1.
I have been residing at the
above mentioned address alongwith my mother, father and brother since
October 82. My father works as an administrator in a Delhi based company
called DANTOSS. My mother works part time as a volunteer with Lajpat
Bhawan (social work) and my brother runs a small unit producing rollers in Delhi.
2.
I was in my office (C-17,
Usha Niketan, Safdarjung Development Area, New Delhi-110016), on the 31st
October, `84, when my office helper informed me at 10:30 A.M. about the
attempted shoot out at Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India. I
rang up my friend Mr. Alok Mukhopadyaya, Field Director, OXFAM who along
with Shri Ravi Chopra, Director, Centre for Science and Environment came
to my office at 11:45 A.M. and we went to the All India Institute of
Medical Science. There were thousands of people standing outside the
A.I.I.M.S., which included people from all communities.
3.
We proceeded to Connaught
Place to go to the STATESMAN office and to find out about the condition of
Mrs. Indira Gandhi and the atmosphere in Delhi amongst the common man on
the street.
4.
As we arrived at the
Statesman office at 2 P.M. we
read the spot light which had declared Mrs. Indira Gandhi dead. We spent
about half-an-hour observing the crowd. There were Hindu’s and Sikhs
looking subdued and leaving for bus stands and rushing for
auto-rickshaws. Also, there was an enormous rush for the morning editions
of newspapers. We then returned to our respective houses.
5.
I was getting ready to
visit a friend in the evening when a friend phoned me to inform me that
there stone-throwing at shops owned by the Sikh community in South
Extension and that I should therefore, not pass through that area. I got
another phone call from a friend Manab Chakravarty, who was residing in
South Extension that there were Sikhs being beaten up in this
neighborhood. The whole evening I received phone calls from friends
informing me about incidents of stone-throwing at Gurdwaras and houses of
the Sikh community.
6.
I have a Sikh neighbor
living opposite my house who I requested, through my mother, to stay
indoors the next morning, which was to be the 1st November,
`84, and offered to buy their milk and other necessary provisions.
7.
On the 1st
November, `84, by 1:00 A.M. morning, phone calls started informing me
about the water poisoning in Delhi’s Water Supply. I also called a
friend in Munirka at 2:00 A.M.
informing of this news. My friend Mr. Sekhar Singh explained to me that
it was technically not possible to do so. At 2:30 A.M. I heard the following on a
public address system, “Aap ke pani mein jahar mila dian gaya hain, kripya
pani nahin pee jeaey.” I ran into my balcony and caught sight of a jeep
that was moving away from the colony towards the road leading to J.N.U.
The jeep was dark blue in color and looked like a Police Jeep.
8.
I got confused and then
suspicious of the police making such announcements. I would not sleep
through the night. I also received a call from a friend that she had
confirmed with a senior police officer about the water supply being
poisoned.
9.
On the morning of 1st
November at around 7:00 A.M. I
heard footsteps of people running in our colony. My whole family and I
ran into the colony in the direction of the people running in the colony.
There were about 10 boys between the age group 18-30 running. We chased
them and they ran away. Large number of people from the colony had come
out.
10.
There were two information
I gathered upon talking to the crowd gathered in the colony:
a.
There were looking for and
had asked where Mr.Oberoi lives in our colony. Mr. Oberoi happened to be
the Sikh neighbor who lives opposite our house who my mother had warned
the night of 31st October, 1984.
b.
I also heard that the 10
lumpens who had run away were talking about burning the Guru Harkrishan Public School
in Vasant Vihar. I called the Vasant Vihar Police Station requesting them
to come urgently as a mob was about to burn the school. As I finished
with the phone call I heard foot steps of large crowds. I once again ran
down to the area on the left side of the house which has a road leading to
Munirka Village.
There were about one hundred young men (age agroup 18-30) walking from the
village towards the road leading to the school. Some of them were
carrying sticks with them. There was a young man wearing a brown shirt
and trousers in front leading the crowd. I stopped him and argued with
them not to get excited. They all did stop. But several young people
seemed to agree with me and informed me that there was a meeting held late
at night in their village (village Munirka) where it was decided that the Guru Harkrishan Public School
should be burnt. Upon being asked I was told that the meetings were
organized by the leaders of the community. One name taken was TOKAS
(don’t know the full name). At one point some of the young men I had
spoken to said that they were being led by the young man wearing a brown
shirt and that they agreed with me that they should return. The young man
with the brown clothes at this point started to shout at me an threaten me
and told the crowd to move towards the school and that he would take care
of me.
