Bheem Army leader’s kin shot; Saharanpur tense

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, May 9

History repeated itself in Saharanpur on the occasion of Maharana Pratap Jayanti on Wednesday when the ongoing Dalit-Rajput tension claimed the life of Sachin Walia, younger brother of Bheem Army district president Kamal Walia.

The death comes exactly a year after the Rajput-Dalit clashes took place in Shabbirpur village in Saharanpur on Maharana Pratap’s Jayanti last year when around 60 Dalit houses and shops were burnt down.

After Sachin’s death on Wednesday tension gripped Saharanpur district once again. Reports suggest that Sachin was passing near the venue of the Maharana Pratap Jayanti celebrations in Ramnagar village when some unidentified motorcycle-borne youth shot at him shouting ‘Maharana Pratap Amar rahe’ slogan. He was rushed to the district hospital where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. Bheem Army members refused to let the police remove the body for postmortem. It was after some clashes that the police succeeded in taking the body to the morgue where the tension prevailed.