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Justice still denied for 1984 Sikh massacre
Pain and anger run through a community 40 years on as British Sikhs march demanding a full reckoning with Britain’s collusion in events in India that led to a genocide that butchered thousands, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE MP
ATTACKED: A Sikh pilgrim in Amritsar in India’s Punjab region makes his way to the Golden Temple, stormed by the Indian army in 1984

FORTY years ago this month, Indian government troops stormed the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Sikhism’s holiest shrine. In recognition of the anniversary, thousands of British Sikhs from across Britain marched last weekend in central London.

The Amritsar assault caused the death of around 300-500 Sikhs, an atrocity that was followed, a few months later, by the massacre of as many as 17,000 innocent Sikhs by organised mobs and the displacement of tens of thousands more. The aim was to stop those who campaign for an independent homeland, called Khalistan.

Leaked papers showed that the US government believed the Indian government was complicit in the genocide, yet Western governments took no action, and in four decades only one person has been convicted for their role in the slaughter, 34 years after the crime.

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