17, Aug 2015

Submitted by TwoCircles.net on 17 August 2015 – 9:55am
By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi : Death threats have started pouring in for protesting Bhagana Dalits by the Khap Panchayats of their village, nearly a week after 100 families of the Dalit community from Haryana’s Hisar district converting to Islam.
The protesting Dalit families from Bhagana village, Hisar accepted Islam during protest demonstration at Jantar Mantar in the National Capital as what their leaders termed as mark of “protest” against “perpetual persecution and torment at the hands of the upper-castes Hindu Jats”. The Protesting Dalits had recited ‘Kalma’ and later offered ‘Namaz’ in congregation .
“The Khap Panchayat of our village has told us that we will be slaughtered if we try to go back to our villages as Muslims. We have been asked to abandon our property in the village after our conversion to Islam,” President of Bhagana Sangharsh Samiti, Virender Bagoriya told TwoCircles.net.
About 100 Dalit families from Bhagana village in Haryana’s Hisar district are sitting on dharna since April 16, 2014 at Jantar Mantar demanding justice in the alleged gang rape of four minor girls.
On March 23, away from the media glare, as the election campaigns were in full swing four girls, belonging to the Balmiki community in Bhagana village were allegedly kidnapped by a group of Jat boys and gang-raped. They were dumped at Bhatinda railway Station, about 170 KM away, where they were found in “almost unconscious state” by the village head and their relatives a day later.