1 Nov 10am, the Gurdwara at Block 36 was set on fire by a mob. When a group of Sikhs gathered to save their neighbourhood, the police arrived and ordered them to go to their respective homes. Once this was done, the genocide commenced, with every Sikh home attacked in Trilokpuri. This would continue until the evening of 3 Nov.1

Balbir Singh, Manga Singh and Atam Singh were beaten by iron rods and burnt alive with kerosene oil.  Several of the killers were identified by Amarjit Kaur, widow of Balbir Singh as neighbours from their street. She also stated the police van passed her house without intervening while the attacked were taking place.2

Chet Singh’s son, Anoop Singh stated the police on motorcycles were accompanying the mobs, now numbering five to six thousand. The police began inciting the mobs with slogans: ‘Kill the Sikhs, loot and burn their houses, they are traitors, they are snakes, they killed our mother’.3

More than 350 Sikhs were killed in just two housing blocks, 30 and 32, while the local police admitted to only 95 dead.

Eshwar Singh of Block 32 was killed as was his son, Naval Singh. One surviving widow testified that about 100 Sikh boys, who were hiding in a house amongst the women were found by the mobs, beaten with sticks and burnt alive.4 Many survivors stated that the local station house officer of the police station, Tyagi and local Congress leaders Dr Ashok and Rampal Saroj were directing the mobs, as was cabinet minister, H.K.L. Bhagat.5

Kandu Singh was mercilessly beaten to death and his body thrown into the nearby stream, witnessed by his widow.6

Darshan Kaur witnessed the police hounding a group of people armed with weapons why they were just standing around and not killing all Sikhs in the area. She also stated that one lady she knew in her street pointed her home to the mobs.7 Devi Kaur’s witnessed her brother-in-law being attacked and burnt.8 A witnessed stated all the Sikhs of Vinod Nagar had been killed on the night of 1 November, including 20-year-old Bhupinder Singh.

Harbhajan Kaur testified her husband Bakhshish Singh, and her cousin were burnt alive near a canal.9 Widow Hai Bai witnessed her sons, Sheman Singh and Hoshiar Singh being killed at Block 32.10

Ishwari Bai’s husband, Gurmukh Singh was dragged out of his home by his hair and burnt alive in the street. The mob searched and found his son, Hoshiyar Singh and threw him on the fire saying “Kale saap ka bacha, usko bhi maaro” (Let’s kill the son of the black snake too). His mother fought and pulled him out of the fire and quickly took him out of the house and hid him in her aunt’s house.11

Kalyanpuri resident, Jeet Singh’s brothers, Ram Singh, age 30, Khazan Singh, age 28 and Shyam Singh age 26 had old tyres put on their body and set alight and burnt.12 Swaroop Singh was killed by daggers and set on fire as was Wazir Singh.13

While the overwhelming majority of sworn affidavits named members of the majority Hindu community behind the violence against the Sikhs, a few Muslims were involved as testified by Pibri Bai, widow of deceased Mirchu Singh in her affidavit to the Misra Commission. In Trilokpuri, a Ismail Khan stabbed Pratap Singh and Hakam Singh with knives and throw them off the roof. Their bodies were burnt on the ground. Khan then caught Mirchu Singh, took him into a lane to be killed. Niyamat Ali, the Pradhan of Block 33 was heard saying he will ‘kill the Sikhs’. In the same testimony, Pibri Bai names Sita Ram Mistry and Ram Deo as also involved in the killings.14

Gurcharan Singh’s sons, Bakhshish Singh, age 28, Arjan Singh, age 18 and another family member, Rajinder Singh age 28 were taken from their homes in Block 39. All four were beaten with iron rods. Arjan and Rajinder were killed on the spot.

Bakhshish Singh tried to save himself and thus ran away. He was injured by stones. He fell down, but he again got up and started running then he entered in one house in the area. He went up the roof of that house. The above mentioned assailants followed him and then threw him down the roof and then they put kerosene oil on him while he was alive and burnt him alive.

Affidavit of Prakash Kaur, submitted before the Misra Commission (1987).15

She also testified that while the burnings and killings were taken place, the mobs were jeering, dancing and laughing, that 600 Sikhs had been killed in her area and she saw eight trucks taking dead bodies from Block 32 and two trucks from Block 30.

Inder Singh, age 40 and a Charpai weaver’s head was split open and died. Hi 18 year old son, Manohar Singh, who worked at a scooter parts factory and his 28 year old brother-in-law, Lachu Singh were also killed.16 Surjeet Kaur’s husband, Gurbachan Singh was beaten and thrown off the rooftop of the house and died while her daughter was also seriously injured and died three days later.17

Harban Singh of Block 2 had his hair shaven and then killed by his own landlord.18 In Block 13, Jaswant Singh, age 38 was killed as was his nephew, Anokha Singh, age 18, friends, Satnam Singh, age 38 and Bhajjan Singh, age 25.19

Banti Kaur of Trilokpuri remembers how her entire extended family members were wiped out on 1 November: Husband, Baldev Singh, burnt alive in Pandoo Nagar, mother-in-law and all four Brother-in-laws, Parma Singh, Lachman Singh, Jeevan Singh, Bhagat Singh and his sister, Gurbano Kaur and her husband Sheetal Singh, her son Resham Singh and the daughter of her husband’s brother Pias Kaur and her husband were also burnt alive.20

Nearby, the mob caught hold of Jallawar Singh, beat him and threw him in the Yamuna River. Sheel Kaur witnessed ‘many’ corpses of Sikhs in the river.21

  1. Affidavit of Rahul Kuldip Bedi. ↩︎
  2. Affidavit of Amarjit Kaur. ↩︎
  3. Affidavit of Anoop Singh. ↩︎
  4. Affidavit of Barfi Bai. ↩︎
  5. Gurdeep Kaur and other widow’s story ↩︎
  6. Affidavit of Birmi Bai. ↩︎
  7. Affidavit of Darshan Kaur. ↩︎
  8. Affidavit of Devi Kaur. ↩︎
  9. Affidavit of Harbhajan Kaur. ↩︎
  10. Affidavit of Hai Bai. ↩︎
  11. Affidavit of Ishwari Bai. ↩︎
  12. Affidavit of Jeet Singh. ↩︎
  13. Affidavit of Jogi Singh. ↩︎
  14. Affidavit of Pibri Bai. ↩︎
  15. Affidavit of Prakash Kaur. ↩︎
  16. Affidavit of Shammi Bai. ↩︎
  17. Affidavit of Surjeet Kaur. ↩︎
  18. Affidavit of Surjit Kaur. ↩︎
  19. Affidavit of Vidya Rani. ↩︎
  20. Affidavit of Banti Kaur. ↩︎
  21. Affidavit of Sheel Kaur. ↩︎