Laxmanpur Bathe massacre | |
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Part of caste-related violence, massacre in Bihar Clash between CPIML Liberation & Ranvir Sena | |
Location | Laxmanpur Bathe, Arwal, Bihar |
Date | 1 December 1997 |
Deaths | 58 killed |
Victims | Scheduled caste people |
Perpetrators | Militants of Ranvir Sena |
The Laxmanpur Bathe massacre was a massacre conducted in the Laxmanpur Bathe village in Arwal district of Bihar, where 58 scheduled caste people were killed by members of the Ranvir Sena in retaliation for the Bara massacre in which 37 upper castes were killed. [1] [2] Laxmanpur Bathe is a village in Arwal district in Bihar, on the Son river about 90–km from Patna.
Eyewitness account of Surajmani Devi– a 32 years old victim
Everyone was shot in the chest. I also saw that the panties were torn. One girl was Prabha. She was fifteen years old. She was supposed to go to her husband's house two to three days later. They also cut her breast and shot her in the chest. Another was Manmatiya, also fifteen. They raped her and cut off her breast. The girls were all naked, and their panties were ripped. They also shot them in the vagina. There were five girls in all. All five were raped. All were fifteen or younger. All their breasts were cut off. [3]
The village was the site of a massacre of 58 Dalits allegedly killed by the upper-caste Ranvir Sena on the night of 1 December 1997. All the victims were Dalits and many among them were children, the youngest being a one-year-old, and pregnant women. [4] To remove the last shred of evidence of their outrageous act, they crossed the river and slit the throats of the two boatmen who had rowed them, before disappearing in Bhojpur district. [5] Laxmanpur-Bathe was targeted because Ranvir Sena members believed the village's Dalits, mostly poor and landless, were sympathizers of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation. Ranvir Sena, a far-right wing militia of upper caste landlords, was created by Bhumihar caste to take on the Naxals. [5]
In the well-planned operation, about 100 Ranbir Sena activists carrying firearms had descended on Lakshmanpur Bathe at around 11 pm. They forced their way into huts by breaking open the doors and fired indiscriminately at people who were asleep. The entire hamlet located on the banks of the Sone river was virtually decimated in the attack that lasted more than three hours. The youngest victim was one year old. [6]
The incident sent shockwaves across the country. The Lalu Prasad-led RJD government was then ruling the state. The then President K R Narayanan had expressed his shock and dismay over the mass murder of 58 Dalits in Central Bihar. In his strong-worded reaction, he had termed the massacre as "national shame". [7] [8]
In December 2008, charges were made against 46 Ranvir Sena men. Sessions Judge Mishra, on conclusion of trial in the case on 1 April, fixed 7 April 2010 as the date for announcing the verdict. Earlier, the case was transferred to Patna from Jehanabad following a Patna High Court order in October 1999. [6]
On 7 April 2010, the Additional District and Sessions Judge Vijai Prakash Mishra of the Patna Civil Court sentenced 16 men to death and 10 to life imprisonment for the massacre. While pronouncing the verdict, sessions judge Mishra described the killings as a “stigma on civil society and rarest of rare cases of brutality. [9]
On 9 October 2013, Patna High Court acquitted all 26 accused persons, due to "lack of evidence". [10] [11] The CPI (ML) staged a Bandh throughout central Bihar.
