After fresh attack, angry Sitapur villagers kill more dogs

The dog menace in Sitapur villages continued when a pack of feral dogs attacked two more locals on Wednesday morning, resulting in angry retaliation by the villagers, who have killed eight dogs in past 24 hours.

The fresh attack was reported in Tikaria village where two teenagers, Sunil (18) of Tikaria village and Raju (12) of adjoining Jamaiatpur village were attacked when they had gone out to attend natures’ call. “The duo was surrounded by a pack of dogs when they were passing through a mango orchard in the morning. Luckily they managed to climb a tree and save their lives,” said Ayub Khan, a local.

The fear of dogs also resulted in sharp decline in attendance in schools. Locals said at least 15 children in around eight-km radius of Khairabad, nearly 80 km northwest of Lucknow, had been killed in dog attacks since November 2017. However, the police said nine incidents of killing by dogs were reported at the police station during that period. They said multiple incidents of attack, in which children were severely injured, were verbally reported by villagers.

“The attack by dogs on Tuesday morning claiming the life of three children has increased the fear manifold. Many families are not sending their children alone to school,” said Umesh Kumar, an assistant teacher in a primary school of Tikaria village.

Villagers equipped with rods and canes have formed multiple groups and carried out combing on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday, during which they beat up four dogs to death (HT Photo)

In Tikaria village, 11-year-old Shavani Chowdhary, class 3 student, was killed by a pack of dogs on Tuesday morning.

Kumar said a total of 251 students from different villages of Khairabad area were enrolled in the primary school (up to Class 5), but only 45 students turned up on Wednesday. He said although two women assistant teachers, Preeti Mishra and Vandana Rana, came to school, they did not bring their kids along due to this fear.

Principal of Jamaiatpur upper primary school (from Class 6 to 8) JS Shukla too admitted that there was sharp drop in students’ turnout. He said out of 226 students enrolled in his school, only 44 turned up on Wednesday.

“Villagers equipped with rods and canes have formed multiple groups and carried out combing on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday, during which they beat up four dogs to death,”said another local Sharad Kapoor. “Four dogs were also killed in Tikaria, Gulpuria and Kholia villages on Tuesday,” he added.

Two girls, Shavani (11) and Komal (12), and a boy Khalid (12) were killed by the dogs in Tikaria, Gurpulia and Kholia villages on Tuesday morning, forcing the villagers to launch a drive to exterminate the dogs for the safety of their children.