BASSI PATHANAN: Seventy percent of the residents of Biro Majn village have still not returned after the police aggression more than three weeks ago when all villagers had been severely beaten up for detaining a group of policemen. The police had pounced upon the village and had indiscriminately tortured them as collective punishment for daring to detain a group of policemen, The villagers had done so to check unauthorized police raids involving loot of their property and rape of women, The entire village has predominant Hindu population and the village Sarpanchs too is a Hindu, Chuni Lal. He too had left the village after the police action against the villagers. Only 30% of the villagers have resumed to their houses and they do not sleep there. Most women have been sent out of the village by the people to save them from rape by policemen. A married girl belonging to the village came to neighboring village and sent her mother there so that she did not have to visit Biro Majn.
Meanwhile, the Punjab government has so far taken no effective action on the widespread complaints that certain women of the village had been raped and a few households had been looted by a group of armed men. One of the members of this armed group had subsequently been recognized by one of the rape victims. The allegations had been supported by senior Congress (I) leaders including the legislator of the area, Mohinder Singh GilL.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 29, 1993
