Following the brutal assault on four Dalits by members of self-appointed cow protection groups in Una, Saurashtra last week, Dalits have found a more symbolic way of protesting.
They dumped cow carcasses in government offices on Tuesday, asking ‘Gau Rakshak’ groups to dispose of the dead cows– a job Dalits were burdened with.
Atmosphere in the city has remained tense since Dalit youths were flogged and paraded in the village for allegedly skinning a cow on 11 July.
In the wake of the ensuing violence, Chief Minister Anandiben Patel will visit the town on Wednesday to meet the victims. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi are also scheduled to reach Gujarat in light of the protests.
Dozens of of Dalits from the village carried dead cows in tractors and dumped them in government offices in Gondal and Surendranagar, the Times of India reported.
“Dalits will stop lifting dead animals. We told the government to ask Shiv Sainiks and the self-proclaimed cow protectors to collect and dispose of the carcass from the villages and towns,” a Dalit rights activist, BK Parmar, told the publication.
Protests over the incident led to the killing of a head constable on Tuesday after a mob attacked police with stones. Apart from the head constable, 10 other persons including protesters and policemen have been injured in clashes.
Several incidents of damage to state transport buses and of road blockades have also been reported from different parts of Saurashtra region across Junagadh, Jamnagar, Rajkot and Amreli districts
Source: The Times of India
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