Singhbhum-district Archives

One more held for Jharkhand massacre, 16 arrested so far.

Source – thehindu.com

One more person has been arrested in connection with the killing of seven people allegedly by ‘Pathalgarhi’ movement supporters at Burugulikera village in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district last week, taking the total number of arrests to 16, police said on Tuesday.

Martin Logma, 27, was arrested on Monday and produced before a local court in Chakradharpur, which sent him to 14-days judicial custody, an official release said.

The other 15 accused, aged between 19 and 60 years, were arrested on Sunday and charged with murder and rioting, among others, it said.

They were produced before the court of sub-divisional judicial magistrate, Chakradharpur on Monday which sent them to 14-days judicial custody, the release said.

Supporters of ‘Pathalgarhi’ movement had allegedly kidnapped the seven villagers of Burugulikera in Guddi block on January 21 and killed them for allegedly opposing their stir. Their mutilated bodies were recovered from a forest, around 4 kilometres from the village the next day.

Proponents of ‘Pathalgarhi’, a tribal movement, want that no laws of the land should apply to the tribal people.

They write tenets on large stones and erect them in their areas of influence.

The killings that took place days after the JMM- Congress-RJD coalition government assumed power in the state on December 29, triggered widespread outrage and Chief Minister Hemant Soren ordered an investigation by a special investigation team (SIT).

The truth behind Pathalgadi violence in Jharkhand.

Source – outlookindia.com

The Pathalgadi movement was started to save the land and forest areas in Jharkhand, but now the movement is also marked by a series of violence. The purpose of the Pathalgadi movement was to make the Gram Sabhas omnipotent in tribal areas to reclaim their rights to ”jal, jangal and zameen”. The people wanted the Gram Sabhas to grant permission for mining and development work in their tribal areas and not by the elected government.

After the killing of seven people for opposing the movement in West Singhbhum recently, there are fears of violence in other areas too. When the Hemant Soren government came to power, it announced the withdrawal of the old sedition cases against Pathalgadi activists. This, however, caused much resentment in the tribal community.

Pathalgadi hit the headlines when seven Pathalgadi opponents were killed in Burugulikela village in West Singhbhum district on January 19. Activists working in the tribal areas say even now there is confusion on whether the killings took place because of the Pathalgadi movement.

The police are still investigating the killing of seven villagers in Burugulikela village, about 80 km from the district headquarters, but they have so far investigated it from the angle of personal enmity.

Sources however said that the Pathalgadi movement may be the main reason behind the killings. The clash took place between the supporters and the opponents of the movement over the development works to be carried out without any interference from the tribal community. Police sources said that a section of villagers, reposing complete faith in the Gram Sabha, may be behind the killings.

Jarom Gerald Kujur, Secretary of the Central Jana Sangh Samiti, an NGO working for the tribals, said that the incident is under investigation, hence it cannot be linked to the Pathalgadi movement yet.

He said, “Pathalgadi is a very old tradition. The Birsa Munda Samaj mentions its rule by placing large stones outside the village, which is called Pathalgadi, while the Oraon Samaj collects a heap of stones, known as keystones.”

He said that these stones indicate the boundary of the villages.

Kujur said that the history of the tribals shows that the Munda tribals in Singhbhum and Khunti areas had been trying to establish a self-governing system since the time of the British, and the Pathalgadi movement is a product of that struggle.

The movement which started from the Khunti region of Jharkhand, spread to other areas – Gumla, Shimdega, West Singhbhum in the course of time.

People say that the government must understand the sensitivity and take appropriate steps, otherwise this age-old custom may deviate to a turbulent and violent path.

“The government neither understood the sensibility of it nor is it understanding it now,” said James Herange, a Jharkhand social activist and convener of the Jharkhand NREGA Watch.

“This peaceful majority tribal area is once again becoming turbulent. The government needs to convince all, including the opposition,” he said.

He said that Pathalgadi is not a new practice. It is actually said to be the monuments of those stones, which have a very ancient history. Even today it is practiced in tribal societies across many states.

Herange said: “There was fear and anger in the tribal society against the government when it introduced amendments to the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (CNT) 1908 and the Santhal Pargana Tenancy (SPT) Act 1949. The tribal community feared that the government was going to hand over the rights of forest and land to the capitalists in the name of mining and industrialisation.”

Panic gripped the Bundu and Tamar communities and the possibility of bloody conflict increased in these areas after the government”s move.

District Collector of West Singhbhum, Arwa Rajkamal, said that investigation is still on in the Burugulikela incident which makes it clear that the clash happened in the garb of Pathalgadi movement when two tribal groups came face to face over the development works in the area.

The Pathalgadi movement was revived to protest tribal land rights in 2017-18, when huge engraved stones were erected outside the villages following the amendments in tribal laws. The tribals wrote on the stones the rights enshrined under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution which ensured self-governance through Gram Sabhas to safeguard and preserve traditions and customs of the tribal people and their cultural identity.

