New Delhi: A group of nearly 200 Sikhs, led by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee and comprising Shiromani Akali Dal supporters, protested outside Congress headquarters at Akbar Road on Thursday morning against Rahul Gandhi’s comments on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. They demanded Rahul Gandhi comes clean on his statements and an SIT probe ordered into the protests.

Police had to resort to mild force to prevent a law and order situation. The protesters demanded that Rahul Gandhi also joined the probe into the 1984 riots. “If he (Rahul) believes that members of the Congress party were involved in the riots he should also join the probe and make sure those people are evicted from the party,” said Sukhwinder Singh of the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Committee.

He added that he is appealing to all parties to ensure that an SIT probe is ordered. “If there can be an SIT probe into the Gujarat riots, why not have one in this case?” he added.

“We cannot have the chief of a party admitting that his party members were involved in the riots and keep quiet after that,” said Jitender Pal Singh Sarna, a former member of the DSGC.

The protesters reached 24 Akbar Road around noon where they were stopped by police. “We had asked them to send one of their representatives to go and meet anyone they wished to, but we could not have allowed all of them in,” said a senior police officer.

Police said a minor scuffle broke out after a few of the supporters tried to climb over the barricades and reach the Congress headquarters while a few others tried to push them open. Police detained 120 protesters but released them later.

For 70-year-old Pritpal Kaur, a riot victim, it was an emotional moment. “I have come here from Shakarpur. I had seen my brother and husband being slaughtered and burnt before me. Now this has just become a political issue for everyone; what about justice for those people?” she said.