The Jathedar was apparently moved by the ruins of the abandoned village and said that it appeared as if the Sikhs were "still living like slaves in a free country`` since the perpetrators of the crime were roaming free even after 26 years of having committed it.
"Till the time, the guilty are not punished, Sikhs would continue to suffer the agony of the massacres,`` he told mediapersons at the site.
In Amritsar, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) urged the Prime Minister to hold a detailed and time-bound investigation into the massacre. The Akal Takht Jathedar has also asked the All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) and Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) to look for similar incidents in places like Bokaro and Kanpur where Sikhs were targeted in 1984 but not many details could emerge "just like the Hondh village``.
Meanwhile, reacting to observations on why the victims had kept quiet for so long, thus raising questions about timings of the "discovery" of the new site, riot victims expressed anger and disappointment at those asking such questions. Babu Singh Dukhiya, president of the National 1984 victims justice society, who hails from Tilak Vihar in Delhi said, "Can you tell us what justice have we got in the cases where the perpetrators were identified and reported to police, 26 years ago. Can you cite even a single instance, where action has been taken against those who organized these dastardly acts in November 1984. People forget that the victims were barely able to survive and find shelter after the riots in inhospitable places where even the governments were biased against us. Who would have given us justice.``
Pointing out that many of the victims were still not able to earn two square meals after having lost their home and hearth twice in a span of 40 years (first, the partition of 1947 and then the 1984 riots), Dukhiya said it was unfortunate that instead of understanding their plight, people were attributing motives to their ``helpless silence.``
AISSF president Karnail Singh Peermohammad said, even in the cases, where victims were persuaded to come out and stand witness before courts, the perpetrators had been able to threaten or pressurize them till recently. ``One of the witness, Giani Surinder Singh, even lost his life under this kind of pressure. How can anyone expect the victims to speak without fear and pressure under such circumstances.``
Meanwhile, in a letter written to Prime Minister on Thursday the SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar has demanded that the investigation should be carried by a sitting judge of High Court. Makkar had also appealed to Manmohan Singh as well as home minister P Chidambram to personally visit the unfortunate village for first hand information.
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