Kanhar police firing: Fact-finding team alleges harassment

It had gone to Dudhi to visit tribals seriously injured in police firing

April 21, 2015 02:45 am | Updated 02:45 am IST - Meerut:

A civil society fact-finding team was briefly detained and allegedly harassed on Sunday by the local police when it was on its way to Kanhar in Sonbhadra district in Uttar Pradesh to meet the victims of Kanhar police firing.

The State police had opened fire on tribal protesters who had gathered at the site of the under construction Kanhar dam to protest against the land acquisition for the project. Tribal leader Akku Kharwar, a resident of Sundari village, and eight others were seriously injured in the firing, besides 35 others who received minor injuries.

The fact-finding team, which comprised CPI (ML) leader Kavita Krishnan, activist Priya Pillai journalists Siddhant Mohan, Abhishek Srivastav, and five others, was forced to leave even before it could reach Sundari village where all the victims of the firing hail from. According to Siddhant, they were detained in Baghadau village on their way to Sundari. They were taken to the Dudhi police station where they were allegedly harassed by the police who threatened to arrest them.

According to Ms. Krishnan, the local policemen implicitly threatened women members of rape.

“ The guy in plain clothes with cops who claimed he is SDM Dudhi told us women, “chale jayiye varna aapki beizzati ho jayegi, ( you better leave or you will be disrespected),” tweeted Ms. Krishnan on Sunday.

She said the manner in which they were “intimidated” by the local policemen and the mob which had allegedly its patronage it appeared that the administration was trying to “hide” some thing about the Kanhar firing and construction of the dam which will, as per the claim of tribal leaders protesting the construction of the dam, result in 87 villages getting submerged.

“What is the police trying to hide in villages around Kanhar dam ?? y is the fact finding team being harassed ?,” tweeted Priya Pillai. Later on Sunday, a violent mob started protesting outside the Dudhi hospital when the fact-finding team members were visiting the tribals who were seriously injured in the firing last week. “ An aggressive mob of more than hundred people gathered outside the gate of the hospital and started shouting NGO wale wapas jao, vikas virodhi vapas jao, (NGO people go back, anti-development people go back!),”added Ms. Krishnan.

“Police told us that Section 144 was in force in Dudhi. But it seemed that it was only for us and not for the violent mob,” she added.

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