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24 yrs after massacre, Indian army
admits 34 soldiers
were killed
WSN Network
PATIALA: For the
first time, and after 24 years of the massacre of Sikhs in Delhi and
across India, the Indian army has admitted that 34 soldiers were
killed in the anti-Sikh riots in the aftermath of former Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984. So far no
compensation has been paid to families of these armymen victims.
The
Rehabilitation and Welfare Section of Ceremonial and Welfare
Directorate, Adjutant General’s branch in the Army Headquarters in
Delhi,
sent a note to various Commands and Regiments that as many as 34
Army personnel (including one ex-serviceman) were killed in the
anti-Sikh riots of 1984. And that all efforts be made to report on
the progress of their compensation cases with respective state
governments in tune with the package announced by the Centre in
January 2006.
That Rs
700-crore package includes Rs 3.5 lakh as compensation for families
of the dead, Rs 2 lakh as a rehabilitation grant to each family
uprooted, Rs 2500 as monthly pension to widows and preference to
children and relatives of the victims in recruitment to Government
jobs. A quarterly feedback from all was sought starting June this
year until the grant of compensation is completed.
Said Pratap
Singh Phoolka, a retired Army officer who has been leading the
campaign and is identifying such cases on his own: “The untimely
delay caused by the Army in this regard has caused immense damage.
Parents of many such unmarried victims have also died in these 25
long years. Who will get the compensation now?”
He, however,
welcomed the Army recognising the killing of its personnel during
transit in 1984. Phoolka claimed that only a few have been
identified so far and that there could be around 300 soldiers who
had lost their lives in the riots.
Phoolka started
his campiagn after two of his own men in 63 Cavalry died in transit,
Capt I P S Bindra in Meerut and Sepoy Sukminderjit Singh Morena in
Madhya Pradesh. The SGPC recently announced a Rs 1-lakh grant to the
families of the soldiers killed.
29
October 2008
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