Perhaps the most exciting development of this week is dacoit Nirbhay Singh Gujjar’s encounter yesterday in Etawah, UP. It means the end to 25 unrelenting years of fear in more than four districts of UP and MP.
The word ‘Fear’ has become too commonplace these days, especially in the contemporary context of terrorism, increasing rape cases in cities and old couples being looted and hacked in residential areas.
But none of us city dwellers have been anywhere near to living in true fear, of the kind evoked by Nirbhay among the villages of Etawah, Uraiya, Kanpur in UP and Bhind in MP. For over two decades, these people have spent every moment of their lives with the knowledge that there’s very a high likelihood they’ll be killed by Gujjar the next minute. Imagine the kind of fear which made thousands of people bolt their doors fast not even a second later after sundown and not come out until daybreak for each day of over 20 years.
Nirbhay’s reign of terror had made him a consummate folk anti-hero whose name was invoked by mothers in the state to put recalcitrant children to sleep.
To realise what fear means, one just has to take a walk in the town of Bhind. Every fourth shop in the town is a fully legal arms and ammunitions shop. There are more than 80 shops within an area of two sq kms that sell all kinds of rifles and country made revolvers. People need that kind of personal security in that region.
In many ways, Nirbhay’s end was coming. In the classic good-cop-bad-cop manner, for two years the MP police had been talking of getting him a graceful surrender while the UP police spoke of nothing but death in an encounter for Gujjar. In February 2005, Nirbhay’s relative Arvind Singh Gujjar surrendered respectably with his gang in Bhind to MP police. The same day, the UP police had seriously wounded several members of another gang headed by Rajjan Gujjar during an encounter in Etawah. Such totally opposite policies by the two states must have caused some serious confusion among dacoitydom. Somewhere, Gujjar’s tactical mistakes leading to his death must have roots in this confusion.
Mind you, the good-cop-bad-cop routine was only a coincidence, for the UP and MP police never cooperated with each other for ending their common menace of dacoity.
Only a month ago when MP CM Babulal Gaur visited UP’s Mulayam that talks of coordinated anti-dacoity operations first happened on a serious level. Yesterday’s encounter might be a result of only that.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Dacoits.. seems like a different world altogether.. Cannot even imagine what people living in those parts have to go thru.. and for 25 years, 2 states.. noone could ever catch him?
btw, i hv to say this.. the new look looks supercool.. how many proposals have u collected by now? :P
Sounds like the Veerappan of the north, isn't it?
First thing i recalled after seeing that article earlier today was your post a long time back abt him and his fancy for giving intvs on mobile during a specific hour !! But yea, it would be interesting to know if this indeed was a result of any joint operation !! btw, dont ask me why, but your blog now has a socio-capitalist look ;)
looks like someone forgot to pay his hafta to the local authorities.
baap re..! u insist on writng scarier stuff each time..
this way all prospective brides wil run away apurv. r u still getting any marriage proposals ? :p
@DJK: kind of, only that Veerappan was an entrepreneur too :D
@uRmad: you see too much red :p, but does it look any more politically correct? ;)
@Rajat: hehe, villages or cities, guess the camaraderie between poilce and thugs is based on the same stimulii :D
@Neha, Aastha: lots of them! why dont you both improve my count? :p
Post a Comment