Survivor recounts how father played saviour amid bloodbath

Only the 30 who sought shelter in the haveli survived. “We shut the doors of our haveli and at first requested the attackers to take anything that they wanted but spare us. We thought that they had come to loot us and would go back after taking the belongings. But the mob was too agitated,shouting ugarwadiyon ko maar bhagao (kill the terrorists) and they would not listen to us. They broke down the main door and poured diesel over my father Balwant Singh and set him afire. But my father was very strong and he threw off his clothes. I too helped douse the fire and then my father asked me to bring the sword that we had at our home. The mob saw that my father and I were ready to die but not before killing at least a handful of them. The mob retreated a little but then they broke down the roof of the very room where we hid and as we ran to another room they pelted us with bricks,” recounts Harbhajan Singh. Singh and his father along with the smaller male members of the house fought the mob for over seven hours,“and with just one sword to keep the mob away.”

As per Harbhajan Singh,“It was around 10 in the night that we stepped out of our homes and headed for another village,Dhanuar. A Hindu friend of my father had a tractor trolley and he took us to Rewari and from there we came to Guniana Mandi.”

Harbhajan visited his village after 26 years along with SGPC President Avtar Singh Makkar recently. “I had not stepped into this village ever since the riots and the feeling was very strange. At the time of the attack we did not know that the other group had been killed. They,too,were our relatives.” Asked why the Chillar survivors had not spoken up sooner,Singh said,“to be honest,the Chillar carnage is the largest killing (of the 1984 riots). Thirty people of one village were killed. We were given red cards when we came to Punjab and even Rs 2 lakh compensation,but honestly we never felt the need to talk about the issue. Just after the riots,we were too broken to speak up and so no one heard us. After that we got busy rebuilding our lives. Our self respect does not allow up to ask for donations and compensations.”

SGPC writes to PM for judicial probe in case
Amritsar: Shiormani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee President Avtar Singh Makkar on Thursday shot off a letter to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh,demanding a high-level judicial probe into the Hondh-Chillar massacre. Makkar said it was unfortunate that even after 26 years justice had not been done. Copies of the letter were marked to Home Minister P Chidambaram and Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda.