It seems that the announcement of a mass gathering near Ahmedabad on August 17 by the maldharis has not gone well with the government. According to maldhari leaders, the state government and police are trying hard to discourage the community members from attending their scheduled meeting.
On Saturday, Teja Desai, a community leader, alleged that police officials across the state are threatening the maldharis against staging a mass protest at Shertha toll plaza near Adalaj on August 17.
"In morning our community brothers across Gujarat informed me how the cops are trying hard not to let this mass meeting take place. Police are visiting villages across the state to know who all are coming to the meet," claimed Desai. He added that maldharis from Banaskantha, Rajkot, Patan, and Kheda districts have already been threatened by the cops in this regard.
More than 70,000 maldharis are expected to gather at Sherta and stage a demonstration against illegal cow trafficking and slaughter.
According to Nagji Desai, one of the organisers, government is fearful of the mass meet right now and is thus trying to stop as many people as possible from attending the rally.
"Cops have already threatened many of our community members in Kalol and Mehsana. They say they are finding out details about persons attending the meet, but instead are threatening them," claimed Desai.
Narshi Desai, a resident of Deodar in Banaskantha, alleged that on Saturday the local PSI threatened him. "He came to our village and warned us he would book us in a false case if we don't act according to their (cops) wishes," said Desai adding that the PSI also demanded details like number of persons attending the meet, fund resources, agenda of the meet and registration number of our vehicles."
Manoj Bharwad, a maldhari from Kotda Sangani in Rajkot had a similar story to tell. "Police tried to scare us and threatened that we all will be excluded from government benefits if we attend the gathering," said Bharwad.
When asked about such 'scare tactics', Chitranjan Singh, state DGP said police are gathering information about how many people will attend the meeting. "But we are not threatening them at all. We need the details just because we have to manage a huge mass of people," claimed Singh.
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