Witness to ’84 anti-Sikh riots saved 60 Muslim neighbours

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For 53-year-old Mohinder Singh, horrific memories of the 1984 anti-Sikh carnage made him save the lives of about 60 Muslim neighbours who were stuck during the recent riots in northeast Delhi.

Mr Singh — who was just 16 when over 3,000 Sikhs were massacred in Delhi — and his 28-yearold son Inderjeet, transported Muslim families from the riot-affected Gokulpuri to safe destinations.

“The horrific memories of the 1984 riots are still fresh and it still haunts me. When violence broke out in Northeast Delhi, it reminded me of the riots that took place 36 years ago. It reminded me the importance of human lives,” said Mohinder Singh.

On February 24, when the violence broke out, Mr Singh was at his shop near his home when a mob barged into the neighbourhood. He, along with his son Inderjeet, decided to take out their two two-wheelers and ferried at least 60 people who were stuck in the nearby area of Kardampuri, about 1.5 kilometres away.

“The Muslims gathered and decided that they would have to leave the neighbourhood. But before they could, they were caught in the mobs. I could not bear to see the fear on the faces of innocent children,” recalled Mr Singh.

“We didn’t have much resource but we took out our bike and scooty and started taking people away. During the 1984 riots, it was Hindu families that saved us. However, during these riots we weren’t seeing which community’s people we were saving. It was out of humanity and we just wanted to save humans irrespective of the religion they belonged to,” he added.

His son Inderjeet too had similar views and said, “I was not scared when I was transporting people. All I was thinking at that point was that every human, who was in trouble, had to be saved.”

Inderjeet’s neighbour, 30-year-old Mohammad Naeem, is among those whom he helped with his father. Mr Naeem’s house was looted and set on fire. His shop was vandalised.

There were at least 10 cylinders in his house when it was targeted by the mob. The fire could have been much bigger but it was Inderjeet who got many of those cylinders out and doused the fire by drawing water from a nearby pump.

Recalling the horror of the mob attack, Naeem said: “It was a mob of at least 1,000 people who attacked our house and shop. But it was the Singhs who made us sit on their scooty and dropped us off to a safer place,” he added.

‘We didn’t see which community’s people we were saving. We just wanted to save humans irrespective of their religion,’ said Mohinder Singh