Citing the prejudiced attitudes of the district police, Leaders of the tribal community of Chhattisgarh have asked the Centre to initiate a CBI enquiry into the Narayanpur attack on the tribals by a violent mob of Christians on January 01.
In a press conference organized at the state capital Raipur (around 240 km from the Narayanpur) on Sunday, tribal leaders from various groups have demanded a CBI enquiry into the Narayanpur violence.
Cutting across politics, the leaders in the press conference expressed their anguish over the biased attitude of the police and the district administration in the whole incident.
Briefing the media, a former member of the state legislative assembly and leader of the community Bhojaraj Nag stated that ” tribals have been beaten there, but when they complained to the administration no action had been taken. Missionaries are beating us, officials are arresting us while the government is looking on the other side, everything has been done on the behest of the Missionaries, added Nagraj.
Nag further claimed that the missionaries are doing rampant conversions in the tribal heartland of the state and have created enmity between the brotherhood at different localities. They are doing all they can to eradicate the culture and century-old traditions of the community.
While explaining the state of affairs in the region Nag said, we had sought the exact numbers of Converts in the region to which the administration replied that there is no one who is converted in the Gorra village. Now you tell me then who are the people who built the Church there? Who are those who worship there, asked, Nag.
They are forcing us to provide space for their burials, we are simple people, we want to live in peace but we have always stood up against anyone who has ever tried to encroach on our lands, we will not allow this, added another leader.
In the press conference, the leaders asserted that the missionaries had attacked Sop Singh, Lachhu Ram, Rajman and others in the Gorra village attack but no action has been taken by the police, it’s a testimony to the fact that the action of the district police is not impartial thus we demand a CBI enquiry in this case.
The community leaders asked the state government to immediately release the innocent people of the community who were falsely framed in the incident, in addition to that they also asked for a stringent anti-conversion law in the state asserting that the menace of illegal conversion has grown many folds in recent years.
Earlier the tribal delegation also met governor Anusuiya Uikey and submitted their memorandum for a CBI enquiry into the Narayanpur attack. The delegation included a three-year daughter of Siyabati, one of the victims who sustained injuries in the Gorra attack.
It should be noted that cases related to altercations between the Christian missionaries and the local Hindu community over illegal conversion have been going around for a long in the state, the local Vanvasi community has been long accusing the missionaries of disturbing the very fabric of the society through conversion, however despite that the menace of illegal conversion has been grown exponentially, the state congress government has been non-resilient in taking it seriously.
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