Home of low-caste Hindus set on fire in India

NEW DELHI: A nine-month-old boy and his toddler sister from a low-caste community were burnt alive in an arson attack on Tuesday on their home in India which also badly injured their parents, police said.
The infant and his two-year-old sister were both asleep in their home in Faridabad district, around 25 miles outside New Delhi, when the attackers doused the building with petrol and set it alight.
Both children died at the scene while their parents were rushed to hospital in the capital, according to police. The mother is in critical condition although the father’s life is no longer in danger.
Three people have been arrested over the attack on the family who are members of the Dalit community, according to the detective leading the murder inquiry, although no one has yet to be formally charged.
Subhash Yadav, Faridabad’s police commissioner, said the attack appeared to have been part of a long-running feud between the area’s Dalit community and the higher Rajput caste, which also claimed the lives of three people a year ago.
“We are trying to maintain calm,” Yadav told AFP after the killings, saying officers were still trying to confirm if it was a revenge attack.
Vishnu Dayal, who is leading the investigation, told AFP that three people have been arrested but without giving details of their suspected role in the attack. Dalits, formerly known as untouchables, are frequently the victims of violence and prejudice. Their lowly status means that investigations into attacks on Dalits are often treated as a low priority by police. – AFP
News Desk adds: Jitender Kumar, the victims’ father, said over half-a-dozen Rajput men barged into their house at 3am, poured petrol through a window inside the room where he and his wife were sleeping with the two children, and set it ablaze.
The ensuing fire charred to death Divya and her two-and-a-half-year-old brother, Vaibhav, the latest in a string of similar caste-related atrocities in India, the Hindustan Times reported.
As hundreds of people and political workers descended on the small Ballabhgarh town, several police contingents were deployed in the area, the second time this year after hundreds of Muslims were driven away from their homes in riots in the Atalli village in May.
India banned caste-based discrimination in its Constitution but such atrocities continue unabated against the 20-crore-strong Dalit community in several parts of the country. Historically oppressed by upper-caste communities, the Dalits allege crimes committed against them are considered a low priority by police and the administration.
Earlier this month, a 90-year-old Dalit man was hacked with an axe and burnt alive when he tried to enter a temple in Uttar Pradesh. Days later, a Dalit family in Greater Noida’s Dankaur was allegedly stripped naked after the police and administration did nothing to stop harassment at the hands of an upper-caste family, which Sikh community continued protest demonstrations across Indian Punjab on Tuesday against the alleged desecration of their holy book.
The Sikh activists blocked key roads in several parts of Punjab and burnt effigies of the provincial chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.According to reports pouring in from Indian media, paramilitary forces have been deployed in Amritsar, Ludhiana and Jalandhar cities of Punjab in view of the security situation arising from the protests after the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs.
Police said several highways remained blocked for hours as traffic was diverted during ongoing demonstrations by the Sikh protesters.
Peshawar bureau adds: The members of the Sikh community in Peshawar staged a protest against the desecration of their holy book and demanded punishment to those involved in the incident.
They were also carrying portraits of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The protesters torched his effigy to resent the inaction and silence of the Indian government over the victimisation of minorities and failure to protect the rights of the marginal groups.
Member Provincial Assembly and Special Assistant to Chief Minister Sardar Suran Singh was leading the protesters who gathered near the building of the Peshawar Press Club to stage the protest. The speakers said the desecration of the holy book hurt the sentiments of Sikh community across the globe.
They said the Sikhs decision to remain part of the India has been proved wrong. “The Indian government policies prove that no minority group is safe there,” said Sardar Suran Singh.
The protesters said there was no religious freedom in the so-called secular state of India. They asked the Pakistan government to raise the issue of injustices committed with minorities in India at the international forums.