Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Poverty, hunger stalk Senari

from the Times of India

SENARI (ARWAL): Holi, symbolising colour, brotherhood and social merriment, has never been the same again for the hapless survivors of Senari village. It was on March 18, 1999, when over 40 able-bodied men of the ill-fated Senari village belonging to a particular upper caste were herded like cattlehead, tied and slaughtered by marauding Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) activists.

Recalling the ghoulish incident, 30-year-old Pankaj who lost his father, said that it was exactly 16 days after Holi celebrations in 1999, that a horde of heavily-armed MCC marauders struck the village "tearing our lives asunder. That was the last Holi we celebrated," he added.

Sobs of men, women and children and their near and dear ones were heard again on Tuesday, being observed as the ninth anniversary of the massacre.

The dome-shaped martyrs' memorial erected by the villagers in memory of the dead stands as a mute testament to the gory drama enacted by the MCC men nine years ago.

Chintamani Devi who showed exemplary courage in filing a named FIR against the accused in the massacre case, lost her husband and her only son Madhukar (19) in the carnage.

However, she later died broken-hearted, waiting for justice which is still eluding the kin of the Senari victims. Ram Kishore Sharma, who survived the pogrom only to cremate his four younger brothers and a nephew, is still hoping against hope that the accused will be punished sooner or later.

With about 150-odd households, Senari, nestling on the banks of Nira river, has, in fact, been reduced to a ghost village as over a score of Bhumihar families have left home and hearth to live peacefully in the neighbouring towns.

Mutual distrust, a sense of alienation, poverty and hunger continue to stalk the village. It will take at least a century for the village to regain its former self, remarked Ramesh Sharma, a college employee of the village.

Meanwhile, the trial in the Senari massacre case against 43 accused is going on at snail's pace in a local fast track court. Of a total of 89 witnesses, only four of them have so far deposed before the court, identifying many of the accused.

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