People protest, demand justice in Zafar Khan case

Hundreds of people marched in protest in Jaipur on Tuesday, demanding justice for political activist Zafar Khan, who was lynched to death in Pratapgarh on June 16.  Zafar Khan, an activist of CPI (ML) in Pratapgarh,  died after he was beaten by sanitation workers of the municipality in the presence of nagar parishad commissioner, Ashok Jain when he resisted their attempts to take photographs and videos of women from the Bagwasa Kachchi basti who were going to defecate in the open.

The protest march started from CPI (ML) State Office at 35, Dhuleshwar Garden, C-Scheme and culminated at Shahid Smarak, where a protest meeting was organised in which various leaders of left parties and activists demanded immediate arrest of Nagarpalika Commissioner, Ashok Jain who allegedly instigated Nagarpalika Karamcharis to attack Zafar Khan.

At the protest meeting CPI (ML) National General Secretary Comrade Dipanker Bhattacharya said that an activist was attacked just because he spoke up for the rights of slum dweller and on that fateful day was also fighting for upholding dignity of women. He said that this is very attack on democratic right of people to protest.

In the meeting, activists also raised questions over the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.CPI (ML) State Secretary, Mahendra Choudhary challenged the officials to show how many toilets constructed as part of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan are functional. He said there is a wide scale corruption in the construction of toilets which is reflected in their state.