For Narendra Dabholkar's son, painful memories of similar shooting

News of the Pansare shooting brought back Dr Hamid Dabholkar's memories of his father's shooting. 18 months ago, the anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar was shot in broad daylight in Pune city by unknown assailants. Unlike Pansare, whose condition is stable, though, Dabholkar did not make it.

The mode of shooting, too, was the same: it was carried out by two men on a motorcycle. That is why Dr Hamid said he has a feeling that the people who killed his father were behind the attack on Pansare.

Dr Hamid spoke of how the police have not made any arrests in his father's shooting, and the attackers are possibly roaming free. He told dna, "For the past 18 months we are fighting with the system to get my father's killers arrested. Today we are in Delhi to demand action with a street play in multiple places. Although the case has been handed over to the CBI, we have still got no headway in it. There are organisations of people who don't like the work of people like my father and Pansare. My father spent his whole life battling for the common man, and he was killed in daylight, but the attacker has not been traced. This pains me very much."

He added, "If more social activists keep getting attacked, soon India will be in a situation like Pakistan and Syria are facing. This is the time when the government has to build up the confidence of the common people."