India's National Magazine
From the publishers of THE HINDU

Vol. 16 :: No. 05 :: Feb. 27 - Mar. 12, 1999

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COVER STORY

Carnage in Narayanpur

Barely a fortnight after the Shankarbigha massacre, the Ranvir Sena, the private army of upper-caste landlords, strikes again, killing 12 Dalits in a Jehanabad village.

KALYAN CHAUDHURI
in Narayanpur

ON February 10, barely a fortnight after the Republic Day-eve massacre of 22 Dalits at Shankarbigha village in Bihar's Jehanabad district, the Ranvir Sena, the private army of upper-caste Bhumihar landlords, struck again killing 12 Dalits at Narayanpur village in the district.

Eyewitnesses said that around 9 p.m. that day 50 to 60 armed members of the Ranvir Sena arrived at Chamartola, a Dalit hamlet on the outskirts of Narayanpur, through adjoining wheat fields. The 40-odd families in Chamartola, all of whom belong to the Chamar (cobbler) community, had turned in for the night. The gang leader, who was hiding in the fields, blew a whistle, upon which the armed men split into two groups, went from house to house and shot dead 12 persons, including five women and a child. Most of the victims were asleep. A few residents, who had seen the gunmen sneaking up, ran away, but several others were gunned down even as they tried to flee. Before leaving after the one-hour operation, the killers shouted "Ranvir Sena zindabad".

The administration, which failed to pre-empt the attack despite having been forewarned, responded to the massacre with chilling unconcern. Personnel from a police station barely 3 km away arrived only the next morning, and that too only to say that since Narayanpur village came under the jurisdiction of the Shakurabad police station the residents would have to lodge any complaints there.

Survivors of the attack alleged that the village head had a week earlier received by mail a pamphlet warning that the residents "would be taught a lesson". The police were alerted, but no action was taken. On the other hand, the police pickets that were posted at Narayanpur following the massacre of 63 Dalits at neighbouring Lakshmanpur-Bathe on December 1, 1997 (Frontline, December 26, 1997) were withdrawn shortly before the February 10 attack.

Ram Jatan Sharma, secretary of the Bihar unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, told Frontline that on January 9, the Hindi daily Aaj had published a statement from and an interview with Ranvir Sena "commander" Brahmeshwar Singh in which he had stated that the Sena was preparing for a massacre bigger than the one at Lakshmanpur-Bathe. In the interview, Brahmeshwar boasted: "Hum Bathe se bhi bara sangharsh karenge... jagah tey hai... taiyarian puri karti gaye hai.. Sirf muhurt ki talaash hai" (We will carry out a bigger operation than the one in Bathe. The places have been identified. Preparations are complete... We are only waiting for an 'auspicious' time).

Immediately, CPI(M-L) Liberation leaders alerted the administration in Jehanabad, Bhojpur and Gaya districts, but no action was taken. Barely two weeks later the Ranvir Sena struck at Shankarbigha (Frontline, February 26).

THE Narayanpur killings, immediately after which President's Rule was imposed in Bihar, is the 19th massacre perpetrated by the Ranvir Sena in the central Bihar districts since it was founded in August 1994 by Brahmeshwar Singh, who owns 97 bighas of land, and Dharicharan Chowdhury, a prosperous landlord of Belaur village in Bhojpur district. So far the Ranvir Sena has killed 277 persons, almost all of them poor, landless and oppressed Dalits. Naxalite groups have in recent years mobilised agricultural workers against their social persecution and economic exploitation by the landlords. The Ranvir Sena was formed to protect the economic and feudal interests of the upper-caste landlords and has systematically targeted naxalites and their suspected sympathisers.

SANJAY KUMAR
A victim of the Narayanpur massacre.

Relations between Dalits and Bhumihars in Narayanpur village have been strained for long, largely owing to the Dalits' resistance to economic exploitation and social persecution. Yet in recent times the situation had improved marginally, with Dalits working on the farms of Bhumihars. Sukhlu Das, a resident of Chamartola, said: "Dhan pit ke nikale unhin ke yahan" (We threshed grain at their place).

Beneath the surface, however, feudal rage was simmering. The Bhumihars resented the Dalits' association with the CPI(M-L) Liberation and the outlawed Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War group of naxalites, and were waiting to strike. As in Shankarbigha, the objectives of the killers at Narayanpur were to terrorise the Dalits for affiliating with the naxalite groups, and to establish the supremacy of landlords.

The Narayanpur massacre also appears to be linked to the killing of seven Dalits at nearby Sawaranbigha in 1991 by activists of the Savarna Liberation Army (SLA), another private army of Bhumihars. The 1991 attack came after Dalits staked their claim to 2.4 hectares of government land and began cultivating it. Three of the victims were from Chamartola. In an earlier incident, five Dalits were injured when they were fired upon by members of a private army of Bhumihars. The Sawaranbigha killing case is pending in court, and several of the accused are out on bail. Three brothers from Narayanpur - Krishan Das, Sukhan Das and Rajesh Das - were witnesses to the killings, and it is alleged that during the February 10 attack in Narayanpur the Ranvir Sena activists tried desperately to locate them. The three escaped death, but Jayanti Devi, wife of a fourth brother, was killed. Chamartola residents alleged that former SLA leader Ramanand Kahar, an accused in the 1991 killings who is out on bail, was seen with the killers on the night of February 10.

