Black Day observed on Gandhi Jayanti by Uttarakhandies at Jantar Mantar

SUNIL NEGI

On 2nd October the Uttarakhandies living in Delhi and the volunteers from various socio political organisations across political spectrum today held a day long dharna and protest demonstration at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar demanding the penalisation of the then Deputy Inspector General of police Meerut range and Anant kumar Singh the then district magistrate of Mujaffar Nagar Rampir trijunction for their alleged role in order the firing on several Uttarakhand movement activists in the year 1992 on 2nd October, the birth anniversary of apostle of peace and father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi, that lead to 15 deaths and subsequentrapes of some innocent women activists.

These Uttarakhand movement activists in several buses were coming to Delhi from various parts of Garhwal, Uttarakhand to participate in the historic Ramleela Maidaan rally attended by over a lakh people to demand separate Uttarakhand state. When the buses reached Mujaffar Nagar Rampur Tiraha at midnigh the police parties in huge number pounced on the andilankaries without any provocation and started forcibly searching the buses and singling out the activists particularly the women which was opposed by the movement activists.

This resulted in commotion and the unprovoked firing started killing 15 innocent movement activists with several women physically and sexually assaulted in the nearby cane fields. This highly horrifying killings and rapes of yhe women led to the national outrage with demands for action againsts the erring district magistrate and the then DIG as named above who’d ordered for the killings at the Rampur Trijunction creating terror and panic leading to the rapes of innocent women volunteers.

The government of Samajwadi Party under the chief ministership of Mulayam Singh ruled Uttar Pradesh then and it is said that it was on the alleged orders of the then CM that firing was ordered on the innocent aandolankaries. Several petitions and memorandums were submitted in Supreme Court and the then PV Narsimha Rao government for the arrest of the erring officers anf resignation of the then chief minister UP Mulayam Singh Yadav but of no avail. About 23 years have passed by now but not a single erring officer and the policemen were arrested and tried under various sections of the law for the killings and rapes of innocent Uttarakhandi movement activists n women.

It’s really shocking and horrifying. Since then every year on 2nd October Black Day is observed all over the country and in Delhi Uttarakhandies living here mark their tributes to these martyrs who laid down their lives for achieving separate statehood. Today all the speakers in one voice demanded immediate arrest of these guilty officials and adequate financial.compensation to the bereaved families of those killed during the Uttarakhand movement.

In all about 46 movement activists who included youths, students, senior citizens and women laid down their lives in various parts of the state including the fateful Rampur trijunction. The protestors were wearing the black strip as a mark of protest on their arms.