1984 Delhi Sikh Genocide - Affidavits

Affidavit submitted before the Misra Commission

I, Ram Parkash son of Sunder Singh, aged 26 years, resident of Mata Jai Kaur School, Employees Quarter, Ashok Vihar, Delhi, do hereby solemnly affirm and declare as under: -

1. Kalu Singh, the son of an Ex-Employee Natha Singh who works on the petrol pump situated on the road near State Bank Colony, Rana Partap Bagh came and told me that a large number of persons got down from a DTC bus near Deep Cinema. They had in their hands iron rods, diesel oil and match boxes. The said mob burnt the Gurdwara near Deep Cinema and then burnt the Deep Cinema.

2. Thereafter, the mob went towards the school. I along with my family went to the colony. There I found that in every room of the school there were men who were looting and damaging our school property. Thereafter, they set the school on fire. The mob snatched away Kalu's bicycle and radio. When I came running to the colony, by that time, Vinod, watchman whose brother Avadh Kishore is also an employee of theI, Rajendra Kumar S/o Munja Ram aged 17 years R/o D-15, Satyawati Colony, Ashok Vicar Phase-III Delhi, do hereby solemnly affirm and state as under:

1. That I am a student of Standard XI in Springdales School, Pusa Road, New Delhi-110005.

2. That on the day of assassination of the then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi, I was on a visit to one of my friends house, 288, Sant Nagar, Kalkaji, New Delhi. This friend of mine is a Sikh. We got the news of the assassination at his place. On this day i.e. October 31, 1984, everything seemed quite and normal till the evening. All the people felt shaken about the murder. Even these friends of mine who are Sikhs were grief stricken and had been cursing the assassins. There were about 9 women folk, 4 children in the house, with just one male, member with two other friends of mine Sunil Kumar and Bittoo and myself.

3. In the evening the chain of news started coming of spread of violation, murders and burning of houses. WE all got horrified at every news brought by someone. My friend and me got on to the roof and saw what we could not believe. From all directions, as far as our eyes could focus, we could only see smoke merging into the sky. At a close distance, I could hear yells and cried of people and of women and single room and ourselves sat outside the house, guarding it with feeling of fear and grief over the sudden chance in the events.

4. November 1, 1984, the news of murders and burning of houses and murder of Sikhs in cold-blood. We heard of groups of people invading the looting murdering followed by burning of houses. I planned to have a walk around, alone since I would not be hurt, being a Non-Sikh. I came upto the Kotla area, close to Sant Nagar. Then I saw a huge mob attacking a Gurdwara in Kotla.

5. I returned back and told everyone what I saw, just after sometime of my return, a flashing news same that the mob was fast approaching our place. We got horrified. The women and children broke down. And it was actually for the sake of the honour of the women, we thought, that we had to do something. We thrust all the children and women in a room and locked them and we four of us collected stones and bricks, as many as we could and climbed on to the roof. We did not have to wait for much longer. Within a few minutes we could hear shouts and thumping of feet as if an army is marching on. When the mob came into sight, I could see a group of more than 100 people, mainly consisting of young boys between the age of 15 to 25 years. Some carried lathis and some had big stones in their hands. In the crowd, I could spot two people carrying two small tins, with contained kerosene oil. I saw the mob marching on as if a band of well-trained and well organized a squad of a military regiment, marching on the attack their 'enemy' without hiding or taking any type of cover. They seemed quite sure that they would win over all the enemies.

6. They attacked first and we responded. They threw stones and hurled their lathis at us. We kept on showering stones as quick as we could, not letting the people marching any further closer. One of my friends got a brick on his right knee and blood started streaming out, I had hardly given a pause to see, another stone hit me on my left arm and it swelled up immediately. Even then we went on throwing stones vigorously. We all knew the result of stopping. It meant everybody's murder, the rape of girls and women. Loot and burning down everything into ashes. The fight went on for about 45 minutes before the mob dispersed. The hurled their lathis, abusing and letting out ugly oaths as "Sale Sikho, Ek Ko Bhi Jinda Nahi Chorenge, --Dekhte He Kab Tak Bachte Hain – Ham Phir Ayenge" and hundred of other rather hasty abuses.

7. While on my way back from Kotla, I saw many houses still burning smoke coming out. Cars were burnt on the road and the mob moved in buses belonging to DTC. One such bus stopped at a distance and all the people got out. They had pin pointed a house belonging to Sikhs. They moved into the house. The one with weapons in their hands murdered whoever came into their way. All this they did in a systematic and co-ordinate way. They had divided themselves into groups. A particular group with just attack and break through, killing and murdering. While another group would do all the looting and then a small group splashed kerosene over the place and burnt it. The mob was jubilant and there was no sign of grief on their faces.

8. All these activities were going on without any hurry or fright. There was not even a single policeman or any army personnel in sight anywhere, and it seemed mob well knew that there was no authority to obstruct or stop their expedition of terror and plunder. school was also present in the school.

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