JAMSHEDPUR: Many Muslim families living at Pokharia village in Bodam block, nearly 35km from the district headquarters, are migrating to safer places. The families have said that that some influential people from the village are a threat to them and have been preventing them from living a normal life.
The reported exodus of families comes weeks after a molestation case was reported in the village. On April 12, a woman in her mid-twenties accused the 65-year-old Asgar Ali of molesting her while she was returning from work. Furious villagers stormed into the house of the accused and set it on fire. The police arrested the accused and forwarded him to jail. The police also named four villagers in the FIR for torching the house. All the four are on the run.
The migrating families alleged that the people accused of burning the house are influential and have manipulated others to force them to leave the village by way of social and economic boycott. They alleged that the particular section of villagers was building pressure on them to withdraw the FIR.
The reported exodus of families comes weeks after a molestation case was reported in the village. On April 12, a woman in her mid-twenties accused the 65-year-old Asgar Ali of molesting her while she was returning from work. Furious villagers stormed into the house of the accused and set it on fire. The police arrested the accused and forwarded him to jail. The police also named four villagers in the FIR for torching the house. All the four are on the run.
The migrating families alleged that the people accused of burning the house are influential and have manipulated others to force them to leave the village by way of social and economic boycott. They alleged that the particular section of villagers was building pressure on them to withdraw the FIR.
Of the 400 families in Pokharia, Muslims constitute 13.
“Villagers, who belong to another community, are not in talking terms with us as they are being pressurized to sever all social and economic relations with us,” said one of the seven families presently taking shelter in Kapali under Chandil police station area in the adjoining Seraikela-Kharswan district.
The families said that they cant even buy essential food articles from the village shops. “The villagers have been threatened of consequences if they are caught entertaining Muslims in Pokharia,” claimed senior JMM leader Babar Khan, who took up the security issue of the minority families with the district police on April 18 .
Police said security has been intensified in the village since April 12.
source: kaalaiamalar
