New York: A witness in the 1984 anti-Sikh
riot court case against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler has
threatened to set himself on fire in Toronto if Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh does not meet him when he visits Canada from
June 26-27 for the G-20 Summit.
"I will put a tyre around myself and burn myself just
as was done to hundreds of Sikhs," Jasbir Singh said.
"I am tired for waiting for justice, if our PM does
not hear us then I want to grab the attention of all the
foreign leaders and the world," he said.
Jasbir, 84, was a witness in a court case against
Tytler who was given a clean chit by a Delhi court in April.
Although debunked by the CBI as not being a credible
witness, Singh alleged that he saw Tytler inciting mobs.
"So many deaths and not one conviction...how much
longer can we wait and so we need to do something drastic
now," he said.
It is not clear at this point whether Jasbir intends
to carry out the threat during the Prime Minister’s visit or
this declaration is to grab headlines as Sikhs gather to rally
for justice in Toronto during the global economic summit.
"I am going to do this on May 26...this is not a joke
and this is not for media attention," Jasbir said in response
to several queries by PTI whether this was a serious plan. "I
lost 26 members of my family and if I cannot get justice then
I am ashamed of myself.”
It is unlikely, however, that the Canadian authorities
would allow such an incident to take place during the
high-level meeting, but Jasbir has underlined that he will set
himself "on fire as protest against the denial of justice to
the victims of 1984 Sikh genocide?.
US-based Sikh, Resham Singh, claims that CBI
officials refused to speak with him when they came to
interview the two witnesses Jasbir and Surinder Singh in San
Francisco and New York respectively.
In its decision, the Delhi court pointed out that the
statement of Jasbir had "no relevance" and that the statements
of Surinder Singh were "self-contradictory."
PTI
First Published: Thursday, June 24, 2010, 23:41