After Rajnath’s remark, Sikh group says it will bring ‘genocide’ resolution in UN

New York: A day after the Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh acknowledged the fact of Sikh “genocide” 1984, US-based human rights group ‘Sikhs for Justice’ (SFJ) has announced to bring a resolution to this effect in the 70th UN General Assembly session through member countries who have signed the UN Convention on Genocide.

In a statement recent issued, the Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) said it will approach Israel, Armenia, Bosnia and Rwanda, who have been victims of genocide, to move a resolution in the UN General Assembly to recognise the 1984 Sikh Genocide.

1984 Yes it’s genocide [File Photo used for representational purpose]

On Friday (Dec. 26), Indian Home minister Rajnath Singh, while distributing compensation cheques to the victims of November 1984 Sikh genocide, had said: “It was not a riot, it was genocide.”

The New York-based SFJ, which had in November 2013 petitioned the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), to recognise the riots as “genocide” under Article 2 of the Genocide Convention, has seized upon the home minister’s statement to strengthen its case. India is a signatory of the Genocide Convention, which states that any killing or attack on members of a religious group with the intent to wholly or partially destroy that community is “genocide”.

The SFJ, which claims to be fighting for the right of self-determination for Sikhs, has been trying to initiate a UN-led investigation into the 1984 genocide for last one year, and in November, had facilitated the testimonies of two genocide victims and survivors at the New York office of the UNHCR.

Of the two, Jasbir Singh is a prime witness in the case related to massacre in Delhi against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler. He lost 26 members of his family in the massacre. Gurdeep Kaur had travelled from Ludhiana to give her testimony.