Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Kanhaiya Kumar’s convoy was attacked in Bihar when he was travelling from Buxar to Arrah where stones were thrown at his convoy. This was the eighth attack on him in Bihar where he has been protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), reported News 18.
Kumar is on a state-wide campaign “Jan Gan Man” campaign that was launched on January 30 and is set to conclude on February 29.
आज जन-गण-मन यात्रा का क़ाफ़िला बक्सर में सभा करने के बाद आरा पंहुचेगा। गोडसे-प्रेमियों ने आरा में होने वाली सभा के मंच मे कल रात आग लगा दी है लेकिन हम तो जाएँगे मोहब्बत का कारवाँ लेकर और लगाएँगे नफ़रत से आज़ादी के नारे। ?
इंक़लाब मंच का मोहताज नही होता दोस्तों। ?
— Kanhaiya Kumar (@kanhaiyakumar) February 14, 2020
Congress MLA Shakeel Ahmed Khan who has been accompanying Kumar on the tour told PTI, “Our cavalcade has been attacked many times since the ‘Jan Gan Man Yatra’ began on January 30. Today was, indeed, a close shave. It was the first time that the vehicle in which we were sitting was attacked, though thankfully we escaped unhurt.”
He added, “We were following a police vehicle deployed by the state government in the wake of the previous attacks. The driver pushed the brakes upon noticing 25-30 youths, some of them on motorcycles and others on foot, standing on the roadside armed with sticks, stones and wearing headbands with menacing slogans inscribed.”
“Unfortunately, the police vehicle had gone some distance ahead and the attackers pounced on us. Several pieces of rock hit our vehicle, damaging it to an extent that it was rendered unusable. In the meantime, the policemen realised something was amiss and they rushed back and tried to disperse the mob,” he explained.
Manish Kumar, executive editor, NDTV who was with Kumar on the present tour said that a group of people with faces covered and stones in their hands were standing on the national highway that led to Arrah. Kanhaiya’s supporters who were travelling with him gathered around the group, armed with sticks after Kanhaiya got out of the car to reason with the crowd. But the group of masked men instigated Kanhaiya’s supporters which ensued in stone pelting.
Manish also says that the masked men raised cries of ‘Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro s****on ko,” a slogan that has come to be associated with the ministers of the BJP and the party’s supporters who feel people protesting against the CAA-NPR-NRC are ‘anti-nationals’ and must be shot.
The police, Manish says, did not use their batons to rein in the group of masked men who were targeting Kanhaiya.
One of Kanhaiya’s associates was gravely hurt by a stone that was thrown in his direction and was sent to the hospital. Some of the motorcyclists were also hurt in the incident.
Bhojpur Superintendent of Police Sushil Kumar was apprised of the incident and said that all injured persons were hospitalized and post investigations, the culprits would be brought to book. He also denied that the police were mere spectators during the incident and said that a police car too was damaged in the scuffle.
The last attack on Kanhaiya had taken place on Tuesday in Gaya where prior to reaching the venue, his convoy was attacked by a group of motorcyclists who hurled stones at the vehicles. The same day, the organizers of the tour put out a statement that said, “The slogans raised by the motorcyclists clearly indicated their adherence to a particular ideology.”
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