Memorial for 1984 anti-Sikh riot victims to come up in Delhi

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday described the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as "fourth holocaust" of the community and said the upcoming Sikh carnage memorial being built by Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee will preserve history of this barbaric incident.

Addressing a gathering before performing the ground breaking ceremony to start the memorial's construction work at Gurdwara Rakabganj Sahib in New Delhi, Badal said the Shiromani Akali Dal will continue its struggle relentlessly to ensure that each guilty involved in the "heinous genocide" is brought to the book.

Badal said Sikhs have faced four major "holocausts" (ghallugharas) during the history of the community, of which two were the result of the tyranny of Mughals.

"It was unimaginable that in free India the government of the country would unleash terror on them by two holocausts -- one during operation Blue Star in Sri Harimandir Sahib and second after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi," he said.

The memorial in remembrance of the victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots is being built at Gurdwara Rakabganj in the heart of the national capital.

The memorial, dubbed "Wall of Tears", is being constructed by Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee.

Punjab's Deputy CM and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal and Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal also attended the function. DSGMC president Manjit Singh GK was also present.

"The memorial is dedicated to the memory of thousands of innocent Sikhs killed in the massacre and those who laid their lives trying to save them.

"It coincides with completion of 30 years of massacre of thousands of innocent Sikhs in November 1984," DSGMC said in a statement.

The Chief Minister said this memorial was a tribute to the memory of martyrs and a salute to the bravery of other victims who fell prey to the perpetrators of this heinous crime.

He said the nations which forget their history were forgotten by history and that this memorial would serve as a reminder to the future rulers that uncivilised deeds were always condemned by society.

Badal said the real tribute to martyrs was to preserve peace and communal harmony in the country. "Brave Sikhs who lost their lives were the sole bread winners of their families and this was because peace and communal harmony was disturbed," he said.

The veteran Akali leader said,"today is a historic day not only for the Khalsa Panth but for the entire country and for all civilised people in the world."