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Two tribals killed in north Gujarat police firing

Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD: At least two tribals were killed and three others seriously injured when police opened fire on a group of “militant tribals” who had allegedly attacked the Vajepura range forest office in Antarsumba village in Vijaynagar taluka of Sabarkantha district in north Gujarat on Wednesday morning.

According to the Sabarkantha district police superintendent, R.B. Brahmbhatt, a group of about 4,000 “militant tribals” had attacked the range forest office, manhandled the forest officers, misbehaved with their family members, caused extensive damage to their personal belongings and later also ransacked the office.

Mr Brahmbhatt said the attack was to obtain the release of five tribals who were picked up by the forest department officials earlier in the morning for leading a group to illegally fell trees in the forest and construct “hutments” in a bid to stake its claim to ownership of the forest lands under the new Central Act.

He claimed that the police initially tried to reason with the attacking mob and when they found them unrelenting, first burst about 20 teargas shells and later opened 25 rounds of fire to disperse the mob.

Mr Madhusudan Mistry, the Congress member of the Lok Sabha from Sabarkantha, and other local Congress leaders who visited the spot, however, rubbished the police version. Describing the police firing on the tribals as a “cold blooded murder, akin to the fake encounters of the alleged terrorists by the police chief D.G. Vanzara,” Mr Mistry said the Congress team saw no sign of any attack by the tribals.

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