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Condemning the murder of social activist Himmat Kol for opposing illegal grabbing of forest land by Forest department in Mirzapur, state secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist) Heera Lal Yadav demanded the immediate arrest of perpetrators and a forest ranger. Yadav also demanded that the government must stop the torture of forest-dwellers and tribals in the name of investigation.
In a statement issued in Lucknow on Wednesday, the CPI (M) leader said that the state government was adopting suppressive measures against Kols, forest-dwellers and tribals in UP. “Their land in Allahabad, Sonebhadra, Mirzapur, Chandauli and Kushinagar are being forcibly attached by Forest department and mafia. Instead of implementing Forest Act, the mafia in cahoots with forest officials are grabbing the land of these people and are getting tribals and forest-dwellers eliminated for questioning their misdeeds,” he charged.
Yadav said that Himmat Kol of Babura Raghunath Singh village in Haliya police station area of Mirzapur was killed for opposing such illegal acts.
“A case against the assailants was lodged in the local police station where the role of a forest ranger and a local MLA was suspected. But instead of initiating action and arresting the orchestrators, the police have taken to torturing innocent tribal youths. The state government should ensure justice to Kol and his family,” Yadav stressed.
