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On This Day: Riots Ripple Across India After Indira Gandhi\'s Assassination

Widows of Sikhs killed in the 1984 riots demanding  prosecution of Congress party leaders, during a protest march near Parliament, in this Oct.31, 2000 file photo.    John MacDougall/Agence France-PresseWidows of Sikhs killed in the 1984 riots demanding  prosecution of Congress party leaders, during a protest march near Parliament, in this Oct.31, 2000 file photo.    

“In New Delhi, reporters saw gangs of young men dragging Sikhs off buses and beating them up,” The New York Times reported on November 1, 1984. “Outside the All- India Medical Institute, where Mrs. Gandhi's body lay, mobs attacked Sikhs on the road, burning their motorcycles and ripping their turbans off and setting them ablaze.”

“A pilla r of smoke rose from a blazing scooter rickshaw, and the road was littered with pieces of cloth and rocks.” (Read the full article.)