Continuing the trend of incessant attacks on Hindu festival celebrations, Islamists in Palamu district of Jharkhand took objection to Hindu preparations for the upcoming Mahashivratri festival and unleashed vicious stone-pelting earlier today.
The excuse for the violence was typical. A welcome gate was being installed by local Hindus at a town square which also has a mosque – the very sight of ‘kafir/pagan’ festivities in vicinity of their place of worship is unacceptable to Islamists, who consider it ‘disrespectful/blasphemous’ to their ‘one true god’ and a challenge to their supremacy by believers of a ‘false religion’, who thus need to be taught a lesson to accept dhimmitude (second-class citizenship status under Islamic sharia).
But as there are still enough Hindus in Bharat who refuse to bow down to Islamist diktats, there was a retaliation and around a dozen people are reported injured, including 5 policemen. Some vehicles were also set on fire. A heavy police force has been deployed and Section 144 has been imposed in the area. Internet service has been shut down.
The incident took place in the Panki block of Palamu district when local Hindus were building welcome gates at Bhagat Singh Chowk for Mahashivratri that falls on February 18 this year. Local Islamists took umbrage at this, and soon a clash broke out.
According to Palamu IG, the violence broke out after a welcome gate was being installed at an intersection, which also houses a mosque, around 9 am. There are unconfirmed reports of petrol bombs also being used. Damage to houses and other property also appears to have taken place.
Speaking to TimesNow, Palamu DC Anjaneyulu Dodde said that 5 people have been arrested thus far, and some other accused are absconding. A DSP and 4 constables have suffered injuries, he added.
Author and political commentator Dr. Ratan Sharda told TimesNow that this is part of a recurring pattern of attacks on Hindu festivals and processions. While sections of intelligentsia claim that minorities are under threat, it is actually Hindus who are under threat in the country today, he said.
“States, in the guise of secularism, have given a free run to people who riot, have no fear of police…because they know they will get police protection and political protection. This political protection (to Islamist rioters) is at the heart of every incident of violence against a Hindu festival,” Dr. Sharda added.
Jharkhand is currently ruled by the ‘ultra-secular’ (read anti-Hindu) JMM-Congress-RJD alliance led by CM Hemant Soren. The state has witnessed a wave of crimes against ordinary Hindus, including janjatiya (Scheduled Tribe) people, such as the brutal murder of Ankita Singh and Rubika Pahadin. The state witnesses one of the highest rate of attacks on Hindu festivals – last year teenager Rupesh Pandey was brutally killed during Saraswati Puja and even this year’s Saraswati Puja was attacked.
Hemant Soren is himself a janjatiya and leads a party JMM that claims to stand up for janjati/vanvasi rights. He has been at the forefront of attempts to have Sarna Dharma listed as a separate religion, claiming in collaboration with Hindu-hating ‘Dalit’ Harvard scholars like Suraj Yengde that janjatis have “nothing in common with Hindus”. However, his party and coalition government is dependent on Muslim votebank, so like all other purveyors of secular politics in our country, he turns a blind eye to crimes by Islamists.
