By IANS,
Bhopal : Leaders from various political parties descended on Madhya Pradesh’s Dindori town Thursday to protest the police firing Tuesday that killed three tribals.
State Congress president Suresh Pachouri reached Dindori Thursday, while Communist Party Of India (CPI) sent its team to probe the case and the Bharatiya Gondwana Party (BGP) demanded registration of criminal cases against the policemen who opened fire at the tribals.
The incident occurred Tuesday evening in Parsel village of Dindori district, over 350 km from here, when authorities sought to disperse a mob which was blocking a road and demanding that an advocate, Narain Padwar, who was missing for the past two months, be traced.
Sources said Padwar had been missing for the past two months and a missing person’s report had been filed. Alleging that police were not making any effort to look for him, the villagers resorted to blocking the road.
However, when the police reached the site to disperse the mob, the protesters allegedly pelted stones at the policemen, injuring about a dozen of them. The police first resorted to baton-charging and firing in the air to disperse the crowd and when the locals did not relent, the police opened fire in which three people were injured who later died in hospital.
Demanding a judicial inquiry into the incident, Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Jamuna Devi said: “Police personnel don’t discharge their duties in tribal areas efficiently, for they think that their posting in the area is a ‘punishment’ . Hence, delay in investigations on their part leads to resentment among tribals.”
The CPI also sent its inquiry committee, comprising of three members led by Haridwar Singh, to Dindori to look into the incident.
“The party has requested Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to give Rs.5 lakh to the next of kin of each of the deceased and Rs.1 lakh to the injured,” CPI state secretary Mahendra Bajpai told IANS.
The Bharatiya Gondwana Party (BGP) has demanded that criminal cases be registered against the police personnel who were involved in the killing of the tribals and Rs.10 lakh compensation and a job be given to a member of each of the families of the deceased.
“We will launch an agitation if our demands are not met by the government,” BGP’s national general secretary Ramlal Tyagi said.