CHANDIGARH: The Akali Dal (Panthic) has demanded a high powered judicial commission to inquire into the killing of 984 persons cremated as unidentified in Punjab and all the events leading to the Operation Bluestar. In a memorandum submitted to Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda on July 27, which was released here recently, the party has pointed out that the Central Bureau of Investigations has already unearthed evidence about these killings and the Supreme Court has termed the same as being “worse than genocide.” The party expressed the apprehension that these killings might be the tip of the iceberg.
The Akali Dal (Panthic) has proposed that this commission be set up at Chandigarh and given the task of reconstructing the detailed history of violence in Punjab after Independence and especially with a view to finding the causes of unrest which have so often plunged the state into misery, creating problems of great magnitude for the entire society. The commission should be given a time schedule with instructions to release interim reports at regular intervals. It may be recalled that the leaders from various Akali factions have been demanding a judicial inquiry into violence in the state; a similar demand has been repeatedly raised by the Bahujan Samaj Party in the state Assembly. Describing the Prime Minister as a sensitive and honorable man and a large hearted farmer, the Akali Dal (Panthic) said that the Sikhs would like to trust him as he had no hand in the violence rocking this part of the region over the years. The party would also favor an open televised inquiry into what has been happening to the Sikhs since 1947 as the people of the country must know about the political status offered to the Sikhs before 1947 and what happened to those promises after Independence. The party has demanded that the list of all those killed by the police since 1983 be made public.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 6, 1996
