Six days after clash, Dalits ‘not venturing’ out of homes

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 11

Even after the passage of six days after a bloody clash took place over the possession of the village common land, a large number of Dalit houses in Jaloor village in Sangrur district remain locked.

The Dalits who are staying in the village don’t dare to venture out, claimed an independent fact-finding team.

A team comprising members of the Association for Democratic Rights (AFDR), Democratic Lawyers Association, Lokayat and Students for Society, which had visited the village yesterday, said that the clash that occurred on October 5 was the result of assertion by a large section of the Dalit population to take possession of the chunk of village common land that is reserved for Dalits.

The team was led by Prof Jagmohan Singh, martyr Bhagat Singh’s nephew.

“The Dalits were targeted by miscreants linked to political bigwigs as Dalits were demanding impartial auction by officers of the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj. The Dalits wanted that rich farmers should not use a small section of poor Dalits as proxy to bid for their share of land,” reads the statement released by the team.

The team alleged that the attack on the Dalits was well-planned as some announcements targeting Dalits were made from public announcement systems hours before the attack.

“Moreover, the police have also concocted a story that the clash occurred between two sections of the Dalits. Rather, it was the work of miscreants, who don’t want Dalits to assert, who engineered the attack. The police booked the Dalits who are agitating for their rights,” the team claimed.