Three persons identified as Caste Hindus were killed in Ramanathapuram district on Tuesday as communal violence marred the 105th Guru Pooja (Thevar Jayanthi) celebrations sparking tension in some southern districts.
While two persons proceeding to the Guru Pooja, which is celebrated to honour the late Forward Bloc leader Pasumpon U Muthuramalinga Thevar, were killed in Ponnaiapuram; a van driver who was ferrying people to Pasumpon, the venue of the celebrations, was fatally attacked by a mob in Pambuvilunthan village.
Both the police and the district administration said the victims had attempted to reach Pasumpon through “prohibited routes” in Dalit populated villages.
Two youth Malai Kannan and Veeramani of Alli Nagaram from Madurai were allegedly stoned to death by a group of villagers in Ponnaiapuram when they entered the village with the Thevar flags on their two-wheeler in the afternoon. The incident occurred around 300 metres away from the Five Point Junction where five Dalits were killed in a police firing in September last year.
Around 15 persons have been arrested in connection with the murders. “Since the victims were new to the district, they could have mistakenly entered the village without realising that it was a prohibited route,” a police officer said.
Immediately after the incident, two buses were damaged near Krishna theatre in Paramakudi.
In Pambuvilunthan, a mob targetted a van ferrying people to the Guru Pooja venue. They attacked the occupants, all belonging to Velankudi village in Virudhunagar district, with stones and wooden logs. The van driver Sivakumar (25) succumbed to injuries sustained in the attack.
A senior police officer said, in both incidents, the victims had managed to give the slip to cops and enter prohibited zones inviting the wrath of Dalits. Rajesh Das, IG, South Zone told Express, that security has beefed up in all sensitive places and the situation is under control.
As a retaliation, members of Caste Hindu hacked two dalits- Nagarajan (26) and Pulavandran (30), both from Madurai, at Paramakudi. The victims, employees of a real estate company, are undergoing treatment at the GRH in Madurai.