Hathras Horror: Valmiki Community Members Clash with Police in Agra

Agra (UP): Scores of Valmiki community members who were protesting against the Hathras incident clashed with the police here on Saturday.

The protesters allegedly pelted stones at the policemen and official vehicles.

Police personnel were deployed at the clash site outside a municipal corporation office in Kothi Meena Bazaar area of the Taj city, officials said.

Some visuals purportedly showed that the Valmiki community members from Rajnagar in Lohamandi reached the municipal corporation office and pelted stones at the civic body’s garbage collection vehicles at around 12 noon.

Later, dozens of policemen, some of them in anti-riot gears, reached the site and the agitated crowd allegedly started pelting stones at them, too, even as traffic on the road remained obstructed during the clash, they showed.

 “Adequate police force has reached the incident site with senior officials. Efforts are underway to restore normalcy and law and order,” a statement by Agra police said.

The incident wherein a 19-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly raped in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras by four men on September 14 has been widely condemned across the country.

The agitation by Valmikis came even as police conducted flag marches in parts of the district for creating awareness on coronavirus.

According to NDTV, the protesting members of the Valmiki community have also announced a boycott of sanitation works across the city. Visuals showed piles of waste and garbage by the side of busy roads.

On October 2, sanitation workers across UP, mostly belonging to the Valmiki community had stopped sanitation work. Protests by the community, to which the victim belonged, were also reported from several parts of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.