Report on Sitamarhi violence shows pre-planned conspiracy reportedly lead by a BJP MLA
In keeping with what seems like insidious designs to communally polarise Bihar, well orchestrated violence that uses the festive occasion of Dusshera was recently unleashed on the unsuspecting residents of Sitamarhi district. The All India Bedari Karvan, which had sent out a fact-finding team to the affected villages has released a report that confirms what seems like a diabolical conspiracy, allegedly overseen by senior BJP leaders, aided and abetted by the district administration and propelled by rumours, that leads to a whirlwind of mindless violence in which an elderly man lost his life. The details are unfortunately all too familiar. Eighty-six year old Zainul Ansari lost his life after a brute lynch mob attack while Sabir Ansari and Moinul Haq are lynched, and left for dead. They survive with serious injuries. Bihar is seeing a complete break down of the rule of law. The social media is being used to ‘celebrate’ the attack.
In Madhuban village for instance attempts are made to change the Durga idol’s immersion route on Dusshera, from the one sanctioned by the district administration to one that ominously passes through minority neighbourhoods. This being thwarted, the immersion passes off peacefully. But the very next day, using the pretext of a rumour, a mob attacks Muslim neighborhoods. And, even though the police headquarters are just five-seven minutes away, allegedly, the police only appears after 40 minutes. Surprisingly, the police not only enters the scene through the minority area, it also beats up members of the community and forces young men inside their houses at gunpoint. Needless to say, the perpetrators of the violence roam free. The report names former MLA Pintu Prashant, a member of BJP, as the mastermind of the entire incident. Since justice eludes the victims, the village remains, to date, in the grip of fear and trepidation.
The violence that is avoided on the day of immersion at Madhuban village is unforutnately unleashed in the nearby village of Murgia Chak. Here, the immersion party sports a mike wielding hate monger who at the end of spewing venom aimed at the minorities, while passing through their lanes, declares that the idol has been attacked. This leads to a frenzied attack on Muslim establishments and the local mosque that continues unabated for hours. Police does not intervene.
But it is the events at Goshala Chak that truly exposes the extent at which the local police is allegedly involved. 86 year old Zainul Ansari, about to visit his daughter, is stopped near the gates of Goshala, assaulted, dragged by a mob and after severing his hands and legs and slitting his throat, is burnt right on the street. For two days after the incident, the distraught family is mislead by the police. On the third day, when internet services are restored briefly, photos and videos that have since gone viral, showing the entire incident, is discovered by the family. At this point the police admits that it had found the body but proceeds to hush up the matter by forcefully conducting his last rites at the nearby city. Again, despite the videos and photos that perhaps many in the entire country have seen, the perpetrators roam free.
In a similar manner, violence racks the villages of Punaura and Mirzapur and unsuspecting passer-byes Sabir Ansari and Moinul Haq are lynched by a mod and left for dead. Both survive with grievous injuries.
The report also details how the Muslims of these villages have been facing unprovoked and shocking violence since only a single, common road exists and at the smallest of pretexts, Muslims are identified, dragged out of vehicles and beaten up.
If this is not an example of jungle raaj in Bihar, what is. But are we really surprised? Because the most shocking aspect of the report mentions how Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, the most high profile BJP leader in Bihar, had visited this very area barely ten days before the violence had broken out . What was his message to his partymen? Are we to look for answers in the blood and mayhem that is left behind ?
Read the whole report in Hindi here.
Related articles:
No end to communal violence in Bihar: A report on Sitamarhi
NewsCentral Exclusive: “Give Us One Hour, We Will Finish Muslims…”