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New Delhi: A day after a terror attack on followers of the controversial ‘Nirankari’ sect near Amritsar, a Delhi court awarded the death sentence to one of the two people convicted of murder in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, pointing to a cycle of violence and militancy turning full circle in Punjab.
Although the security agencies are yet to confirm a terror link to last Sunday’s ‘Nirankari Bhawan’ attack, defence experts believe it to be the handiwork of Khalistani separatist organisations that are trying to revive militancy in Punjab.
Q. What happened in 1984? What is Operation Blue Star?
A. In 1983, Akali Dal leader Harchand Singh Longowal invited militant religious leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale to take up residence in Golden Temple complex in Amritsar to evade arrest. Later Bhindranwale made the sacred complex an armoury and headquarters of Sikh militants.
Operation Blue Star was a military operation carried out between June 1 and 8, 1984, to remove Bhindranwale and other armed militants from the temple complex. The operation was ordered by the then prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi. In the operation, Bhindranwale died and militants were flushed out of Golden Temple.
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Sikhs were killed all over India in the 1984 riotsFour months after the operation, Indira was assassinated in vengeance by her two Sikh bodyguards — Satwant Singh and Beant Singh — on October 31, 1984. The anti-Sikh riots erupted the following day.
Q. What is the background of militancy/Khalistan movement in Punjab?
A. Khalistan movement is a Sikh nationalist movement that aims to create an independent state for people belonging to the Sikh community. On April 12, 1980, Jagjit Singh Chauhan, a prominent supporter of the movement, declared that he had formed the National Council of Khalistan at Anandpur Sahib in Punjab. The movement reached its peak in the 1980s and died out after it lost public support in the early 1990s.
Q. What is the recent verdict about and why did it take 34 years for it to come?
A. Yashpal Singh, who was accused of killing two people during the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi’s Mahipalpur area, was given the death sentence by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the Supreme Court (SC). The other convict, Naresh Sherawat, will be serving a life term in prison.
This is the first time a convict has been handed the death sentence in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots after the cases were reopened by SIT. Yashpal and Sherawat, like the other accused, have denied any role in the riots.
It took 34 years for SIT to pronounce the first verdict after several commissions were set up, which recommended filing cases against the perpetrators of anti-Sikh violence. The primary reason behind that was that Delhi Police had closed the case in 1994 for want of evidence. However, the SIT on 1984 riots, which was constituted in 2015, reopened it.
Q. What do analysts say about the verdict?
A. Defence and political analysts describe Yashpal’s capital punishment as a glimmer of hope for the victims of the 1984 riots.
“The family members of the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots have been awaiting justice for the past 34 years though the Ranganath Mishra Commission was formed way back in 1985. This verdict gives a sign of fresh hope to those who suffered misery and death of their loved ones in 1984,” said defence analyst Avtar Negi.
Political commentator Vijay Shankar Chaturvedi said the verdict came in the case of a brutal murder of two innocent young persons aged around 25 each.
“It was a planned murder since the accused were carrying kerosene oil, sticks etc. It is sad that it took 34 years to deliver the first judgement in the matter. Also it is sad that people from only one community were targeted in this fashion. It was a genocide,” he said.
Q. What is the reaction of the victims’ family members?
A. “We are definitely happy with this verdict. Yes, it would have been good if the other person had also got capital punishment. But then we wholeheartedly welcome the court’s decision. Also these all are small fries. We are now waiting to see when the big guns face action,” said Ganga Kaur, 11 members of whose family were killed in the riots.
Q. What is the Nirankari movement?
A. The Nirankari movement was started within Sikhism in the 19th century. Their belief in a living guru as opposed to the scriptural ‘Guru Granth Sahib’ resulted in their differences with the traditional Sikhs. The attack on the Nirankari Mission last Sunday, resulting in the death of three people, is being seen as a strategy to create tension between the members of the sect and the Sikhs.
