New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday said the 1984 anti-Sikh riots was "like a dagger pierced through India's chest".

"Our own people were murdered, the attack was not on a particular community but on the entire nation. It was like a dagger pierced through India's chest," Modi said while referring to the riots in his address on the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel that is being observed as 'Rashtriya Ekta Diwas'.