Report by Ken Rees, ITN.

“Crowds aboard the Punjab Express this morning, leaving the troubled streets of Delhi for the relative calm of their home state in the north. But troops patrol the streets of Amritsar on this holiest of Sikh days. It was here in June that Mrs. Gandhi launched Operation Bluestar sending in troops to drive extremists from the beloved Golden Temple. Now there are fears of continuing bloodshed following the assassination of Mrs. Gandhi by two Sikh extremists.

Even moderate Sikhs concede that unless the new Prime Minister negotiates in earnest over their demands for more autonomy, then they may not be able to control their militants.

All Sikhs now feel that they’re under suspicion, following Mrs. Gandhi’s death. Eyewitness accounts of how police and local politicians encouraged brutal reprisals against their people and are making many Sikhs say that prayers are simply not enough.

Ken Rees, ITN

In Delhi today, troops are everywhere keeping the peace, here escorting a party of Sikhs in fear of their lives. Armed guards are on duty at their holy shrines where only a handful of the usual thousands turned up.

Outside, all the talk is of relatives who escaped the mob or those who died. There is talk of revenge or with many of their leaders now out of action, what to do about the future?

Definitely the Sikhs will take their revenge from the government and particularly from Hindus. We cannot retaliate because people who are living outside Punjab, there are very few in number.

If the Indian government need to know that they’ve got a big problem to deal with amongst the Sikhs right now, then they need come no further than this temple in the centre of Delhi Ken Rees.

But tucked away in the suburbs there are many other Gurdwaras which are more of a sanctuary in a hostile world than a place of worship.

We are not going to celebrate any holiday. We’ll do a simple prayer over here. Simple prayer. We’ll pray to God whatever leftover people are there. God should give their life and people who have souls has been departed, god should give a rest to their souls. We’ll only pray these things. And next time it should not happen.

A week after the massacres began, the Gurdwara at Durga Puri and its neighbouring houses are still crammed to the eaves with some 2000 Sikhs, who sought refuge from the massacres. If they did not celebrate their holy day with the usual ritual, it was because the events that followed Mrs. Gandhi’s death had left them too numb.

Nobody is happy. All are sad. They have lost their families. They have lost their husband. Ladies have lost their husband. Husband have lost their wives.

Okay. All new people joining.

To some extent the prayers which many communities have offered for the Sikhs have now been answered. Relief centres like this one run by the People’s Unity Committee, an ad hoc group of volunteers, are overflowing with blankets, food and clothes, destined for Sikhs stranded in Gurdwaras or refugee camps. But however badly they may be needed, none of the supplies piling up in the relief workers stores will meet the most urgent need of the survivors. The need for news. News of what happened to their brothers, sisters, parents or children from whom they became separated during the chaos of the massacres.

When these mobs turned down on them, there was just panic. So, in certain cases, the men and the women have just run away from there to wherever they could find any space, leaving the children behind at that time.

In the big refugee camps, the relay system can hardly keep pace with the piles of scribbled, messages and appeals for missing relatives. In the whole of Delhi, relief workers estimate there may be as many as 20,000 people who’ve had no news of at least one close relative since the massacre.

The task of tracking them down is all but impossible. There are 15,000 people listed as living at this one refugee camp alone. All are worried about going home, but many are even more worried about whether they’ll ever see their missing relatives again.

My brother-in-law has been to Rishikesh for the cremation ceremony of my relatives over there. When he was coming back on the 1st of November by bus, he was caught at Loney Bar and there were two persons and both were Sikhs. Only two Sikhs were there in the bus. The mob was attacked. One was took by the 200 people and another was took by the 200 people. They were beaten. We don’t know what happened with them.  And since first of the November they are missing.

All her sons, they have been burned. And now only two girls two daughters of hers are missing. Now she’s missing her two daughters? Yes
How old are they? Pardon? How old were they?
One is eighteen, one is twenty-two.

The camp officials are keen to help, but they have more urgent problems to worry about. The late arrival of medicines and bad sanitation has led to fears of epidemics of cholera, typhoid or malaria. And while Sikhs who are still living at home call regularly for news of relatives, many of those in the camps are still too fearful to list the names and addresses of missing Sikh relations.

They’re very scared. They might not tell us even if the person is there, they might not tell us that he is there. So, it’s going to require a lot of convincing that, look, we have come to help you.

Why is that?

Why would that they don’t trust people after what they’ve been through.

It has to be compiled.

Volunteers at the People’s Unity Committee are now compiling a list of the missing. With so many bodies burnt beyond recognition, it’ll be the only way of determining who survived and who didn’t. Already they’ve listed 1500 names.

We are only trying to see the positive aspect so far. Later on, of course, it will be out that they’re dead, but we are concentrating our energies into locating the missing people because I think there’s a ray of hope that this person might be alive and the families are very, very anxious.

The only real hope that families will soon be reunited is if they return home. In the more sensitive areas, that prospect may be remote. Here, the army are still offering stragglers an armed escort to the camps. But the government has promised a rehabilitation programme. And there are increasing signs that many

Hindus and Muslims are actively urging their Sikh neighbours to come home. One man who has been welcomed home is Harbans Singh, an East Delhi carpenter. This afternoon, he returned to his shop to find the work of ten years burnt to the ground.

But the damage was done by outsiders and like many Sikhs, he remains on good terms with local Hindus. His next-door neighbour, Anil, even sheltered his son till both Sikh and Hindu had to flee from the mob. Despite the damage, Harbans is lucky he’s now found his son. Thousands of others may have to search far longer.

On a day which symbolises tolerance, the Sikhs have mourned their dead in peace. But until there’s some guarantee they can all return home and be reunited with their families, there’ll be many who do not know if.”

People’s Unity Committee’s work in the refugee camps.