Haryana to probe Sikh massacre in village 26 years ago
By IANSMonday, February 21, 2011
CHANDIGARH - Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda Monday sought a report from the Gurgaon district administration on the allegations of Sikhs being massacred in a village 26 years ago and the reported discovery of a mass grave.
Hooda told reporters that he had asked the Gurgaon divisional commissioner to send a report on this matter.
Sikh organizations in neighbouring Punjab and other places have sought a thorough investigation into allegations that several Sikhs were targeted and killed by mobs in Hondh-Chillar village of Haryana, 350 km from here, Nov 2, 1984 during the anti-Sikh riots in the aftermath of the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards in New Delhi.
While the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the mini-parliament of Sikh religion, sought an investigation into the matter and dispatched a panel to look into the matter, the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab had also Saturday announced the setting up of a seven-member fact-finding committee.
Akali Dal president and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said the panel would be headed by MP Balwinder Singh Bhunder and will include former SGPC president Jagir Kaur and five others.
The committee has been asked to submit its report within 15 days after visiting the village.
Akali Dal secretary D.S. Cheema said the party’s fact-finding team will also investigate how different governments and authorities had been able to supress the killing of so many Sikhs in Hond-Chillar village.
The All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) had announced that it will preserve the site as a ‘Sikh genocide memorial’ following the reported discovery of a mass grave in the village.
AISSF president Karnail Singh Peermohammad told IANS that the party and the United States-based Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) had declared to preserve village Hondh-Chillar as ‘Sikh Genocide Memorial’ site and appealed to the Sikh community to reach village March 6. Both organizations have planned a march to the village on that day.
He said the mass grave had been discovered 26 years after the incident of anti-Sikh riots in which Sikh families in the village were targetted and their homes and gurdwara (Sikh temple) were burnt.
