Very few convictions have taken place in the pending 1984 cases, with only one death penalty conviction for an accused, Yashpal in the case of murdering Sikhs in the Mahipalpur area of Delhi. Īfter 34 years of delay, in December 2018, the first high-profile conviction for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots took place with the arrest of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court. The Central Bureau of Investigation, the main Indian investigative agency, believes that the violence was organised with support from the Delhi police and some central-government officials. In 2011, the burned sites of multiple Sikh killings from 1984, were discovered in Hondh-Chillar and Pataudi areas of Haryana. has not identified the riots as genocide, it acknowledged that " grave human rights violations" occurred. According to the 2011 WikiLeaks cable leaks, the United States was convinced of Indian National Congress' complicity in the riots and called it "opportunism" and "hatred" by the Congress government, of Sikhs. In 2011, Human Rights Watch reported that the Government of India had "yet to prosecute those responsible for the mass killings". The Akal Takht, Sikhism's governing body, considers the killings genocide. The collusion of political officials in the violence and judicial failure to penalise the perpetrators alienated Sikhs and increased support for the Khalistan movement.
Human rights organisations and newspapers across India believed that the massacre was organised. The most-affected regions were the Sikh neighbourhoods of Delhi. In the aftermath of the pogroms, the government reported that 20,000 had fled the city the People's Union for Civil Liberties reported "at least" 1,000 displaced persons. Sikhs worldwide had criticized the army action and many saw it as an assault on their religion and identity. The attack had resulted in a deadly battle with armed Sikh groups who were demanding greater rights and autonomy for Punjab. The assassination of Indira Gandhi was in retaliation to her order to the Indian Army to attack the Harmandir Sahib complex in Amritsar, Punjab, in June 1984. Government estimates project that about 2,800 Sikhs were killed in Delhi and 3,350 nationwide, whilst independent sources estimate the number of deaths at about 8,000–17,000. The ruling Indian National Congress had been in active complicity with the mob, as to the organisation of the riots.
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The 1984 anti-Sikh riots, also known as the 1984 Sikh Massacre, was a series of organised pogroms against Sikhs in India following the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. 3,350 (Indian government figure) Ĩ,000–17,000 Sikhs (independent estimate)