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Humanity hung its head in shame at Narayanpur

Y Bala Murali Krishna

They cleanse carcasses and mend animal soles. But they never imagined that one day they would have to cleanse the blood from the bullet-ridden bodies of their kin before observing the last rites en masse on the banks of the barren Morhar river.

Humanity hung its head in shame on Thursday as the cots bearing the bodies of 11 massacre victims passed by the terror-stricken Chamartoli Bigah hamlet in Narayanpur village, in the extremist-infested Jehanabad district, about 100 km from Patna.

The 30 cobblers' families were still coming to terms with the horror of Wednesday night when 30 masked men murdered 11 innocent dalits at point-blank range.

All these families live in a cluster on one side of the village. The upper castes live on the other side. There was no immediate provocation for the killings nor did any enmity exist between the dalits and their upper caste neighbours.

The masked assailants, wielding rifles and other weapons, broke open the doors of the huts and shot the victims. The dead included six men, a boy and five women, all between 12 and 40 years old.

''The only solace is that the desperadoes did not molest us, but we were forced to witness the violent deaths of our dear ones. Nobody consoled us till this morning,'' the women folk said yesterday.

Fifty-year-old Kosami was inconsolable. Her relative Buthia, who took care of her, was among the victims. Kosami wept as she pointed out Buthia's body lying in a pool of blood on a cot in the dingy hut.

Recently married Ushadevi lost her husband Upendra Das while Tapeswari Devi, her two daughters and sons lost the family's sole bread winner, her husband Parameswar Das, 30. Tapeswari Devi lay in a corner of her hut, near her husband's body, wailing uncontrollably with her four-year-old son Pintoo on her lap.

Parameswar Das's elder brother was among the three people killed by the Ranvir Sena at Savanbigah in 1991 following a land dispute.

Rats moved about in the dingy huts in mute testimony to the cobblers' poverty.

The aged, who could walk only with the help of sticks, lay on their shallow cots in the evening sun while a posse of policemen lined up for inquiries.

Jehanabad District Magistrate Pratay Amrit said he would take decisive action to arrest the killers and end the menace of extremism in the district for good. He claimed to have obtained vital clues and promised to strike at extremist hideouts soon. He also planned to seize both licenced and unlicenced weapons.

The shocked villagers dared to inform the Pirbigah police outpost nearby only at 0730 hours on Thursday. The Ranvir Sena had struck terror ten hours before, at about 2100 hours, Amrit said.

He said he had decided to impose community fines in Narayanpur and Shankar Bigah villages which sheltered the desperadoes before and after they struck. This system of imposing collective fines would be extended to other villages which provided refuge to the killers, the DM said.

On the night of January 25, Shankar Bigah witnessed the massacre of 22 dalits, allegedly by the Ranvir Sena, forcing the Centre to rush a high level team headed by the special Union home ministry secretary. The team was to have submitted its report to the home minister yesterday.

This correspondent observed several busloads of Liberation Group Naxalite activists moving out after visiting the village.

An outpost was being set up in the hamlet and a posse of armed police drafted for the raids on the extremist hideouts.

Magadh Deputy Inspector General of Police G K Bharadwaj said about 25 people had been named in the first information report. The DIG suspected the involvement of both the Ranvir Sena and the Sawarna Liberation Front who were involved in the 1991 carnage at Savanbigah.

Bagi Kumar Verma, the Rashtriya Janata Dal legislator representing Makdhompur assembly constituency under which the hamlet falls, claimed the dalits had been prevented by the landlords from voting in previous elections.

Even as tension mounted in the trouble-torn hamlet, Ranvir Sena spokesman Shamsher Bahadur Singh circulated a note to the media, warning that such massacres would continue till the Naxalites's economic blockade on farmers was lifted and the state government provided protection for the upper castes.

UNI

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