Raging protests against Supreme Court’s perceived dilution of SC/ST Atrocities Act throw life out of gear in Gujarat
The bandh called by various Dalit organisations against the alleged dilution of the SC/ST Atrocities Act following the Supreme Court's ruling led to traffic jams, protests, public transport vehicles being targeted and colleges being closed in Ahmedabad. The city also saw some violence during the day.
The eastern part of the city saw shops being forced to shut down and instances of some violence, while the western part of the city mo-stly remained peac-eful although for a brief period in the afternoon a crowd had forced businesses to shut shop.
No casualty was reported during the bandh although the seven cops were injured during clashes with the mob. In all 12,000 policemen including th-ose from paramilitary and home guards were deployed across the city to control the violence. The bandh initially had a lukewarm response in the city but as crowds gathered at Sarangpur where Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani addressed a gathering of Dalits in the city, the situation soon began to go out of control. Soon, after the address, crowds went about shutting shops in Sarangpur and Gomtipur, vandalising many of them. The crowd moved through Kalupur, Khadia, Chandkheda, Rakhial and Danilimda before shifting towards the western part of city to cover, including Prahladnagar, Vastrapur, CG Road.
While in the western part, the shops resumed functioning once the mob dispersed; the eastern part as Gotimpur, Sarangpur and Chandkheda saw violence in the afternoon. The violence began after cops began a combing operation and mobs started pelting stones at them. Cops had to fire at least six round of tear gas shells to disperse the mob. In all, four cases have been registered in connection with the violence at Gomtipur, Khadia, Kalupur and Shahibaug. The cro-wd also damaged several BR-TS and AMTS bu-ses, pelting sto-nes at them and deflating the-ir tyres. Following the violence, AMC cancelled the BR-TS service.
The violence also caught many office-goers unawares, with many forced to return home. Vijay Patel, a loan manager with a bank said he could not reach his office in Maninagar. "Several of the roads leading to my office was blocked, I tried to go through internal roads but there were mobs there too so I returned home and had to work at a different branch for the day," said Patel.
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