Cops immune to ‘sensitive’ Dumraon

HT Correspondent
Patna/Dumraon (Buxar), October 6
THOUGH DUMRAON has begun returning to normal after the large-scale violence of Wednesday night, most residents are sore with the police for their lack of foresight. There is a general feeling here that had the police taken preventive measures in the light of some incidents of communal strife during Dussehra in the recent years, Wednesday’s violence could well have been averted. Anurag Mishra, a local, said, “We fail to understand why the police did not take adequate preventive measures when the area has been witness to violent clashes during Durga Puja nearly every year in the recent past.” Another Dumraon resident, Kamlesh Singh, said it was no use turning the place into a police garrison when peace in the area had already been disturbed. During the Puja celebrations in 2003, many people were injured and property worth thousands of rupees was damaged in a series of violent clashes between members of the two communities at Naya Bhojpur area of the sub-division. At that time, too, the police had completely failed to sense the gravity of the situation, though there had been reports of large numbers of people from adjoining villages ‘mobilising’ for what they said would be a ‘decisive battle’. In the same month in 2003, a youth was killed at a place under Simri police station of Dumraon sub-division following an altercation over space for performing puja. A few days prior to these incidents, the young son of a village up-mukhiya was gunned down in a puja pandal where idols were still being given the finishing touches. The killing took place following a clash between members of two communities at village Banni. In 2004, Dussehra celebrations turned bloody at Koran Sarai village of Dumraon sub-division when a 1000-strong mob indulged in violence and fought a pitched battle with policemen. While one person was killed in police firing in that incident, nearly 25 policemen sustained injuries in the brickbatting that was resorted to by the mob protesting the arrest of a local Congress leader. Around a dozen police vehicles were also damaged in the violence. During last year’s puja festivities, Naya Bhojpur witnessed large-scale communal disturbance. A senior police officer of Buxar district admitted that some areas in Dumraon sub-division had, in the recent past, become ‘communally sensitive’. He, however, maintained that no special measures by the administration would work until people themselves learnt to live in peace and harmony.