Demand license for firearms to protect themselves
AHMEDABAD/ AMN
Thousands of Dalits today gathered in Ahmedabad to protest against the thrashing of Dalit youths in Una town of Saurashtra early this month. The call for today’s Dalit Maha- Sammelan was given by Una Dalit Atyachar Ladat Samiti.
The sammelan was held at Acher Depo ground in Sabarmati area. Thousands of Dalits from North Gujarat and Saurashtra participated in the Dalit Maha-Sammelan and vowed to protest the atrocities against the community.
During the sammelan, the leaders demanded to impose PASA – Prevention of Anti- Social Activities Act against the accused of Una incident. They also announced to hold foot march from Ahmedabad to Una from 5th August to 15th August.
Elaborate security arrangements were made in Ahmedabad and other sensitive areas of the state in view of the sammelan.
The State “must provide us licensed firearms to protect ourselves since the government has failed to provide us security”, said Jignesh Mevani, the convenor
of the joint front of the 30 Dalit organizations.
“We have had enough. We will break their hands and legs if the upper caste exploiters torture us any more,” he asserted.
Referring to the controversial 2012 police attack on Dalits that killed three persons in Dhangad area of Surendranagar, speakers at the rally complained that nothing can be expected from a government that has not even filed a chargesheet. Family members of the three were present.
They demanded that the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act should be invoked against the culprits in the July 11 thrashing of Dalit youths by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes for skinning of dead cows.
This is the first time in Gujarat that as many as 30 Dalit groups from across the state have come together to raise a plethora of issues facing the community for decades.
They have rallied under the banner of ‘Una Dalit Atyachar Ladat Samiti’ (Una Dalit Fight against Atrocities Committee), with Mevani as the convenor.
The mass pledge was taken at a rally called by as many as 30 Dalit groups from across Gujarat and backed by the quasi religious body, Jamiat-e-Ulema-Hind.
Some local uslim leaders also attended the rally and sat on the podium.
Man who attempted suicide to protest Una Dalit thrashing dies
Meanwhile a man who attempted suicide at Dhoraji in Rajkot during the statewide protests against the public thrashing of four Dalits in Una+ , has died at a government hospital here today, police said.
Yogesh Hirabhai Solanki, 25, died after he was rushed to Ahmedabad civil hospital from Rajkot, where he was being treated. He had attempted suicide along with two others at Parabari village in Dhoraji taluka of Rajkot on July 19.