Jasbir Singh Testifies to CBI - Part One

I am too exhausted to write today; I did want to put this out to you, though.

More tomorrow, I hope.

Another riots witness names Tytler, Sajjan before CBI
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Moga, December 26
After two days of grilling of Giani Surinder Singh, one of the two
eyewitnesses of the anti-Sikh riots being questioned by the CBI in
the USA, the two-member panel of the investigating agency questioned
the second eyewitness Jasbir Singh at Gaddar Memorial House in San
Francisco for more than four hours today.

The CBI recorded his statement with regard to the alleged role of
Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in the riots. The questioning would
continue tomorrow, revealed Jasbir Singh while talking to The Tribune
on the phone this morning.

He said he had told the CBI officials that 26 of his family members
and relatives were killed in the riots and he saved his life by
hiding himself at the river-bed of Yamuna on November 1 and 2 and in
a High School building near the inter-state bus terminal on November
3 during the riots.

"I have told the CBI that the investigating agency should not term it
as riots because no person from other communities was killed,
therefore, it should be better to term the incident as genocide", he said.

"I have told the CBI very clearly that both Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan
Kumar were directly involved in the large-scale killings of the Sikh
families in Delhi", he said, adding that he had told the CBI
officials that he recognised both leaders.

The CBI has called him again for tomorrow.

Meanwhile, many Sikh organisations gathered outside the Gaddar
Memorial House and demanded justice for the victims of riots. They
also demanded the arrest of all those who were involved in the riots.
They raised slogans against the CBI alleging that they were asking
unnecessary questions to the witnesses.

Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, New York-based attorney and legal adviser to
the Sikhs For Justice, who accompanied Jasbir from New York to San
Francisco to record his statement, said they believed in the Indian
Constitution and laws but there was a need to formulate a "hate
crime" law in India, providing special prosecutorial procedures and
harsh punishments for crimes targeting religious minorities.

Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad, president of the All-India Sikh Students
Federation, announced that his organisation would file a writ
petitions in all respective state high courts where Sikhs were massacred.