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Chandigarh: The Shiromani Akali Dal today urged Union Home Minister Mr Rajnath Singh to institute CBI probe into the brutal killing of seven Sikh prisoners in Pilibhit jail of Uttar Pradesh in November, 1994, the tragedy that surfaced this week.
A party delegation including Prof. Prem Singh Chandumajra, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Balwinder Singh Bhunder, all MPs, Manjit Singh GK and Manjinder Singh Sirsa, President and General Secretary respectively of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee and UP Akali Dal chief Rai Singh today submitted a memorandum to this effect.
Prof. Chandumajra said while promising action, the Home Minister has sought detailed report from the UP Governor.
It is pertinent to mention that these seven prisoners were beaten to death by the jail staff while 21 others were injured. The case was withdrawn by the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in 2007. At the time of this tragic incident, the chief minister was Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Asserting that the macabre killings by reducing the prisoners to pulp was part of some pre-planned, the memorandum stated that 28 TADA prisoners, all Sikhs, lodged in Pilibhit jail were shifted to another barrack on the night intervening November 8 and 9, 1994, legs tied up and they were beaten up brutally by the jail staff. Six of them died on the spot while one more person succumbed to the injuries in the hospital. Others were severely injured.
“Nothing could be more ghastly that this action of the jail staff that is reminiscent of the dark ages when there was no rule of law. Nothing can be more shameful that such a gruesome incident in a country that takes pride in being the biggest democracy in the world. Nothing can be more shocking that the quiet withdrawal from the court in 2007 to save the culprits. At the time of this incident, the Chief Minister happened to be Mulayam Singh Yadav. It was again during his tenure that this case was withdrawn in 2007. Now again when the report has surfaced, it is the Samajwadi Party government with Akhilesh Yadav, son of Mulayam Singh Yadav, as the Chief Minister. Seeking justice from the SP government would be an exercise in futility”, the Akali leaders said.
The memorandum stated that the Sikhs have been fighting for the protection of the human rights from the times of their Gurus and the Ninth Lord, Guru Tegh Bahadur, sacrificed his life for this great cause. The Shiromani Akali Dal is one party that launched consistent agitation against Emergency and restoration of civil liberties. They said h here was an incident that reinforced the perception that Sikhs had been subjected to what can be termed as no-laws and they were not equal citizens of this country. Let this historical distortion be rectified as “we, the BJP and the Akali Dal, have been fighting together against dictatorial tendencies and repression”.
The party leaders said it was the considered opinion of the party that thevictims can’t get justice without intervention by the centre and the only remedy was probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into this horrifying tragedy to satisfy the needs of justice and punish the guilty.
