21-year-old Dalit youth shot dead in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh
Lucknow: Unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants shot dead a 21-year-old Dalit youth in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Uttar Pradesh.
The youth was killed near a petrol pump in Mau city of the state. The victim, identified as Avneesh Kumar, was returning from his aunt’s house with his friend when some youths surrounded him near the Sarsena petrol pump in the Chiraiyakot police station area and opened fire.Hansraj, a BSc student accompanying Avneesh, said the assailants shot him after surrounding him. “I suspect a youth named Golu may be involved in the incident. Some youths saw Golu in the market near Sarsena,” Hansraj said.
Police said Avneesh was taken to the district hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead.
Dalits, historically known as “untouchables” at the bottom of the Hindu caste system, face widespread physical violence, social exclusion and systemic discrimination from upper-caste Hindus in India. Attacks are sometimes triggered by minor social infractions, such as sitting cross-legged during a ritual, wearing the wrong shoes or swimming in a well owned by an upper-caste Hindu family.
The higher-caste groups use social boycotts to punish communities, cutting off access to work, drinking water and local shops, while the victims often struggle to file police reports, and law enforcement officers have been documented dismissing claims or acting alongside upper-caste aggressors.
