Sikh Council UK has joined the calls from Sikhs in India and across the world for the immediate arrest of Jagdish Tytler following the release of video footage appearing to be of a sting operation in which Tytler confessed to involvement in the anti-Sikh killings in Delhi in 1984 and mocked the campaign for justice for the victims.
The footage which it is reported was anonymously handed into Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee was released by President Manjit Singh GK yesterday and shows Tytler referring to involvement in the killing of a hundred Sikhs but saying in provocative terms the only thing happening was enquiry upon enquiry, nothing would happen (to him) and he refers to his links in the judiciary. He also refers to offers of political office given to him by the Indian Congress Party and of a media campaign targeting his son.
Sikh Council UK Chair of Indian Subcontinent Affairs Gurdial Singh Atwal said “This footage is shocking but not surprising in the brazen and contemptuous attitude of Tytler and other Indian politicians and the culture of legal and political impunity within which they have operated over the past 33 years. We note Tytler has reportedly denied it is him in the video footage but then again he has been denying his role in the anti-Sikh pograms in Delhi despite clear eye witness evidence implicating him in orchestration of the killings.
He added “Tytler’s comments in the video footage are a confession of his involvement in the killings and we are calling upon the relevant authorities to arrest him forthwith. We note with interest the video footage was handed in anonymously to the Sikh community in Delhi a week after Tytler himself publicly revealed that Rajiv Gandhi the then newly appointed Prime Minister travelled around the streets of Delhi with Tytler on 1st November suggesting the orchestration in the killings went all the way to the top to the Prime Minister personally. We call upon all Sikh institutions and organisations in Delhi and Punjab to pursue a renewed campaign to uncover the full truth behind the state-sponsored killing of Sikhs in 1984 and deliver justice to the victims.”
