Six men injured in conflict over shamlat land in Nabha village
The conflict over the shamlat land in Achal village near Nabha took a violent turn on Saturday as the members of the general and dalit communities, fighting over the land, ‘attacked’ each other with sharp-edged weapons, leaving six people injured
The conflict over the shamlat land in Achal village near Nabha took a violent turn on Saturday as the members of the general and dalit communities, fighting over the land, ‘attacked’ each other with sharp-edged weapons, leaving six people injured.
Meanwhile, the dalit victims alleged that the sarpanch, who belonged to the Akali Dal, along with the workers of party’s student wing SOI attacked them, while the the sarpanch blamed that youths belonging to the dalit families were planning an attack on them and they just came near the incident spot to counter the attack.
Amandeep Singh, who belonged to the dalit community, said, “The sarpanch , who belong to the ruling party and along with ‘goons’ of SOI attacked our people with sharp-edged weapons and left them severely injured.”
Jaswinder Singh, husband of the sarpanch, said the dalit community was demanding land below the reserved rates and was also threatening the people belonging to the general category. “On Saturday, the dalit youths were planning to attack our college-going children and when we reached the spot to save them, they attacked us as per their planning,” said Singh.
Earlier, the auction of shamlat got cancelled for the fourth consecutive time on Friday. The auction got cancelled after a minor scuffle between sarpanch’s father-in-law and Amrik Singh from the dalit category. This also led to a minor fight between them on Saturday morning, after which Amrik was admitted to a Nabha hospital. Later on the same day, the fight took place near the railway crossing between boys of reserved category and sarpanch’s family and their aides.
Four persons from reserved category got injured in the clash and were rushed to the Nabha civil hospital due to injuries sustained from the sharp-edged weapons, whereas two persons from the general category also sustained head injuries and were admitted to the hospital.
Inderjeet Singh,19, who was injured severely in the clash, was referred to Rajindra Hospital, Patiala from Nabha. Doctors at the Rajindra Hospital claimed that he had a fracture in his elbow and was also suffering from internal injuries like bleeding inside the stomach.
The dalit peasants at Achal village were protesting for approximately 35 acres of land, which is one-third of the village panchayat land that has been reserved for Dalits.
The police registered a cross case against both the parties under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 506 (criminal intimation), 148 (rioting) and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Sadar Nabha police station on Sunday. No arrest has made so far.
Investigating officer (IO) Mohan Singh said that they have registered the cross cases and investigations were on to reveal out the truth. He added they were recording the statements of the victims and raids were being conducted to nab the absconding accused.