Massacres of Hondh-Chillar and Pataudi

 

The Hondh-Chillar massacre refers to the killings of at least 32 Sikhs on 2nd November 1984 in a small village in the Rewari district of Haryana, by the Indian National Congress as part of the 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms. The local police did not intervene in the massacre, even though a first information report (FIR) filed by the village Sarpanch the following day, the police ignored and allowed the files to be lost and provided no help or protection to the survivors. The abandoned, ruined site where the massacre took place remained completely forgotten for over 26 years until January 2011, when an engineer named Manwinder Singh Giaspura learned about the deserted settlement and discovered human remains and ruins at the location. A similar massacre occurred in nearby Pataudi.

 

Hondh-Chillar massacre

The attack happened in two waves. On 1st November 1984 a group of Indian National Congress members attempted to storm the village but the Sikh villagers were able to fend them off. However, at 10am on 2nd November, a truck and a bus carrying 200 to 250 young men arrived at the village. They began attacking the Sikhs armed with rods, lathis, diesel, kerosene, and matches as well as chanting slogans in favour of the Congress party. For 4 hours the Congress members mob beat to death and burned alive 31 Sikh villagers.

 

They continued to burn down the Sikh bungalows and Gurdwara until the villagers who were able to escape the initial attack tried to find shelter in three different houses. The mob then set two of the houses on fire by pouring kerosene through the roof. One villager, Balwant Singh, retaliated by killing one of the rioters with a sword and another group of villagers ran out of their burning house to fight back. Once the villagers started fighting back the massacre came to an abrupt halt. On the night of 2nd November, the 32 surviving Sikhs found shelter in the house of a Hindu family in Dhanora, a nearby village. Under the cover of night they escaped to Rewari in a tractor trolley. The survivors now reside in Ludhiana and Bathinda in Punjab.

 

A FIR was filed by Dhanpat Singh, the then Sarpanch of Chillar at police station Jatusana in Mahendragarh district, which is now in Rewari district. It reveals the killers first came from Hali Mandi around 11am but were persuaded by the villagers to turn around. When they came in the evening they had several more trucks of reinforcements and a group of three Hindus had tried to persuade the killers to leave the village but were intimidated into leaving.  It reports that 20 of the dead Sikh villagers’ bodies were burned beyond recognition.

 

On 23rd February 2011, the local police claimed to have lost the first information report, however The Times of India was able to find a signed copy of the report which had been obtained from the same police station just days earlier.

 

Pataudi massacre

“The media, the Sikh organizations and the politicians had all labelled the riots as the Delhi riots, we were scared and alone, what could we do? We did not have the time, resources or support to fight against the system. To be honest, when you lose your whole world, your will to fight dies.”

Survivor quoted by Tehelka

 

At 6pm on 1st November 1984, after Indira Gandhi was shot, a mob under the guidance of Congress leader Lalit Maken set fire to Pataudi‘s Gurdwara Sahib which created a panic in the city. As the armed mob rampaged through the town and set fire to Sikh homes in the city, one group of Sikhs escaped to the outskirts while another found shelter in local Hindu Ashram.

 

On 2nd November, the Sikhs returned to the city to see the damage done to their homes. Left tired and crying in front of their homes, they became separated from each other, and at 10am the mob returned and began burning people alive. Many of the Sikhs were able to escape but the Congress mob captured 17 of them, murdered them, and burned their remains to remove evidence.

 

Although the survivors filed multiple FIRs with the police, none of the assailants were captured or prosecuted. After the massacre many Sikh families fled and only five families remain out of thirty that were settled prior to the massacre.

 

Persons killed in Pataudi massacre

Here is list of 17 persons killed during attacks on Sikhs in Pataudi (Near Hondh-Chillar) Haryana:

 

  1. Kishan Singh (Husband of Geevni Bai)
  2. Kapur Singh (Son of Geevni Bai)
  3. Kuldip Singh (Son of Geevni Bai)
  4. Harbahajan Singh son of Geevni Bai)
  5. Harnam Singh (Husband of Isri Bai)
  6. Avtar Singh (Son of Isri Bai)
  7. Harmeet Kaur (Daughter of Gian Singh)
  8. Karamjeet Kaur (Daughter of Gian Singh)
  9. Gurbaksh Singh (Son of Gian Singh)
  10. Amrik Singh (Husband of Amrit Kaur)
  11. Fateh Singh (Son of Kirpal Singh)
  12. Arjun Singh (Son of Mohinder Singh)
  13. Bhagat Singh (Son of Mohinder Singh)
  14. Gopal Singh (Son of Inder Singh)
  15. Surjit Singh
  16. Kamaljeet Kaur
  17. Granthi of Gurudwara

 

Rediscovery

On 22nd January 2011, an engineer in Gurgaon, Haryana, Manwinder Singh Giaspura, struck up a conversation with a delivery boy who talked about a deserted village of Sardars near his own village. When the boy began talking about arson, Giaspura realized he was talking about the 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms. The boy further told him that recently people had begun to steal wood and bricks from the site. So, on 23rd January, Giaspura drove to Chillar and found the site of the massacre. After seeing bones inside a building and quotations from the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji Maharaj on the walls he realized the building was a Gurdwara. Giaspura then uploaded 50 to 60 pictures of the village onto Facebook and sent appeals to various Punjabi language newspapers to investigate and preserve the site. After not receiving help from the SGPC, Giaspura contacted the All India Sikh Students Federation.