Bhai Keval Singh

I took off for Mumbai from Ludhiana on Frontier Mail on November 1.There were thousands of passengers in the train when some goondas attacked the train. We were in a reserved bogie. The mob separated our bogie from the rest of the train and threatened to burn it if we refused to open the doors. There were many Sikhs in our bogie but also some Hindus. They said the Hindus should get off. My friends and I did not have turbans over our heads. In fear, we started alighting. They stripped the Sardars naked and stabbed them in their private parts and disfigured their faces before throwing them away. Some dead bodies were left right in the door of the train with a poster, "here is a gift from Punjab".

As the train was approaching the station, the Hindus started instigating the mob. We saw a couple of other trains arrive in which we saw heaps of dead bodies. We were scared and went to the waiting room of the station and from there to the Sadar Cant. Gurudwara.

That night (on November 2), the mob came and tried to burn down the Gurudwara. Some shops around were gutted. During the following days, we saw many Sikh men, their shops and houses burning in the areas surrounding the Gurudwara, such as, Palam Colony, Sagarpur, Sadhannagar, Kailash puri, Uttam nagar and Rajnagar.

I was passing by the road and heard an old woman wailing. She was yelling away,’ I have lost everything, what will I do now, where will I go? I went close and held her hand trying to console her. She broke into loud cries and told me her story. She was preparing breakfast for her husband, about to leave for work, when she heard a big commotion outside. She wanted to know that was happening but then thought that it would delay her husband to work. She had not even finished making tea when a neighbour came running and asked them all to hide somewhere before Sajjan Kumar’s men came. She asked what their crime was for which they were going to be killed. Meanwhile, her husband and children also came to the veranda of the house and wondered why such a huge crowd was approaching their house. The mob was crying,’ Sajjan Kumar Zindabad, Indira Gandhi amar rahe, gaddaron ko bahar nikalo. Khoon ka badla khoon.’ Then they took her four sons and husband out and killed them with sticks and rods. They stripped her and her two daughters and raped them by turns. The mob was inviting more and more men to come and rape them. Her younger daughter lost her senses; she could not bear the experience. The old woman pulled her hair and asked me where she should go. I tried to console her and told her that she had to live for her two daughters. I also told her that whoever had committed the heinous crimes would be punished but, my words rang hollow even to me. What justice and what punishment can there be for such crimes! I thought to myself.