New Delhi: Civil society groups in New Delhi on Saturday joined women activists and others to protest mass killings of dalits in Naguar district of Rajasthan state.
The dominant Jat caste allegedly killed three dalit people on Thursday triggering country wide condemnation. The Jat people allegedly mowed down the dalits with tractors. More than a dozen other dalit people were wounded in the attack.
A dispute over a plot of land turned violent when the Jats held a village council meet in to resolve the issue and summoned the dalits to attend. Fearing attacks from the Jats who had gathered there, the dalits fired at them which led to death of one.
The Jat panchayat went berserk, attacked the dalits, bulldozed their houses, assaulted their women and chased the fleeing men on tractors. Three were crushed to death while 14 others, including six women, were injured.
The following day, hundreds of armed crowed surrounded a hospital at Merta City to prevent doctors from treating the wounded dalits. The administration had to call police force from half-a-dozen stations to ensure medical treatment to the injured. Some wounded were taken to Ajmer.
“Such acts of violence and humiliation not only violate basic human rights of the dalits but also reflect upon the highly casteist feudal mindset that continues to prevail in our society. What essentially furthers such atrocities is the impunity that has continued in the cases of caste atrocities,” the protesters said in a memorandum addressed to the Resident Commissioner of Rajasthan.
The protested in front of the Rajasthan Bhavan in New Delhi, twocircles.net reported.
Protesters also alleged that perpetrators of earlier acts of violence against dalits remained unpunished. “The silence of the larger society on the issue of caste has contributed to the nurturing of this culture of caste atrocities, which has taken such an ugly face for the dalits. Caste and its implications for the dalits need to be acknowledged by all and condemned strongly,” the statement further added.
The dispute relates to a 20 hector farm land claimed by a few dalit families, but disputed by a Jat family. The row has been pending in court for years. Matters reached a head when the Jats held a meeting and summoned the dalits. The dalit families, fearing that the Jats were assembling to attack them, shot at the two men sent to call them, killing one on the spot.
Six dalit women, who were allegedly molested, are being treated in Ajmer’s JLN hospital. A 25-year-old woman said the attackers tore off her blouse and tried to strip her on the disputed land. She got 15 stitches on her head. The attackers allegedly tried to rape and abuse Dalit women, tried to remove skirt and tried to thrust sticks inside.