HEART-RENDING scenes were witnessed at Chamartola as the bodies of victims lay all around and survivors recounted harrowing tales. Baijanti Devi, 30, lay in a pool of blood in her half-constructed house. She was shot dead as she tried to shield her husband Mundrik Das. Her neighbour Derato Devi, 45, lamented: "She perhaps thought that the gunmen would spare a woman. But they shot her."

Derato Devi herself escaped only because she locked herself and her children in a room. "They tried to force open our door but failed; in anger they fired shots at the door and left," she recalled. Her 15-year-old son was not at home at the time.

Parameswar Das, 35, lay dead on a cot; his widow Tapeswari Devi, who witnessed his killing, sat beside the body, wailing.

SANJAY KUMAR
Another victim of massacre. The administration failed to pre-empt the attack despite having been forewarned.

Sudamia Devi, 40, who lived in a hut nearby, was shot dead and Ramakant, her 10-year-old son, was critically injured. The Ranvir Sena members who came in search of her husband failed to find him: he had escaped through a hole in the thatched roof.

Upendra Das, 30, who was hiding in a barn, was shot through his right eye. He died on the spot.

Jaraniya Devi, 20, said that when the killers came, "I pleaded with them not to kill my husband, but they did not listen." Her three-month-old son, Om Prakash, received a bullet injury.

Sudamia Devi, an eyewitness to the massacre, said that she would be able to identify at least three of the killers. When the gunmen forced their way into her house, she caught hold of one of them and appealed to him in vain to spare her grandson.

Chief Minister Rabri Devi and her husband and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Laloo Prasad Yadav, who rushed to Narayanpur a day after the massacre, faced groups of angry villagers who raised slogans against them. A few of them shouted: "Muawaja nahi, bandook chahiye" (We want guns, not compensation). "Laloo-Rabri waapas jao... Hum jab mar hi jayenge tho aap raja ban kar kya karenge?" (Go back, Laloo-Rabri... After we have all been killed, what is the use of your being rulers?), others asked. Rabri Devi announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs.1.40 lakhs and the supply of free provisions for six months to the next of kin of the victims, in addition to Rs.5,000 towards funeral expenses.

Politicians belonging to various parties visited Narayanpur to console the relatives of the victims, but most of them were received with marked apathy. The exception was CPI(M-L) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, who was in Narayanpur at the same time that Laloo Prasad and Rabri Devi visited the village. Many residents ignored Rabri Devi and Laloo Prasad and instead rushed to the venue of a meeting addressed by Bhattacharya. Bhattacharya alleged that the "feudal fascist" Ranvir Sena had a political nexus with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samata Party.

Congress(I) president Sonia Gandhi too visited Narayanpur on February 13; she flew in by helicopter and visited nine huts in the hamlet, where the Ranvir Sena had struck. Samata Party leaders George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar visited Narayanpur a day after the massacre; their mission was evidently to prepare the ground for the imposition of President's Rule in the State.

RANJEET KUMAR
The bodies of seven men, believed to have been members of the Ranvir Sena, who were gunned by suspected naxalites at Usri Bazar in Jehanabad district in apparent retaliation for the massacres at Shankarbigha and Narayanpur.

THE Narayanpur killings drew a chorus of criticism from political parties, some of which demanded the dismissal of the Rabri Devi Government. The BJP and the Samata Party, the main Opposition parties in Bihar, which have for long demanded the dismissal of the Government, denounced the Rabri Devi Government; they said that it had "snatched the people's right to live" and should therefore be thrown out. The Left parties condemned the killings, but they opposed the demand for the use of Article 356. The naxalite groups too took a similar stand.

A combative Laloo Prasad Yadav said that feudal forces inimical to the RJD Government were on a killing spree in central Bihar with the help of their political patrons. He alleged that the killings were part of a political conspiracy against the RJD Government.

In spite of the widespread criticism of the Narayanpur massacre, the Ranvir Sena has warned of further killings, thus posing a direct challenge to the State administration. Owning responsibility for the February 10 killings, the private army said similar carnages would be carried out in "extremist-affected" villages in central Bihar. A three-page hand-written statement signed by its spokesman Shamsher Bahadur Singh and released after the Narayanpur carnage said: "Killing is not our profession, but it will continue until the rowdyism of naxalites continues." Bahadur Singh claimed that Narayanpur was the main base of the CPI(M-L) Party Unity and that the houses attacked on February 10 were hideouts of its members. "Our operation in this village is still incomplete and at an appropriate time we will strike again," he said. Bahadur Singh even identified Akbarpur village under Palligunj police station in Patna as the next target. "Very soon, we will attack the village and a massacre is not ruled out," he said.

The CPI(M-L) Party Unity recently merged itself with the outlawed People's War Group (PWG) of Andhra Pradesh to float a new ultra-Left outfit called the CPI(M-L) People's War in Bihar. With the formation of the CPI(M-L) PW, the situation in central Bihar has become explosive; the cycle of violence is only likely to worsen. Barely four days after the Narayanpur massacre and less than 48 hours after the imposition of President's Rule, armed activists of the CPI(M-L) gunned down seven persons at Usri Bazar in Jehanabad district. About two dozen armed men fired indiscriminately into a garment shop in the crowded market, killing everyone inside. All the victims belonged to upper castes and allegedly had links with the Ranvir Sena. Police sources said that the attack was in retaliation to the massacre of Dalits at Shankarbigha and Narayanpur.