Sikhs take protests against Sajjan acquittal to Delhi Metro

Traffic hit as scores take to streets, tracks

Angry over the acquittal of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, around 1,500 Sikhs converged at Tilak Nagar and Subhash Nagar metro stations in west Delhi to lodge their protest; eventually disrupting the train operations severely and traffic in the area on Wednesday.

They have planned to protest outside 10-Janpath — Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s residence on Thursday. The protesters sat on dharna for almost four hours. Traffic came to a standstill in west Delhi’s Subhash Nagar to Tilak Nagar as protestors blocked the traffic on the road and metro trains.

Led by Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee and Shiromani Akali Dal, nearly hundred Sikhs sat on Dharna on Wednesday morning around 11 am. Around 60 of them barged inside the Subhash Nagar metro station and blocked movement of a train.
Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel were caught off guard as agitators barricaded metro trains and halted them for a few minutes.

Protestors squatted on the tracks to stop the trains, shouting slogans against the Congress leaders and demanded justice. Delhi Police forcibly removed those protesting.
The protestors held placards that read “Hang the 1984 Culprits”. Around 150 Delhi Police personnel were deployed to ensure that the protests went on smoothly.  A company of the Border Security Force was also requisitioned on the spot to help the local police in defusing tension.

By then, around 1,500 people were gathered outside both the metro stations.
The protest, however, remained peaceful. Traffic was diverted as the protest started to choke surrounding roads.

“Around three thousand people were killed in the Sikh riots in 1984. The eyewitnesses had identified people who were involved. Out of them, only five were convicted and Sajjan Kumar was set free,” said President of the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee, Manjit Singh GK.