Maharashtra interrupted, boy dies in bandh violence

Shiv Kumar & agencies

 Tribune News Service

Mumbai, January 3

Protesters attacked buses, stopped suburban trains and blocked roads at various places in Mumbai, affecting life in the city and other parts of Maharashtra during the one-day bandh called against caste clashes at the bicentenary celebrations of the Bhima-Koregaon battle.

Edit: Maharashtra clashes

Also Read: BJP, RSS behind Pune violence: Maya

A boy was killed in Nanded. Yogesh Prahlad Jadhav's family alleged he was seriously injured during police caning to clear a roadblock.

The bandh, called off later in the day, saw sporadic violence in Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad and Nagpur. A large number of Dalits, carrying blue flags, forced closure of shops. At several places motorists received minor injuries in stone-throwing. 

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In Mumbai, the iconic red BEST buses were stopped and their windscreens smashed. At least 13 buses were vandalised, officials said. Local train services, the city’s lifeline, plied intermittently as the railway authorities cleared protesters squatting on tracks.

Services on the Central Railway’s main and harbour lines were disrupted in the morning and late afternoon. The Western Railway reported disruptions in Thane and Mumbai though services were resumed sporadically. Mumbai’s lone metro line was disrupted for a while before the police intervened.

At many places auto unions supported the bandh. In Pune, student unions put up banners at several institutions supporting the bandh. 

Prakash Ambedkar, leader of the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh and grandson of Dalit icon Dr BR Ambedkar said the bandh was a success. “Left parties and more than 250 organisations supported the bandh,” he told mediapersons. He claimed right-wing leaders Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote were behind the Pune violence and demanded they be arrested and made to undergo the same legal process as Mumbai blasts accused Yakub Memon. The bandh was called over the attacks on Dalits gathered at the  Bhima-Koregaon suburb outside Pune on New Year day to celebrate the 200th anniversary of a battle where Dalit soldiers fighting  alongside British troops defeated a bigger army belonging to the Brahmin Peshwa rulers.

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