Make Ansari panel report on 1989 riots public: Sikhs to J&K

Vikram Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 29

In has been nearly 30 years, but the Ansari Commission report on the anti-Sikh riots in Jammu has not been made public yet.

Fifteen Sikhs were killed, several injured and property worth crores damaged in arson during the anti-Sikh riots in Jammu on January 13, 1989.

The Sikh community of the state rues that despite change of guard at the Centre and the state, no government had come out with the report.

Though the main reason for not making the report public is that it could cause more damage than good to the community, intellectuals believe that the report contained the ground facts why the Centre and state had failed to act timely despite intelligence inputs of likelihood of situation getting out of control on the day.

President, Sikh Intellectual Circle, Jammu and Kashmir, Narinder Singh Khalsa said: “This is our democratic right to demand the publishing of the Ansari report. The government has been shying away from making it public as political leaders, senior police officers and various agencies were involved in the killings.”

Ajmeet Singh, president, Naujawan Sikh Sabha, said, “For nearly 30 years, we have been kept in the dark over the findings of the report. We want it to be published soon as justice delayed is justice denied.”

“It was being anticipated that a Gurpurb procession on January 13, 1989, would be a show of aggression by the Sikh community in the wake of the execution of Kehar Singh and Satwant Singh as placards and banners displayed their pictures and provocative slogans were raised,” said Ram Krishan Gupta, a shop owner at Raj Tilak Road in Jammu from where the situation had gone out of control.

Late Balraj Puri, convener, People’s Union for Civil Liberties, had in 1991 said the commission, in its report, had blamed the state government for not taking adequate measures for preventing the riots even when the Centre had issued orders to all state authorities to take special precautionary measures to “avoid untoward incidents” in the wake of the execution of Kehar Singh and Satwant Singh, involved in the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

The report also said no measures were taken to protect the property of Sikhs.

Former president, J&K State Gurdwara Parbandhak Board, Sudershan Singh Wazir said he had gone through the report which contained adverse findings against the then government as well as senior police officers.

“The role of the government and the police administration has been shown in a bad light,” said Wazir.

Former Deputy Chief Minister Kavinder Gupta, who is also the MLA of Gandhinagar, where a majority of the Sikh votes exist, said: “It is a sensitive issue and the time is not appropriate to raise it. The matter is sub judice. We will release the Ansari Commission report at an appropriate time.”