Seven people were killed in Madhya Pradesh as violence broke out in several parts of the country to protest against a Supreme Court ruling on atrocities against Dalits.
A 'Bharat Bandh' was called by several organisations and was supported by some political parties as well. Security forces were clashing with protesters with reports of vandalism, stone-pelting and firing by police in not just Madhya Pradesh but also in the states of Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.
The BJP-led Centre, however, filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against its order last month, which barred automatic arrests on complaints filed under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The Chief Justice of India declined to hear the urgent plea on the ruling. In its petition, the Centre sought the restoration of the earlier status by which any offence under the SC/ST Act was made a cognizable non-bailable offence.
The Centre, Dalit activists as well as several opposition parties came out against the SC's ruling, which they said dilutes the SC/ST Act and might lead to an increase in violence against Dalits.
However, due to clashes in Madhya Pradesh's Morena, four persons were killed as protesters blocked a railway crossing and set fire to some public property. Around nine people were injured in Gwalior as well of which two were in critical condition. Protesters also threw stones in Bhind. Local administrations have imposed a curfew and/or Section 144, which prohibits an assembly or more than four people in some of the places.
Shops were forcibly shut by protesters in Dehradun while in Jaipur shops were vandalised by unknown perpetrators, and protesters blocked railway tracks and stopped trains; in Barmar, cars and other vehicles and public property were damaged as well.
In the NCR region, protesters squatted on tracks in several places outside Delhi, stopping trains, including the Dehradun Express and the Ranchi Rajdhani, to enforce an all India shutdown. Services were disrupted by a mob at the Ghaziabad railyard. Many trains, including the Saptakranti Express, Utkal Express, the Bhubaneswar and Ranchi Rajdhanis and the Kanpur Shatabdi were stopped ahead of Ghaziabad in Meerut and Modinagar. A mob of about 2,000 people stopped trains at the Hapur station as well.
In Punjab, protests were witnessed in Ambala, and in Haryana in Rohtak; protests also took place in Chandigarh. In Patna, protesters forced closure of the ticket booking counters and squatted on railway tracks disrupting movement of a number of trains at the Patna Junction.
In Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, protesters were beaten by police personnel. And in Jharkhand's Ranchi, a clash between police and protesters led to several people being injured.
