What a disgrace!
The photograph of the helpless woman reminded me of the Napalm victim of
Vietnam. This is even worse - the woman was directly humiliated, kicked around
and brutalized. And there were some 'nirllojyo mota-manuh' who were jeering at
her.
>Prasenjit Chakravarty, Sandip Chakdar and Ratul Barman were nabbed on the
>basis of >video footage and eyewitness accounts.
Barman is an Assamese surname. Not that it matters what their originality is,
it happened in Assam, and this has put Assam in total shame.
It would be a disgrace to animals if we equate these barbarians to animals.
- A. Sarangapani
Spring, Texas.
“In order to make spiritual progress you must be patient like a tree and humble
like a blade of grass”
- Lakshmana
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:21:34 -0800From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [EMAIL
PROTECTED]: Re: [Assam] Mob strips woman protester in Guwahati - Times of India
Shame on Beltola residents who let it go to this extent!
Read the report from the Telegraph and see for yourself who have taken over the
streets of Guwahati, in this case the street vendors. Does that hold true for
all of Guwahati? I hope that is not the case in Uzanbazar where I grew up.
I suspect this is how the sequence/chronology went:
The front line of the processionists got violent, damaged property all along
and ran.
The business owners and their employees started revenge on the next batch of
processionists that consisted of the non-violent weaker members including this
woman.
The local residents and reinforcement of security forces got into action and
controlled the street mob to bring an end to the fury.
Unfortunately I felt many years ago this is how Guwahati will turn out to be
due to uncontrolled growth. What can I say?
Dilip Deka
===================================================
FROM THE TELEGRAPH
Shame on Guwahati streets
A STAFF REPORTER
Guwahati, Nov. 26: A young Adivasi woman ran down a Guwahati street naked,
stripped by ethnic rioters, while leering city youths clicked away with their
cellphone cameras.
As television today brought to Assam homes one more scene of Saturday’s street
horror — when hundreds of tribals were attacked over a 3.5km stretch of the
city — police arrested the woman’s three tormentors.
“The three had pounced on her like a pack of dogs and started stripping her.
All her pleas fell on deaf ears till they had stripped her naked. Only then did
they let her go,” said a police officer quoting eyewitnesses to the mob
retaliation to a violent Adivasi students’ march.
The woman sprinted away from a large group of jeering men and ran on in panic
till somebody threw her a piece of clothing.
The sight left homemaker Ananya Baruah dumbfounded on her second-floor balcony
at Beltola, the epicentre from where the rioting spilled over several
localities.
“She was running like mad. Some people were clicking pictures with their
cellphones. It was one of the worst crimes any civilised society could have
committed. I felt so helpless just watching. The girl disappeared into one of
the by-lanes.”
The victim was probably a participant in the armed Adivasi procession in demand
of Scheduled Tribe status that had turned violent and damaged private and
public property, including cars.
As the police began dispersing the tribals, angry local mobs chased down the
stragglers among them. Adivasi men, women and children were dragged across
streets and mercilessly beaten up with the police refusing to intervene. The
violence left some 300 injured and a 12-year-old boy dead.
The ethnic conflict claimed a second life this morning. Santosh Kumar, 17, was
dragged out of a vehicle on a highway for “defying” an Adivasi-enforced bandh
that was yet to begin, and hacked to death.
Chief minister Tarun Gogoi announced the arrests of the trio who had stripped
the woman and offered the victim Rs 1 lakh in compensation. Prasenjit
Chakravarty, Sandip Chakdar and Ratul Barman were nabbed on the basis of video
footage and eyewitness accounts.
Ratul, a waiter at Mahalaxmi Hotel in Beltola, is barely 18. The main accused
is Prasenjit, 28, owner of Dainty Fast Food restaurant in the same locality.
Sandip, 20, owns a paan shop near the hotel where Ratul works.
The charges against them range from outraging a woman’s modesty to attempt to
murder.
Gogoi announced a judicial probe into the violence by the All Adivasi Students’
Association of Assam as well as the mob backlash. The state government has
announced a compensation of Rs 3 lakh for the families of the dead.Ram Dhar
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
infact it did happen ..Please note - you may find this video content very very
disturbing.Really shocked to see this happening in our Gauhati. CNN-IBN
video-
http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/53043/guwahati-residents-strip-beat-up-women-protestors.html
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 15:10:55 -0600From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [EMAIL
PROTECTED]: [Assam] Mob strips woman protester in Guwahati - Times of India
This news, IF TRUE, is a darn shame, and if it is NOT, then we should all join
hand in vehemently protesting to the TOI, and demand that the publish
clarifications prominently and apologize to Assam & her people.
--Ram
Mob strips woman protester in Guwahati27 Nov 2007, 0001 hrs IST ,TNNSMS NEWS to
58888 for latest updates
GUWAHATI: Like in most bandhs and protests, poor adivasi workers from the once
lush tea gardens of Assam did dent business and damage some property as they
marched through Guwahati to demand inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes list which
will help them get easier access to education and jobs. But it was one adivasi
woman who bore the brunt of the anger of local residents. She was attacked, her
clothes were ripped off and a mob chased the naked woman along the streets.
Ducking from prying eyes and TV cameras and terrified by screams of a mob
chasing her, the woman ran until some other residents rescued her on Saturday
and gave her clothes and cover both from the lathi-wielding police and the
assailants. Two days later, after the protests spiralled as news of the attack
on the woman got out, Assam's CM Tarun Gogoi said he was enraged by the crowd
behaviour and police said three of the assailants had been arrested. He
announced a Rs 1 lakh compensation for the woman, whose identity was not
disclosed. "I am horrified by the incident. I cannot believe how people can be
so inhuman and barbaric. Everybody seems to have lost their sense," said Gogoi
on Monday. The CM also announced a judicial inquiry into Saturday's violence.
Police said three men were picked up from their houses early Monday. They were
identified as Prasenjit Chakravorty (28), owner of a fast food joint, Ratul
Barman (18), a hotel waiter, and Sudip Chakdar (20), a pan shop owner.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Sibu Soren, who has pitched in for Assam's adivasi
migrants, said the incident demonstrated the racial hatred for tribals. "I have
also led many agitations, but never had we targeted women. Adivasis across the
country are always looked down upon and do not get the respect they deserve
from people and the government as a whole," Soren said on Monday after visiting
injured protesters. Former Jharkhand CM Babulal Marandi also waded in as the
bandh took a tribal vs non-tribal hue. He flew into Guwahati Monday afternoon
and went straight for a press conference with the main opposition party Assam
Gana Parishad (AGP). "This is a conspiracy hatched by Congress government," he
charged. Although Guwahati remained largely peaceful in the last phase of the
36-hour protest that began on Saturday, the stripping incident gave it a new
impetus in many areas where the sponsors, the All Adivasi Students' Association
of Assam, had clout. Sporadic violence was reported and bandh supporters
attacked one vehicle at Karigaon in Kokrajhar district, killing one person and
injuring two others. So far, at least six people have been killed in clashes
between adivasi activists and local people. About 250 people have been injured
in police action or clashes.
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