submitted an affidavit in court to be listed as an eyewitness in the Pul Bangash Gurdwara case, told TOI, “In 2007, the Central Bureau of Investigation gave a clean chit to Tytler in its closure report, stating that there were no eyewitnesses in the case. I and some others protested that we were eyewitnesses and were ready to give our testimonies. We have been fighting this battle till now.”In his late 60s now, Lubana said on Friday, “In all these years, this is the first time we see some hope for justice and for the accused to get the punishment he deserves.”The case relates to the killing of three Sikh men at the Pul Bangash Gurdwara at Azad Market on November 1, 1984. A mob allegedly burnt down the gurdwara along with Sardar Thakur Singh, Badal Singh and Gurcharan Singh. The court ordered framing of charges against Tytler under the Indian Penal Code’s Section 302 (murder) read with Section 109 (abetment), among others.Senior advocate HS Phoolka, lawyer for complainant Lakhwinder Kaur, wife of Badal Singh, told TOI, “It has been a tortuous struggle for the victims. First, they lost their family members. Then they had to fight for 40 years for the trial to start. CBI filed three closure reports, giving Tytler a clean chit, but all three were rejected by the court due to defective investigation. Who do the victims approach?”Unable to contact the kin of the gurdwara victims, TOI spoke to families similarly affected by the riots that followed the assassination of the PM Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, by her Sikh bodyguards. In three days of rioting, an estimated 3,350 Sikhs were killed across the country, 2,800 of them in Delhi.On Friday, Ganga Kaur, 44, and her mother Attar Kaur, 63, were in court. She lost her father during the riots. “My mother is old now and can’t understand many things. But when she heard and understood that charges would be framed, she started crying,” said Ganga. “My mother, like many others, has re-lived that day’s trauma for 40 years. Every time the investigators gave the accused a clean chit, we hit the roads in protest. We have attended the court hearings too.”Ganga, who now has two children in their 20s, added, “Growing up, our kids have also learnt everything about the case. So, after us, they will have to continue the fight for justice and they will.”