October 2016: Four killed, 40 injured at Jharkhand mine demonstration
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===October 2016: Four killed, 40 injured at Jharkhand mine demonstration===
===October 2016: Four killed, 40 injured at Jharkhand mine demonstration===
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Police fired on demonstrators protesting coal mining at Chirudih village near Hazaribagh, Jharkhand. According to an initial reports based on a police account, the incident resulted in four deaths among protesters as well as injuries to five villagers and seven policemen. (''The Wire'' reported that the shootings resulted in six deaths but subsequently revised the death toll to four.) Protesters claimed that as many as 40 people had been injured. Among the injured were a superintendent of police and a circle officer. According to accounts by residents of Chirudih village, more than a thousand villagers were sleeping at the protest site when five companies of police and one company of the Rapid Action Force were deployed and began forcibly clearing the area. As more villagers arrived, the police first used tear gas and then live ammunition. According to police, gunfire was only used in self-defense. A spokesman from the Ekta Parishad resistance organization acknowledged that protesters had charged the police but said that there were no serious injuries to the police as a result. Among those arrested were Congress MLA Nirmala Devi. The events followed months of resistance against acquisition of agricultural land and forest areas for coal mining by NTPC, India's state-owned power company, including Chita Satyagraha (protesting on unlit funeral pyres).<ref>Ankush Vengurlekar, [http://thewire.in/70306/hazaribagh-four-dead-police-firing-anti-mining-protest/ "Police Firing on Anti-Mining Protesters in Hazaribagh Kills Six,"] The Wire, October 1, 2016</ref><ref>[ http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/four-killed-in-eastern-india-during-coal-mine-protest/3172368.html "Four killed in eastern India during coal mine protest,"] Channel NewsAsia, October 1, 2016</ref>
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Police fired on demonstrators protesting coal mining at Chirudih village near Hazaribagh, Jharkhand. According to an initial reports based on a police account, the incident resulted in four deaths among protesters as well as injuries to five villagers and seven policemen. (''The Wire'' reported that the shootings resulted in six deaths but subsequently revised the death toll to four.) Protesters claimed that as many as 40 people had been injured. Among the injured were a superintendent of police and a circle officer. According to accounts by residents of Chirudih village, more than a thousand villagers were sleeping at the protest site when five companies of police and one company of the Rapid Action Force were deployed and began forcibly clearing the area. As more villagers arrived, the police first used tear gas and then live ammunition. According to police, gunfire was only used in self-defense. A spokesman from the Ekta Parishad resistance organization acknowledged that protesters had charged the police but said that there were no serious injuries to the police as a result. Among those arrested were Congress MLA Nirmala Devi. The events followed months of resistance against acquisition of agricultural land and forest areas for coal mining by NTPC, India's state-owned power company, including Chita Satyagraha (protesting on unlit funeral pyres).<ref>Ankush Vengurlekar, [http://thewire.in/70306/hazaribagh-four-dead-police-firing-anti-mining-protest/ "Police Firing on Anti-Mining Protesters in Hazaribagh Kills Six,"] The Wire, October 1, 2016</ref><ref>[http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/four-killed-in-eastern-india-during-coal-mine-protest/3172368.html "Four killed in eastern India during coal mine protest,"] Channel NewsAsia, October 1, 2016</ref>
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A report by Amnesty India described the police action as follows:<ref>[https://www.amnesty.org.in/show/entry/communities-affected-by-jharkhand-coal-mine-not-adequately-consulted/ "Communities affected by Jharkhand coal mine not adequately consulted,"] Amnesty International India, 27 October 2016</ref>
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:On October 1, four people, including three teenagers, were killed and more than 40 persons injured when police personnel shot live ammunition following protests over the mine in the village of Darikalan. Some of the protestors had thrown stones at the policemen.
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:The police said that they had been attacked by violent protestors, and had resorted to firing live ammunition only after giving adequate warning. However, eyewitnesses said that the firing began without any warning, and the police did not distinguish between protestors throwing stones and others. Eyewitnesses said that the four people killed were not involved in the protests. “They were even firing at people trying to retrieve the bodies,” said R Khatun, an eyewitness to the incident from the village of Darikalan.
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:“Every single body we examined was shot above the waist and in the back, which shows that they were running away from police and not trying to attack them,” said Gopinath Ghosh and Alice Cherowa of Jharkhand Mine Areas Coordination Committee, a Ranchi-based organisation which examined the bodies of three of those killed. As of 21 October, the families of the victims were yet to receive copies of the post mortem reports.
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:Local residents also say that the police had assaulted villagers in the days following the firing. Shazia from Cheppakalan village said that on 3 October, “The police came banging on our doors, shouting horrible abuses, saying that just you watch, you threw stones at our officers. Now this place will become a funeral pyre.”
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:Four women from the village of Darikalan said that police forcibly entered their homes on 3 October and beat them with batons. “Women and elderly in my household were beaten, and 9 male family members were picked up and later released,” said Mohammed Rafique from Cheppakhurd village. “The whole village was empty for days, as people fled to their relatives’ houses in fear,” said Ilias Ansari of the Karanpura Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, a local peoples’ movement against the mine.
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:The Superintendent of Police from Hazaribagh, when interviewed on 3 October, said, “Senior officials, including the additional district magistrate, are leading the troops into villages, and I don’t expect them to behave irresponsibly. Arrests are being made in connection with atrocities committed against the police.”
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:“Jharkhand authorities must look into allegations that the police used unnecessary and excessive force during the protests, and assaulted villagers later,” said Aruna Chandrasekhar.
===August 2016: Two killed, 40 injured at plant protests in Jharkhand's Ramgarh district===
===August 2016: Two killed, 40 injured at plant protests in Jharkhand's Ramgarh district===