Just as in the Rwandan genocide ten years later – where Hutu militias were provided with carefully-prepared lists of Tutsis1 – the killers went from door to door of Sikh houses, marking them with an ‘S’, ready for the arson, looting and murder.2
Sikh gurdwaras voter records were used to identify Sikh homes and businesses. To ensure none were missed, school registers, ration lists and electoral rolls were also used for cross-referencing.
Crucially, on the preceding night of 31 October, Sikh homes had been carefully identified by ‘surveyors’. One witness saw as many as twenty-five people involved in this operation:
They were carrying a list showing the houses in which Sikhs were staying. I saw them put marks on the houses of Sikhs.
Dara Singh, Patiala, Witness submission No. 154, Justice Nanavati Commission of Inquiry.3
In Delhi, civilian targets were identified using gurdwara voter lists – according to a former government secretary, the gathering of this type of detailed information was undertaken in the lead up to Operation Blue Star, under the alleged auspices of Arun Nehru (a key advisor to the Gandhi family) in anticipation of a Sikh backlash.4
H.S. Phoolka, the lead lawyer for the victims went further and raised the possibility that the lists may have been collected by individuals in the higher ranks of the government, months in advance:
When we were collating material to present before the Misra commission, we were told by some people in the intelligence community that shortly before Operation Bluestar, fearing a reaction from the Sikhs of Delhi, detailed information on the community had been gathered by the government.
H.S. Phoolka, quoted in Hartosh Singh Bal. The Caravan. 3 November 2017.5
Harnam Singh of Mangolpuri witnessed Hardwari Lal, the Personal Assistant (PA) to Congress MP, Sajjan Kumar pointing out the houses of the Sikhs from the voters list that he was carrying, to the mob of about 2000 people.5
During the carnage, a masters student at the Delhi School of Economics witnessed how Sikh properties were so easily identified:
The streets were empty except for a few motorcycles that were running back and forth. The men on them seemed to be ferrying the oil to the people doing the arson. I then noticed that the pillion riders on at least two bikes had sheets of paper in their hands. When they stopped I looked over someone’s shoulder to see that they were holding in their hands a list of houses to be burnt!
Aseem Shrivastava, ‘The Winter in Delhi’, Counterpunch, 10 December 2005.6
The list had the house number and the name of the head of the household, usually a ‘Singh’.
The perpetrators ensured every name on the death lists had to be accounted for. A Sikh, who was being sheltered by his Hindu friends, overheard the conversation between his protectors and members of the death squad:
The neighbours told those persons that the dead body of Amar Singh has been taken away by some unknown persons. But the persons who came to inquire about my dead body showed a list to my neighbours and said, “Look Amar Singh’s name has not been stuck off from the list so his dead body has not been taken away”.
Affidavit of Amar Singh submitted to the Nanavati Commission.7
To date, no official investigation has taken place into how these lists were collected, by whom and the full extent of the operation.
- Gérard Prunier, The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide, 1999, p 224 ↩︎
- Amiya Rao et al, Truth about Delhi Violence: Report to the Nation, 1985 ↩︎
- Dara Singh, Patiala, Witness submission No. 154, Justice Nanavati Commission of Inquiry. ↩︎
- Hartosh Singh Bal, How Senior Congress Leaders Sanctioned The Organised Violence Against Sikhs In 1984. The Caravan. 3 November 2017. ↩︎
- ibid. ↩︎
- Affidavit of Harnam Singh submitted to the Nanavati Commission. ↩︎
- Aseem Shrivastava, ‘The Winter in Delhi’, Counterpunch, 10 December 2005. ↩︎
- Affidavit of Amar Singh submitted to the Nanavati Commission. ↩︎
How Sikh homes were surveyed and lists prepared in advance of the 1984 Sikh Genocide.
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