Some commented that the High Court judgement did not get the attention it merited in the media. The acquittal of massacre-accused were overshadowed by another big news of that time - the retirement of Sachin Tendulkar from cricket. [12] There was an angry reaction from the Bihar government and various political parties in the state. The government replied that it will appeal against the order, [13] while CPI(M) termed the verdict as “unacceptable” and asked the Nitish Kumar government to immediately file an appeal against it. [14] The CPI-ML criticised the state government and said that it would appeal in the apex court to appoint the SIT(special investigation team) probing all the massacre cases in Bihar. [15] Other state parties LJP and RJD demanded CBI investigation in High Court's decision and alleged that the state government is protecting the interests of Ranvir Sena. [16] [17]
Maoists called for a 24-hour strike against the court's decision in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district, and the police advised that the banks and shops remain close. [18] Seven people, including one suspected member from the Ranvir Sena, were killed in Aurangabad district on 18 October. [19] The Dalits in the area feared that there may be a retaliation from the Ranvir Sena. [20]
Lalu Prasad is an Indian politician and president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). He is a former Chief Minister of Bihar (1990-1997), a former Railway Minister of India (2004-2009), and a former Member of Parliament (MP) of the Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation is a communist political party in India. The party is represented in Bihar and Jharkhand Legislative Assemblies. Since 2023, the party is also a member of the INDIA electoral alliance. In Bihar, the party has significant base amongst the Extremely Backward Castes and the Schedule Castes. It was successful in mobilising Upper Backward Caste groups such as Koeris in some districts of central Bihar, prior to the rise of Lalu Prasad Yadav. The party faced existential crisis when a large section of its Koeri and Yadav support base defected to Rashtriya Janata Dal in 1990s. However, the ideological commitment of its cadre protected it from disintegration. It staged a comeback in politics after winning twelve seats in Bihar Legislative Assembly in 2020 and by sending two of its members to Lok Sabha in 2024 Indian general elections.
The Indian People's Front (IPF) was a mass front organisation founded in Delhi between 24–26 April 1982. It was conceptualised by Vinod Mishra and it was operated as the open mass front of the CPIML Liberation between 1982–1994. The front primarily worked for the social and economic upliftment of Adivasis, Dalits and impoverished sections of society and mobilised them through the means of unions, rallies and conventions.
Arwal district is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar state, India, and Arwal town is the administrative headquarters of this district. It was earlier part of Jehanabad district.
The Ranvir Sena is a militia functioning as a landlord group, mainly based in the state of Bihar, India. The group was formed by Bhumihar Brahmin landlords under the leadership of Brahmeshwar Mukhiya in 1994, with the aim to counter the influence of various left-wing militants, Naxalite groups and the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation (CPI-ML) in central Bihar. The Ranvir Sena has been connected to a number of massacres including the massacre at Laxmanpur Bathe. It has, on several occasions, been accused of human rights abuses. The Bihar state government banned the Ranvir Sena in July 1995, but the group continue to remain active. The group has frequently publicly claimed responsibility for its crimes with impunity.
Caste-related violence in India has occurred and continues to occur in various forms.
Bhumihar, also locally called Bhuinhar and Babhan, is a Hindu caste mainly found in Bihar, the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, and Nepal.
The politics of Bihar, a state in east India, is dominated by regional political parties. As of 2021, the main political groups are Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Janata Dal (United) (JDU), Indian National Congress (INC), Left Front, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM). There are also smaller regional parties: Samata Party, Rashtriya Jan Jan Party, Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal, Jan Adhikar Party and Vikassheel Insaan Party, Lok Janshakti Party and Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party. As of 2024, Bihar is currently ruled by NDA. This is after JDU broke away from a Mahagatbandhan coalition and returned to NDA fold.
Vinod Mishra was an Indian communist politician. Mishra served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation between 1975 and 1998.
The Central Organising Committee, Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Party Unity, more commonly known as CPI(ML) Party Unity or simply 'Party Unity', was a communist party in India 1982-1998. Narayan Sanyal alias Naveen Prasad was the general secretary of the party. Party Unity was the official organ of the party. CPI(ML) Party Unity was one of the predecessors of the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
The 1996 Bathani Tola massacre was an incident of caste-related violence in which an upper-caste militia killed 21 Dalits, including women and children, in the Bhojpur district in Indian state of Bihar on 11 July 1996. The attacks were allegedly by members of the Ranvir Sena, in response to Dalit labourers' demand for wage increase.
