Block 32 Trilokpuri now: Painted walls, scars within (25 years after Indira Gandhi's assassination)

By Mayank Aggarwal, New Delhi, Nov 1 : On the face of it, there are no vestiges of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Trilokpuri. Congested lanes, poor roads and open drains mark the working class neighbourhood in east Delhi.

But the gashes are there, just underneath the surface.

Trilokpuri's Block 32 is one of the areas where hundreds of Sikhs were killed during the 1984 riots triggered by the assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi by two of her Sikh bodyguards Oct 31, 1984. Over 3,000 Sikhs were killed in three days of mayhem in the capital.

My search to find a Sikh family in Block 32 proved futile as most of them have shifted to Tilak Vihar in west Delhi - unable to stay in a place that reminded them of the pogrom.

Many of the homes owned by Sikh families were later either illegally occupied or sold at throwaway prices.

But in Block 30, just opposite, some Sikhs have stayed behind.

I meet a 70-year-old woman Harbhajan Kaur. A mother of four boys and three girls, she recounts how two of her sons - the eldest 22 years old and the youngest 16 - were killed while she was returning home with them.

"They took my sons and threw burning tyres on their necks. I just ran back home to save my three young daughters," Harbhajan tells me, tears rolling down her face.

Her house still reflects a state of disorder. Two tiny, suffocating rooms have things carelessly strewn around. Harbhajan sits on a bed surrounded by her grandsons and daughter-in-law.

My heart skips a beat as she continues - I stop taking notes. "One of my remaining sons suffered head injuries because of which he used to get fits. He died a few years later. Another one is addicted to drugs."

"Bodies were littered in drains, on roadsides, everywhere. I was terrified when I saw dogs eating flesh."

Soon Harbhajan's non-Sikh neighbours troop in. They say she has been crying inconsolably for the past few days - 25 years of Oct 31 weigh heavy.

Harbhajan's family has added another floor to its house. Her grandson is still waiting for the job promised by the government.

"My two dead sons are feeding me today - because the first floor we built and have rented out was built with the compensation money received for their deaths," she says.

The area today is populated by mechanics, rickshaw pullers, helpers at local shops, people working as security guards and peons.

Simranjeet Kaur, in her 40s, recounts the horror her neighbours went through.

"My neighbours - a pregnant woman and her sister-in-law - were chased by a mad crowd of hundreds. The pregnant woman gave birth near the railway tracks while her young unmarried sister-in-law was sexually assaulted in front of her," Simranjeet says.

Some Sikh men who still live in Trilokpuri have shunned the religious turban and cut their long locks. Amritpal Singh, 41, who works as a mechanic, is one such man.

"Three of my uncles were killed Nov 1, 1984. All members of my uncle's family and mine took shelter in a house nearby. My father had gone to Mumbai only a day ago, and I thank god for that."

"One of my sisters-in-law was pregnant and developed labour pains. As she was giving birth to the baby on the bed, my uncle and I hid under the same bed - there was no other room to go to."

His sons do not wear turbans, as if banishing any sign of their religious identity.

A 74-year-old Sikh woman who was washing clothes in the open points to a place where she had seen body upon body piled up exactly 25 years ago. Even the lanes of Block 32 have hidden away the butchery.

I was not even born then, but heard about the carnage from my grandfather who had given shelter to a Sikh family. I have also covered court hearings against Congress leaders who have been accused of inciting mobs to attack Sikh families

The visit to Trilokpuri left me shaken.