Widows Still Angry, 20 Years After Sikh Massacre

October 31, 2004

Source: Yahoo! News

Wire Service: Reuters

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1965&ncid=731&e=2&u=/nm/20041031/india_nm/india_178395

On October 31, 2004 Reuters reported, "As India marks Sunday's 20th anniversary of Gandhi's death, about 800 Sikh women, widowed in an orgy of anti-Sikh violence in the capital after the assassination, still seethe with anger. Living in a warren of tenements in a corner of Delhi often called 'Widows' Colony,' all tell horrific tales of bloodthirsty mobs 'necklacing' members of their families with burning tyres, setting their turbans on fire or beating them with iron rods. Sikh men, with their beards and distinctive turbans -- their religion prohibits them from cutting their hair -- are easy to spot in India and all over the world. The government says some 2,733 people died nationwide in the wave of attacks on Sikhs after Gandhi was shot dead. The bodyguards who killed her sought revenge for her decision to send the army to flush Sikh separatists out of the Golden Temple in Amritsar."