By Manzar Bilal, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: What will you say when two similar incidents happen and police deal with them differently? Two incidents of police clash with public took place in Bihar in the month of June. In one incident, police fired in the air to disperse the mob while in another incident police killed protestors directly.
On June 28, to disperse a mob which clashed with the police, the police fired several rounds in the air at Parsauni block headquarters in Sitamarhi district of Bihar. The incident happened when police tried to arrest newly elected pramukh of Parsauni block Rajnikant Prasad Yadav against whom a warrant of arrest in a criminal case was pending.
As soon as Rajnikant Prasad Yadav came out of the block office after receiving victory certificate, a police team which was waiting outside of the office tried to arrest him but about 2000 supporters of Yadav did not let police do that. Consequently, Mr. Yadav managed to escape the spot.
According to the police, the supporters pelted stones on police and tried to snatch firearms from police as well as set afire police vehicles. Two people including a woman were injured while some security men also got injured in the incident.
However, state Director General of Police (DGP) Neelmani ordered Muzaffarpur DIG B S Meena to inquire into the firing incident.
Another incident took place in Bhajanpur village of Forbesganj in Araria district on June 3. The poor people were protesting against the blockade of a road by a glucose factory in which BJP MLC Ashok Agarwal has share. Although reportedly the violence was not violent to the extent of the above mentioned incident but police opened fire at them and killed them pointblank in head, chest and back. Four people were killed in the firing including an infant and a pregnant woman while several injured.
To many it might appear that police reacted discriminately against minorities in the latter incident.