Update:
Faridabad: Seven policemen who were deployed for the security of Dalits at a Haryana village, about 40 km from the national capital, have been suspended after two young children were burnt alive as their house was set on fire, allegedly by members of an upper caste community.
Rahul visits Dalit family
Visiting the Dalit family which lost two children in an attack by upper caste men here, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi accused the Prime Minister, Harayana Chief Minister, the BJP and RSS of practising “politics of crushing” those who are weak which results in such incidents.
“This is an attitude shared by the Prime Minister, Chief Minister of the state and the entire BJP and RSS. The attitude is if somebody is weak, he can be crushed. What you have seen is the result of this attitude,” Gandhi said.
He was meeting the family of the victims and villagers who had gathered here. Two children died when their house was set afire allegedly by a crowd of upper caste men in the wee hours of Tuesday.
“In Haryana, there is no government for the poor and poor people are being targeted here which is totally wrong. I have assured the victims’ family that I would do whatever they want from me including pressuring the government.”
Asked whether he was doing politics over the incident, Rahul angrily retorted: “This is insulting when someone says it when someone comes here. It is not insulting to me. It is insulting to these people. What is a photo op. What you mean? People are dying. I will keep coming to such places.”
After visiting the victims’ family members at Sunped village, Gandhi also met agitating villagers, a majority of them women, who had blocked the Ballabhgarh-Faridabad highway to protest against the incident.
Earlier report:
Inter-Caste violence in Haryana; Two children burnt alive
New Delhi: A Dalit family was attacked with fire, while sleeping in their home. The couple’s two children, one an infant and the other two years old, were burnt alive and their parents sustained multiple burn injuries, in the town of Ballabhgarh in Haryana, according to the police.
Jitender, the 31-year-old father, blamed the attacks on members of the Thakur community, who had a confrontation with his family in October, PTI reported. His wife Rekha has been admitted to a hospital in Delhi with 70 percent burns. The attackers allegedly poured petrol on the Dalit family in the early hours of Tuesday morning, news reports said.
“We were sleeping when they poured petrol from the window. I smelt the petrol and tried to wake up my wife but by then the fire had started. My children died in the fire…,” said Jitender.
“They had threatened me that they will finish my family and that I should never return to the village… I won’t, but please give me back my children,” he said.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh has called Haryana Chief Minister M.L. Khattar and sought a report on the incident, ANI reported.
Jitender’s brother Shiv Kumar told NDTV that three people from the Thakur community were killed in a row with the Dalits over allegations of a stolen cell phone. Two months later, Jitender’s family was allegedly attacked and their home was burnt down.
“But they were not home and only their cattle were killed. Since then constables were assigned to guard Jitender and his family,” Kumar said.
Haryana’s Director General of Police, Y.P. Singal, said, “Today’s incident was a fallout of the last year’s incident, wherein three Rajputs were murdered in the same village. In that case, we had arrested 11 persons. Further investigations are on. The accused shall be arrested soon.”
