Testimonies

14/06/2007
Down To Earth

Chandrawati Devi Adwasi
We can't go back home. We are too scared. We do not know where the others are, whether they are dead or alive. We hear that police are searching for us. My hand is swollen and can't move my wrist due to pain. I can't go to a doctor, because police are looking for people with injuries.

Semaria Devi Adwasi
There were many Thakur-Bamans from the nearby villages with the police when they surrounded us. When the women went forward, the police asked shouted at us to go away, but the upper castes people started shouting, "Hit them'. Then they all started beating us. We ran out crying for help.

Maikulal Adwasi
We all ran for the forests after they fired. People were running with children in their arms. Some of our children got left behind the houses. We do not know what happened to them. The police were chasing and beating us up. They were shouting that they would kill us all.

Sushila and Kalawati
The police started setting fire to huts even as people were running away. They set fire to the hut of an old blind couple living near the entrance of the settlement while they were inside. Several children were also inside the hut. People had pushed them out for safety; still the police were beating us all.

Ramgarib Adwasi
The Thakur-Bamans fired 12 bore gun pellets. I saw many people being hit. I don't know what happened to them. For a week after the attack there were police at the place. We could not go to the village looking for people who were hit by the bullets because the police were searching for us.

shanti devi
The police released tear gas at the people. Everyone started running in fear. I ran out with my children, but lost them in the chaos. Later, I found five of them, but not my six-year-old daughter. The police were searching for us in and around the village and I could not go out looking for her.