SGPC Activists Arrested for Attempted Immolation
Six activists of the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) were arrested on Friday in New Delhi after they attempted to immolate themselves in protest of the clean chit given to senior Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in a case related to the gruesome anti-Sikh riots that rocked the country in the aftermath of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination at the hands security personnel detailed to her.
“Six members of the Sikh community were detained when they tried to immolate themselves in the premises of Gurudwara Bangla Sahib,” GS Randhawa, ACP, Parliament Street police station was reported as saying by media agencies.
Tytler and several other Congress leaders from Delhi faced serious allegations of fueling anti-Sikh violence, some of them were gunned down by by those seeking to avenge the gruesome riot that saw the national capital plummet to its lowest ebb in history.
Agitated community members slammed the Congress-led government for rewarding the riot-culprits instead of punishing them.
“It is most unfortunate for Sikhs that a culprit like Tytler has been given a clean chit by a central investigation agency when the country is led by a member of community,” Kuldeep Singh Bhogal, a member of Amritsar SGPC, was quoted as saying by PTI.
The CBI on Thursday gave Tytler a clean chit in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case and informed a Delhi court that it wanted to close the matter.
The Congress, however, says that the government had nothing to do with the CBI decision.
Speaking to reporters in Thiruvananthapuram Defence Minister AK Anthony said: “It is not the Union Government’s decision. The report was given by the CBI.”
“The Sikh community is naturally wounded. The 1984 incident was a tragedy. Their wounds are still there. So, they have a right to express their apprehension,” he conceded.
