Here, Congress leader Dharam Dass Shastri MP1 ordered his followers to set on fire all Sikh houses and kills all Sikhs, including women and children in the colony.2
Mobs shouted, ‘Blood for blood’, ‘All Sikhs must leave’, ‘Sikh’s Khalistan is in Punjab, we will not allow you to live here”. The Gurdwara was targeted, the Sikh holy book taken outside, kicked and urinated on. The Nishan Sahib (the religious flag of the Sikhs) was also uprooted.3
Harbans Kaur Virdi lived in West Patel Nagar with her husband Kartar Singh Virdi and their son, Charanjit. On the afternoon of 3 November, when the family were watching Mrs Gandhi’s funeral on TV, the mob arrived, her husband rang out to a neighbour’s house but was found, hit on the head with an iron rod and burnt alive, in front of his wife and son who was also seriously injured. A policeman was standing outside the house while the killing took place. The children were left traumatised.4
Nearby, Satnam Singh and Dalip Singh were beaten with iron rods and killed by locals of the colony.5 On 3 November, Rajesh Kumar found the wounded Manmohan Singh and carried him to his home in New Ranjit Nagar. He was in a serious condition, after being attacked, with blows to his head and left for dead in the road. Four days later, he died.6