Khaps adamant on mahapanchayat in Muzaffarnagar

The ‘khaps’ have decided to go ahead with their proposed ‘mahapanchayat’ at Fugana village in Muzaffarnagar district on March 25 after the district administration refused to give them any assurance on the issue of arrest of the people, accused of being involved in last year’s communal violence.

The ‘khaps’ (caste panchayats) have been protesting what they allege are arrests of 'innocent Jat’ youths on trumped up charges by the police. They have demanded that the police immediate stop such arrests.

The district administration had held a meeting with the representatives of the ‘khaps’ in an attempt to persuade them to call off their proposed 'mahapanchayat’ (meeting) in view of the approaching Lok Sabha elections.

The ‘khaps’ told the administration that they would call off the meeting if the police gave them an assurance that they would not make any arrest. “As the district officials did not give us any assurance we have decided to go ahead with our mahapanchayat,” said Rajendra Malik, a member of the ‘khap’.

The police have been encountering stiff resistance in the ‘Jat’ dominated villages in arresting those booked in connection with the riots.

Only recently hundreds of women, carrying lathis and sticks, had foiled the police’s bid to arrest a gang rape accused at Fugana village and the cops had to return empty handed.

The cops faced a similar resistance when they went to the Lank village also. The villagersconfronted the police there too and forced it to beat a hasty retreat.

The police had also failed to arrest any accused person from the nearby Mohammedpur Raisingh village owing to stiff resistance by the locals, the reports said.

The ‘khaps’ have warned the UP government against what they alleged ‘indiscriminate’ arrests by the cops in connection with the last year's communal violence in Muzaffarnagar and have demanded a CBI investigation into the same.

“Cases have been registered against 7,000 people in different police stations in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts in connection with the riots... while a large number of cases are against unidentified people, as many as 4,000 people had been named in the cases,” they alleged.