The movement turned violent and a fierce struggle took place between the police and the tribals after the government”s move to amend the tribal laws. The movement may have calmed down for now, but the villagers never forgot the police brutality that they suffered.

The Khunti police registered a total of 19 cases related to the Pathalgadi movement, in which 172 people were booked. Now after the Soren government withdrew all the cases, many believe it was done in a hurry.

Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren orders SIT probe after Pathalgarhi supporters kill 7 villagers.

Source – indiatoday.in

upporters of “Pathalgarhi” movement, armed with lathis and axes, kidnapped seven villagers and later killed them in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand for allegedly opposing their stir, police said on Wednesday.

With the horrific incident in Burugulikera village,over 175 km from capital Ranchi, triggering widespread outrage, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren ordered setting up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to find reasons behind the massacre of seven innocent villagers.

Hemant Soren also directed the officials to help families of the victims.

“Set up a special investigation team (SIT) to get a breakthrough about the real reasons behind the incident and identify the guilty. Help families of the victims,” an official release said quoting Soren.

The tragedy coming barely days after the JMM-Congress- RJD coalition government assumed power in the state drew sharp reaction from the BJP.

Newly-elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president J P Nadda condemned the mass killing and set up a six-member party team to visit the place and submit a report within a week, a press statement issued by the saffron party’s national General Secretary Arun Singh said.

The members of the team are — Jaswant Singh Bhabhor (MP from Gujarat), Samir Oraon (MP from Jharkhand), Bharati Pawar (Parliamentarian from Maharashtra), Gomti Saai (Chhattisgarh Lok Sabha member), Joan Barla (LS member from West Bengal) and former Jharkhand minister and MLA Nilkanth Singh Munda — the release said.

Giving detail of the event, Inspector General of Police (Operation) Saket Kumar Singh said that the policemen reached Burugulikera village on Tuesday night after getting information about the killing of seven natives.

After murdering, the killers had dumped bodies of the victims in a nearby forest.

A panchayat representative was among those massacred, Saket Kumar Singh said.

After an overnight search operation, bodies of the seven villagers were recovered from the forest, four km from the village, Saket Kumar Singh said.

There was a meeting over ‘Pathalgarhi’ movement in the village on Tuesday when a dispute had arisen, West Singhbhum Superintendent of Police Indrajit Mahata said.

Following the development, supporters of the movement kidnapped seven villagers and later killed them with the help of lathis and axes, Saket Kumar Singh said.

Pathalgarhi is a name given to a tribal protest which seeks autonomy for village sabhas (Gramsabhas). Those demanding Pathalgarhi want no laws of the land be applicable on the tribal people in the area.

The Pathalgarhis reject government rights over their forests and rivers.

As part of the movement, Pathalgarhis erect a stone plaque or signboard outside the village/area, declaring the village as sovereign territory and prohibiting the entry of the outsiders.

Hemant Soren had earlier in the day said: “Law is above all and the guilty will not be spared. The police is investigating the matter.”

A high-level meeting will be convened to prevent recurrence of such an incident, Hemant Soren said.

Pathalgarhi movement had hit the national headlines in the middle of 2019.

On June 19, five NGO workers were allegedly abducted and gangraped by armed men associated with the Pathalgarhi movement. They were performing a street play at a school in Khunti district of Jharkhand when they were targetted.

The raiders had branded the NGO workers as “dikus” (outsiders).

On June 26, another group of armed Pathalgarhis had abducted three security personnel posted at the former BJP MP Karia Munda’s home in Khunti. They were released later.

The Pathalgarhi groups have been active across four districts of Jharkhand – Khunti, Gumla, Simdega and West Singhbhum.

All of them are Maoist-infested districts. Soon after being sworn in as the chief minister on December 29 last, Hemant Soren had announced his decision to withdraw all sedition cases registered during the Pathalgarhi movement and protests against the amendments to Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (CNT Act) and Santhal Paragana Tenancy Act (SPT Act).

Former Chief Minister Raghubar Das condemned the Burugulikera massacre and demanded immediate arrest of the killers.

“I feel very painful at the barbaric killing of seven innocent villagers at Burugulikera in West Singhbhum district,” Raghubar Das said in a statement.

Raghubar Das said that the incident raises “a question mark on the law and order situation in the state”.

BJPs Scheduled Tribe Morcha national vice president Arun Oraon also strongly criticised the killing.

“The BJP will send a partys central team to visit the spot to collect pieces of evidence and look into them,” he told reporters here during the day.

The Morchas national secretary and MLA, Koche Munda, alleged that the incident reflected the poor law and order situation in the state, “boosting the morale of anti-social elements”.