A State Wide Bandh (shutdown) against the brutal killing of a 23-year-old Hindu youth, Bhuvaneshvar Sahu, by a violent mob in Biranpur village of Bemetara was effectively observed in Chhattisgarh on April 10.
As per the report, the bandh was effective, and shops along with transport services have been closed in the major towns of the state; it’s been learnt that shops along with major businesses were kept closed in support of the Bandh in Durg, Ambikapur, Raipur and other notable cities of the state.
Earlier on April 9, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had called for a statewide Bandh, which was also supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bhilai Chamber of Commerce against the brutal murder in Biranpur village under Saja police station limits of Bemetara, the cold-blooded murder took place after a group of people attacked local Hindu villagers who were gathered in the wake of a minor scuffle between two students and a youth of the other community on April 8.
It’s been reported that a few people stabbed Bhuvaneshvar Sahu with sharp weapons. When he fell unconscious, they took him along with them, ” a few people stabbed my brother, and when he fell unconscious, they took him to the nearby mosque; they later threw his body into the open after killing him, said a cousin of Sahu while speaking with a local media channel.”
While the father of the deceased, Ishwar Sahu, alleged that his son was murdered due to a four-month-old enmity that aroused after a Muslim man married a girl from his village, ” we held a Hindu Sabha in the same ground after they took a girl from our town, they wanted to take revenge, ” said Bhuvaneshvar father.
He further alleged that a local leader Anjor Singh, a henchman of Ravindra Chaubey, the congress MLA of the region, was instigating the other community; he claimed that Singh had threatened the villagers that he would abduct each one of the Teli (Sahu) community after the election.
Meanwhile, the BJP president of the state, Arun Sao, was also detained by the police en route to meet the victim’s family; it’s been learnt that the police later released him. It is to be noted that given any fresh altercation or possible political outrage from the Hindu outfits, a massive deployment of the police has been made in the village, where tension is still simmering high between the two communities.
Speaking with the Organiser, one of the villagers asserted that “though a huge deployment of the security personnel is still guarding the village, a few of the culprits are roaming free, while the local congress leader Anjor Singh has also been missing since Saturday, there are some unconfirmed reports that a few people from the Sahu community is on their hit-list and they can be targeted.”
“Anjor Singh had threatened us after the latest incident of love Jihad of Tara Sahu, which was overall the 7th or 8th incident that occurred over a couple of years”, he added.
Earlier in a video release, Vinod Bansal, national spokesperson of the VHP, said that “Hindus have been living like a second grade citizens in the state (Chhattisgarh), it’s pathetic that a Hindu youth was brutally murder in front of police, even the policemen were attacked and one of their jawan is being treated in the hospital.”
On the one hand, there are Christian missionaries who are openly running the misdeed of conversion, while on the other hand, the locals are also facing a growing threat of Islamist extremism in the State, both the missionaries and the extremists wants to instil a sense of fear in the local Hindu community, while the state government has turned a deaf ear to these incidents, the root cause of all this is the appeasement policy of the state government where even the policemen are not secure, added Mr Bansal.
It is to be noted that the State has witnessed several communal flare-ups over the past few years as clashes between the local Hindus with Christian and Muslim groups were reported from different regions of the State.
