By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: People in Araria are aghast at the horrific police firing in Forbesganj which claimed 4 lives including that of an infant and a pregnant woman on 3rd June. They ask: If police can control 90,000 people in Ramlila Maidan in Delhi without using a bullet, then why couldn’t they control a crowd of 90 or so here in Bhajanpur village, Forbesganj?
“If they wanted they could have dispersed the crowd easily without using a fire. The latest example is Ramlila Maidan. Police controlled a huge crowd of people attending the agitation of Baba Ramdev without using force. They did not open a fire. But here in Bhajanpur, they mercilessly killed the villagers,” said Master Mohd Mohsin, who runs Kulliyat-al-Salehat — a girls school– in Araria town.
Villagers of Bhajanpur, Forbesganj
Social activist Ashish Ranjan says: “What is shocking is the highhandedness of the police. They could have handled the situation very well. The crowd was not uncontrollable. The number was small. It was not managed properly. It could have been managed quite well because of sheer number of the people.”
“I completely deplore what happened,” says Ranjan who is attached with Jan Jagaran Shakti Sangahan.
“They could have used water force, rubber bullet. They could have fired in the air to warn the crowd and disperse them. If they were forced to fire at the crowd they could have fired at legs,” said Tahir Ansari, former chairman, Forbesganj municipality.
[Photo & videos shot by Mudassir Rizwan, TwoCircles.net]