A barbaric incident has been reported at Periya Thadagam, where the upper caste people have brutally attacked the Dalits for celebrating Vinayakar Chaturthi.
Few upper caste people of Periya Thadagam have insisted the Dalits to play drums during the Vinayakar Chaturthi procession, yesterday. The Dalits denied their requests as they too had planned to celebrate the festival with their community people. The upper caste people were enraged by their denial and assaulted them brutally for not abiding their orders and for celebrating the festival on their own.
They remorselessly assaulted the women, teenage girls and elderly people belonging to the Dalit community and insulted them by using derogatory language. At around 1pm in the night, the victims escaped from their tortures and seeked protection at the Collectorate.
Today morning, they petitioned to the District Collector seeking protection for their community people and to take action against the brutal attackers, who have used derogatory language against the victims and assaulted them physically.
Sonia (19) one of the victim reported that, ‘I work in a petrol bank at Thadagam. All of a sudden, the upper caste people started attacking us brutally in the middle of the night. I somehow escaped from the scene by hiding behind a vehicle. They attacked my parents in front of my eyes, I was helpless and shocked. Such incidents have been inflicted on us regularly by the upper caste people, who do not consider us as human beings at all. For no sin of ours, we have been insulted to the core. The Government should provide us necessary protection against these offenders and punish them severely’ she grieved.
Presently, the injured are undergoing treatment at the government hospital.