11.
We then heard a Motor
vehicle, which was parked on the road. A S.H.O. along with a policeman
arrived. I asked them if they had come from the Vasant Vihar, Police
Station which they confirmed they had.
12.
In the meantime the mob did
not move away and stood their ground carrying sticks. The S.H.O. asked me
to move out of there as the leader was still abusing me. The S.H.O. told
me that it was not my job to maintain law and order and therefore what
business did I have fighting with these people. I should move out of
there. I tried to explain to the S.H.O. that these people were going to
burn the school and that they had come to our colony in the morning
looking for Sikh households. The S.H.O. was extremely rude and told me
that he would deal with the mob only after I leave. I retreated back but
went back to the S.H.O. after precisely two minutes, at which point the
mob was returning back and had taken about 25 steps back and the S.H.O.
told me to stop interfering and went off on his motor cycle. The crowd by
now turned right back and began to run towards the school. I felt that
the S.H.O. from Vasant Vihar was not particularly bothered.
13.
I, therefore, tried to call
the HAUZ KHAS, Police Station. I called telephone no. 100 and I was given
the Hauz Khas, Police Station number. There was no response. This was
around 9:00 A.M. In the meantime two friends came over to my house and we
got into the car to go to the school.
14.
The school had been set on
fire along with the Petrol Pump right next to the school. There were
hundreds of young men on all sides watching these two buildings burning.
There was a D.T.C. bus parked with a few people in the bus. A crowd was
running towards the bus saying that both the petrol pumps and school have
been set on fire. Let us move on. They then got into the bus and told us
in passing that the petrol pump may burst so we should remove our
vehicle. There was no police present at that point.
15.
We then rushed to the Hauz
Khas, Police Station after requesting my brother to get hold of some
people to see if there were any teachers in the school premises and then
to rescue them.
16.
When we reached the police
station (between 10-11 A.M.) we were told by the police person at the
reception that there was no police force neither was the fire brigade
available as there were many houses and buildings that were burning and
that they were not in any position to help us. We were also asked why we
were worried “were we not Hindus?”
17.
That this point we were
terribly confused at the response from the police. We therefore began to
start collecting our friends and drove to several places in Delhi
requesting all political party leaders to request for the army.
18.
The main reasons why I felt
scared that the violence would spread was due to two reasons:
Firstly the police was behaving in a
manner that I did not expect. Also the slogans on the T.V. “Khoon Ka
Badla Khoon” on the 1st November morning T.V. Program were
frightening. Our domestic help who came in the morning at 9:30 A.M. told
me that I should not get amazed at the police. Their village had a visit
from the police late at night who had told them that there were three days
when people would loot the Sikh community – No one would be touched.
19.
As we moved in different
parts of the city we were amazed at the absence of police, everywhere,
while the skyline of the city was becoming blacker and blacker with smoke.
20.
On the 1st
November, `84, afternoon we met with 40 people at Lajpat Bhawan to do a
peace march in the Lajpat Nagar where a Sikh’s shop was being looted.
There were approximately 50 young men (age group 18-30) who were indulging
in arson and looting. We were 7 in number. The lumpens at one point
surrounded me. I was the only woman amongst 7 of us. I questioned them
as to why they were doing this act. Their answer was that their leaders
had asked them to do so. They were from Kotla Mubarak and they also said
that they had no fear of the police. Police will not come to stop them.
At this point the young man leading then asked them to surround me. The
slogans they shouted was only which was “Congress (I) Zindabad.” They
dispersed after about 20 minutes of our presence. They had two tempos and
about 4 three-wheelers scooters in which they left.
21.
On the 2nd
November, I, with 4 of my friends, went to Ashram area. There was a big
crowd looking down onto the railway track from the bridge that connects
Lajpat Nagar to the Ashram crossing. We also stooped to look down and
spotted 3 dead bodies of Sikhs on the railway track.
