Police action on dalits of Balad Kalan was pre-planned: AFDR report

Sangrur: The police attack on dalits of Balad Kalan village of Sangrur district was "pre-planned" and aimed at curbing similar agitations going on in other three villages of the district, the fact-finding report of Association for Democratic Rights (AFDR) -- the oldest civil liberties organization working in Punjab -- has claimed.

The interim report, based on facts gathered by an eight-member AFDR team in Balad Kalan, was released in Sangrur on Wednesday by martyr Bhagat Singh's nephew Prof Jagmohan Singh, who is the association's general secretary.

Dalits of Balad Kalan were agitating against proxy bidding and demanding common village farmland on subsidized annual lease. The incident occurred in Bhawanigarh town of the district last week when government officials were conducting an auction, after it was cancelled eight times owing to opposition from dalits.

"The narrative of incident of lathicharge is shocking. The decision to cane charge the peaceful protestors was pre-planned. Not only police rained sticks on those who were caught by the cops, but police even went on to call dalits by using derogatory and castiest remarks," read the report, quoting interviews with several victims of the lathicharge.

Demanding action against the errant policemen, AFDR claimed that given the conduct of police during lathicharge and the nature of cases registered after the incident, it was clear that police intended not only to nip the agitation of dalits of Balad Kalan, but also those in other three villages of Sangrur -- Namol, Matoi and Baupur.

"Police have included names of even those leaders in the FIR who were not present on the spot where the incident occurred. These leaders were leading agitation in other villages. This clearly shows that police intended to sabotage the entire struggle," the AFDR report said.