Mangalore, Sep 17: Amidst all incidents of desecration of holy places, stone-pelting, caning, one particular scene will perhaps haunt a many for long. Yes! We are speaking about police's brutality on women and nuns at Kulshekar, Permannur church premises in particular and throughout other parts of the city in general. Ask any one the victims, be it nuns, women or youth, all have their own experience of barbaric attitude of the police. Kadri circle police inspector Ganapaty who has already become infamous by caning DYFI activists near MCC building a few days ago, has once again done the role of villain.Police, who have the primary duty of providing protection to the people, behaved nothing better than animals with women, said one of the women from Kulshekar while speaking to this correspondent. We now have the personal account of some of the women and nuns who have either sustained physical injury or suffered mental trauma on that fateful day, Monday September 15.
Sr Sarita BS, the headmistress of Joseph's higher primary school, Kulshekar almost broke into tears as she narrated her experience. "We open our school at 7.45 am everyday. Accordingly, I went to the school premises on Monday to open school. But the police, who were guarding the premises, stopped me. But when told them that I am the headmistress and that I need to open my school, they let me in. I opened my office and also kept the school gates open. After a while a few of my staff came in. But the students who came to the school, went back seeing heavy police security at the gates," she started.
Since the parish priest had called the people to come to the church and pray, a few persons were inside the gate while a few more including many women were praying inside the church. "The main gate had been locked from inside and a few persons were shouting slogans inside the church gates. Police were standing outside the gate while almost 30-40 Bajrangdal activists were standing right behind them by the roadside. When police asked to leave the premises in silence since Section 144 was clamped, some of the women confronted them asking as why they were allowing 30-40 Bajrangdal activists to gathered together outside the gate. This enraged the police. Since the gates were locked, they could not enter in.
"As our people were talking to the police personnel, the Bajrangdal activists who were standing outside, started abusing our youth using filthy language. This enraged our youth and they too abused the Bajrangdal activists. Meanwhile inspector Ganapaty who arrived on the spot, straightaway went on abusive mode and tried to break into the church premises. When police could not do so, they lobbed tear gas in. So we all ran far away from the spot while police started chasing us. Bajrangdal activists used this opportunity and entered the church premises and joined police in attacking us. Once in, police again lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the crowd and even fired in the air. We had no way than to quit the place. While some of them ran towards the school building, I went to my office and closed the door," she continued.
She further said that a little while later she heard some young women and nuns pleading the police not to hit them as they were praying and protesting silently. But police did not care a bit to them and chased them. They came running near my office. I could not control myself. So I opened my office and took them in and then sent them to staff room and toilets and closed the doors of my office. But police were not relenting. They started banging my office doors repeatedly. Finally I decided to face them and opened the doors and sat on my chair. Police who came in asked me as why was I in the school. I said them that it was a working day for us and we were not given permission to close down our school. I even remained them that our schools had been issued notices for closing down the schools on August 29 in protest of attacks of Christians in Orissa. Before they left the place, police smashed the glass on my table and also broke a pen stand and a few other things which were on my table. They asked me to leave the place immediately. Since I had no other way, I left the office taking the school keys with me. On my way back to convent however, I was worrying about the young girls and women who were inside the staff room and toilets. Though I tried to call a few of them on their mobile, once I reached convent, their mobile phones were switched off.
Meanwhile police went up to the third floor where some of the women and nuns had gathered in a room. Almost seven police broke open the door, went in and started beating up the women as they came out.
A few of the women suffered injuries in event. While parishioner Gretta Gomes sustained a deep wound on her back just below the shoulder, our elderly 71-year-old Sr Denitia was beaten badly on her back, thighs and hips. Even Sr Selma who is diabetic sustained injuries and has been admitted to Fr Muller hospital. Two young nuns (they are under training and study) were beaten up. One of the police even pulled the sari of one of them. It was such a dastardly and shameful act. I even feel ashamed to repeat these things, she added.
However, amidst all this chaos, no one noticed Bajrandgal activists getting near the church and pelting stones. While everyone was running helter-skelter, Bajrangdal activists were pelting stones at our youth. Enraged by this, our youth too pelted stones and bottles. On the one had police were caning them and on the other hand, Bajrangdal activists were pelting stones at them. So they had no other way than defending themselves in the same way. When some of our youth ran over the terrace to protect themselves, Bajrangdal youth too chased them, went to the terrace and started pelting stones at police and people from them. They even picked tiles and threw them down. I don't say that our youth were not there on terrace. But there were Bajrangdal youth who were picking the tiles and pelting both at police and people.
On the other hand, police led by inspector Ganapaty went to the church. They were not allowed to go inside the church by the assistant parish priest and lay leaders. He asked them handover at least 25 youth to them. But the assistant parish priest said that not only 25 youth, but all are ready to come with him. But inspector Ganapaty rejected this, asked priest to allow him to go inside so that he can pick 25 youth from inside. But when priest did not bow down, he ordered lathi charge. Even when people came out peacefully and surrendered themselves, police beat them up severely. Once anyone raises his hands in surrender, he cannot be assaulted. But the police here had forgotten that they were human and they were dealing with human beings.
Today I met National Commission for Women president Girija Vyas and presented my views. I also met minority commission, former Prime Minister Deve Gowda, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge who all came to the school. I even spoke to senior Congress leader Prathviraj Chauhan over the phone through Kharge's cellphone and explained him our ordeal, she concluded.
Another woman who did not want to reveal her name and who has sustained a deep injury on her back owing to police caning almost had similar account to present. “We initially thought that we had only to fight against Bajarangdal. But we were wrong. We had police who were behaving worse than Bajarangdal activists with women and young girls. We are pained more by mental scars than physical wounds. We were protesting within the premises. But the police led by inspector Ganapaty entered the church premises by breaking the lock, lobbed tear gas and started caning us. Since our eyes were burning owing to tear gas, we were going in search of water to wash when police chased us. We went up the third floor, got into the only room that was open. But it did not have latch from inside. So we kept a table across the closed doors. But 7 policemen entered the room by pushing the table. We pleaded them not to cane us and when we started coming out, they hit us left and right without even bothering as where would we be hurt. I sustained injury on my back while a few nuns and young girls too sustained injuries. When they were faced with camera, police behaved as if they were not caning women. But in reality they caned us inside the rooms where we hid ourselves.
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