22.
We then went to the bridge
connecting Ashram crossing to Nizamuddin on Mathura Road. The time was
11:00 A.M. There were crowds of about 500 young men at the foot of the
bridge and on the other side of the bridge we saw police with guns.
Approximately 20 in number. We got up the bridge and looked at the houses
on the right side of the bridge several houses were burning.
23.
On the terrace we noticed
people with turbans were hiding but raising their heads above the wall and
signaling to us on to the right hand side. I went to the direction to
which they had pointed and found 4 policemen with guns. We came back to
this same area for a peace march in the afternoon (4:30 P.M.) and found
that very house, we had seen, were the Sikhs were hiding had been burnt.
24.
When we arrived at 4:30
P.M. the police was still there. When I asked the large crowds of
slogan-shouting people if the police had been there for the entire day. I
was shouted at and called a traitor to the Hindus. The slogans being
shouted were ‘Indira Gandhi Zindabad’ and ‘Congress (I) Zindabad.’
25.
On 3rd November
I went to Trilokpuri with a group of people at 2:00 P.M. with food,
medicine and doctors. There were a hundred woman outside the police
station under a tent with children and few injured men. All the children
and women who had mostly become widows were from Block 30 and 32,
Trilokpuri. All the people had the same stories to tell which were as
follows:-
a.
The police alleged to have
told the people who were to loot them that they had 3 days to loot the
Sikhs.
b.
Their men had first been
beaten, then burnt with kerosene oil.
c.
The local Congress (I)
leaders were instigating the lumpens who came to loot and kill.
d.
The names of policemen and
local Congress (I) leaders were on the tongue of every person in this camp
and the same names came up all the time.
26.
As we were going out
lumpens who had been arrested were being put in D.T.C. buses by the
police. These people sat in the bus shouting slogans, which were
“Congress (I) Zindabad” and “Indira Gandhi Zindabad.” The police refused
to co-operate on giving me a razor, which the doctor had asked me for, as
the hair from a Sikh’s head had to be shaved for doing surgery as he had
received head injuries. The living quarters of the policemen were on the
premises of the police station but they refused to give me a razor.
27.
In the evening I returned
to Delhi in a car via Farsh Bazar and Shadara area. I saw large crowds of
people with sticks and cans but no police near them.
28.
On the 4th
November morning I went to Farsh Bazar by 9:00 A.M. Farsh Bazar, police
station had approximately three thousand riot victims. We had gone for
relief work.
29.
There were 4 badly injured
Sikhs who I took in a jeep to the government hospital in Shahdara at the
advice of Dariao Singh, S.H.O. Farsh Bazar, police station. Darioa Singh
gave me a police guard to go in the jeep with us as I was unsure of taking
Sikhs in the jeep to the hospital, where I had seen large crowds of people
near the hospital earlier in the morning.
30.
At the hospital there was a
South Indian Registrar who helped with first aid only and requested me to
take back my patients to the camp as they could not admit my patients who
were Sikhs. I was told by the registrar of the hospital that if they
admitted Sikh patients, they would not be in a position to stop the
lumpens from attacking the Sikhs. I asked for policemen who I understood
should be there in government hospital. I was told that no police is
available and I was given two nurses to accompany me to Farsh Bazar.
31.
It is amazing that though
the community that had taken refuge in the camp was under trauma and from
different parts of Trilokpuri and Kalyanpuri, the accounts of arson,
looting and killing were similar.
32.
I do not have name of the
SHO from Vasant Vihar and Haus Khas Police Stations but I could recognize
them if the people on duty at these respective police station are brought
in front of me. I give below
a list of names of people who accompanied me to the places I visited on 31st
October, 1st November and 2nd November, 1984:-
31st
October 1st November 2nd
November
1. Dr. Ravi Chopra Dr. Ravi
Chopra Dr. Ravi Chopra
2. Mr. Alok Mr.
Alok Mr. Alok
Mukhopadhyaya Mukhopadhyaya
Mukhopadhyaya
Mr. Subodh Mitra Mr. Subodh Mitra
Swami Agniwesh Mr.Sumanto Banerjee
Mr. Sumanto Banerjee
