Haryana jats threaten stir for inquest of dalit killings
Thousands of upper caste jats took to the streets in Jind demanding a fresh CBI probe into the caste violence at Mirchpur Village last April. The protesters also demanded the immediate release of 98 jat youth arrested in the case and restoring the trial to Hisar.
The Supreme Court had in December ordered the case, relating to the deaths of a 70-year-old dalit man and his handicapped daughter after upper caste miscreants torched a row of 18 dalit homes, be shifted to the special court at Delhi to ensure a free and fair trial.
More than 150 terror-stricken lower caste families fled Mirchpur drawing the apex court’s intervention but the conduct of the investigation has been the cause for widespread bitterness and protest amidst Haryana’s politically influential jat community.
Now with the jats deciding to launch and agitation on the issue, 45 companies of reserve police constabulary were rushed in and deployed across Jind and other potential trouble stops after 10,000 protesters blocked the main Delhi-Ferozepur railway line threatening to extend the protests across Haryana.
Speaking on behalf of the Sarva Khap Sarva Jatia Mahapanchayat a jat leader Rajbir Dhanda said, “We will continue our protest in a peaceful manner. But we will not move from here till our demands are met.”
Meanwhile, keen on avoiding a direct confrontation with the jats, the state administration and police made no attempt to dislodge them even as the protest spilled over to nearby roads and led to the disruption of vehicular traffic in Jind.
Jind’s superintendent of police Ram Singh Bishnoi said security personnel had been deployed in adequate strength and no direct action would be taken as long as the agitation remained peaceful.
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