Vancouver, Dec 03: A witness at the Air India trial, who helped organise a massive Sikh rally in 1984 in New York after operation 'Blue Star', said that he sympathised with the accused Ajaib Singh Bagri but was against his call for "slaughter" of 50,000 Hindus as a revenge tactic. Amarjit Ahluwalia told the trial court here that the Indian government's operation in 1984 "outraged" Sikhs worldwide. "What happened in Punjab at that time...enraged everyone."

In response to the outpouring of anger, Ahluwalia said, he organised the founding convention of the World Sikh Organisation at Madison Square Garden in New York in July, 1984 in which 4,000 Sikh religious leaders turned up to hear speeches from people around the world including Bagri, a Kamploops, BC, sawmill worker.

The court heard that Bagri told the masses that "until we kill 50,000 Hindus, we will not rest."

However, Ahluwalia said his views were different from that of Bagri although he sympathised with his "Pro-Khalistan brothers" because Bagri's comment could have been made out of anger against the Indian government. Bureau Report