The Bara massacre was a caste based carnage that took place in 1992 in Bihar. At midnight on 12–13 February 1992, the Maoist Communist Centre of India killed 40 Bhumihars at Bara Village in Gaya district of Bihar, India. The MCC's armed group brought the 35 men of Bara village to the bank of a nearby canal, tied their hands and slit their throats. As many as 36 people were accused of the crime, but 13 were charged. The police failed to arrest the others, who had defied their summons.
Brahmeshwar Singh also known as Brahmeshwar Mukhiya or Mukhiyaji, was the founder of an Anti-naxalite militia functioning as an upper caste landlord militant group Ranvir Sena in Bihar, India. On 1 June 2012, he was assassinated by unidentified gunmen.
The Legislative Assembly election was held over five phases in Bihar through October–November 2015 before the end of the tenure of the prior Legislative Assembly of Bihar on 29 November 2015.
Lal Sena (1974–1990, was an organised armed militia of CPIML Liberation in northeastern India, across the terrains of central Bihar, north-west of today's Jharkhand, and a few districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh. It was formed mainly by lower caste peasantry and landless labourers.
Bhumi Sena was a private army which operated in the Patna, Nalanda, Jehanabad, and Gaya districts of Bihar, India in the 1980s, made up of members of the AWADHIYA caste.
The Afsar massacre was a mass shooting and mass stabbing that killed 12 people in the Indian village of Afsar, in 2000. The massacre was the result of caste wars of Bihar, which originate from clashes between upper-caste, who were supporters of the existing status quo, and the lower castes, who wanted to change the current system. According to the data by the "South Asia terrorism portal", the victims of these caste wars were most often Dalits, followed by Forward Castes, while Upper Backwards were victims less frequently than any other group.
The Caste based violence in Bihar has a history of conflict between the Forward Castes, who controlled vast swathes of land, and the Lower Castes who were mostly poor. The Zamindari abolition and communist upsurge in Bihar gave rise to a tug of war between upper and the lower castes. The tussle between the Marxists and the landed proprietors was not divided along caste lines as some of the middle peasant castes were also proprietors. The decade of 1960s witnessed communist upsurge in the Bhojpur region of Bihar led by Jagdish Mahto under the banner of Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation, while the 1990s saw dreaded caste wars. The belligerents were Dalits and poor peasantry of middle peasant castes who were fighting for their rights with the supporters of the status-quo, i.e., upper castes as well as the affluent section of the middle peasant castes. Its first mass leader was Jagdish Mahto, a Koeri teacher who had read Ambedkar before he discovered Marx, and started a paper in the town of Arrah called Harijanistan("dalit land"). Religious sentiments also became the cause of bitter strife. The violence that happened in Bhagalpur is a precedent.
Dalits in Bihar are a social group composed of many Scheduled Castes, placed at the bottom of the "caste-based social order". The Dalits also include some of the erstwhile untouchable castes, who suffered various forms of oppression in the feudal-agrarian society of Bihar. Some of the Dalit castes have specific cultural practices, which differ from those of orthodox Hinduism.
The Jahanabad prison attack, also known as the Jahanabad jail break incident was a naxalite operation, conducted by the members of Communist Party of India (Maoist) against the state of Bihar, on 13 November 2005. In the backdrop of legislative assembly elections being conducted in the state and lack of elected government in power, the state machinery was involved in conducting the elections in free and fair manner. The President's rule was being implemented in the state, and the Naxalites found it a good opportunity to conduct this massive operation. As per various reports, around 12 people, all belonging to Ranvir Sena were killed by the naxalites in this incident. This event was not centred around the prison only, which was the centre of operation, but around 1000 Naxalites were inside the city of Jahanabad, who virtually controlled the city for a short span of time. A total of 389 prisoners were freed by the Naxalites in this operation codenamed 'Operation Jailbreak'. Those who were freed, also included Ajay Kanu— a top level Naxal commander, and many of the Maoists. The operation was conducted by People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (India)— a militant underground unit of CPI (Maoist).