The Directorate of Fisheries’ office at Dhurwa on Tuesday became the battlefield where dozens of people said to be non-adivasis clashed with police leaving three policemen injured. The scuffle broke out in the wee hours of Tuesday when police stopped few peoples allegedly gathered to net fish from the fish tanks on the occasion of Sarhul.
According to Dhurwa police those gathered to net fish in the name of Sarhul appeared to be people in the trade of fish selling rather than the Adivasis for whom fishing is a ritual observed a day before Sarhul. The brief altercation between the police and people gathered outside led to stone pelting by the angry mob thus forcing the police to resort to lathicharge to disperse the crowd. The fish tanks are maintained by the department for rearing hybrid fish of different varieties.
“The fisheries department had asked for deployment fearing fishing by some people on the occasion of Sarhul so we reached the spot with force at around 3.45 am. We saw some people there with fishnets and upon verification it was found that they were not Adivasis,” said Dhurwa PS in-charge Indramani Chaudhary.
Nonetheless, the police claim that once the crowd dispersed members of the Adivasi community were called for the ritual and the fish caught was released into the tanks after carrying out the rituals. “No fish was killed while conducting the ritual,” pointed out Chaudhary.
The incident left three policemen- Circle Inspector Gariban Paswan, SI Ratan and one probationer- injured in retaliation by the agitated mob while there is no official data on the number of people injured in the lathicharge.Fishing as a ritual is mandatorily observed a day before Sarhul by tribal community. The festival of nature worship, Sarhul, will be celebrated on Wednesday across Jharkhand.