Perpetrators of anti-Sikh riots should be punished: Rahul

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said that he stands with the victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots and those guilty of violence should be punished as per law.

"If violence is being perpetrated against somebody, there is a legal process. That legal process must go on and the people who have carried out violence must be punished according to law...and I will support 100 per cent," Gandhi said during his interaction with the Indian Journalists' Association in London.

Gandhi's remarks came a day after he disagreed with a question put to him during an interaction in the British Parliament that the Congress was involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

"I have no confusion in my mind about that. It was a tragedy, it was a painful experience. You say that the Congress party was involved in that...I don't agree with that. Certainly there was violence, certainly there was tragedy," Gandhi had said.

On Saturday, Gandhi was again asked the question related to the anti-Sikh riots, which broke out in 1984 after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh security guards.

He said: "I don't know what major denial you are talking about. I am very straight forward person and there is no confusion in my mind."

Gandhi said he had stated on earlier occasions that he understands violence. "I do not believe in violence against anybody, regardless of religion or community and that's very clear," he stressed.

--IANS

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