On 2nd November 1990, Karsevaks were fired at in Ayodhya. The then government led by Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav had ordered to open fire at Ram bhakts. Now it has been 32 years since this brutal incident. It is the result of the sacrifice of these karsevaks gathered in Ayodhya that today we are seeing a grand temple of Lord Shri Ram being built there and not the disputed Babri structure. It was Kartik Purnima when the Mulayam Singh Yadav government got ram bhakts, who were protesting peacefully, killed.
There were no mobile phones or internet then, but some videos of this incident recorded with cameras occasionally come out on social media. One such video is available on Facebook, in which both the brutality of the police and the dedication of Ram bhakts can be seen together. At the beginning of the video, the police can be seen clashing with a sadhu. A Rambhakt is taken away by the police, to which a person says – ‘Woh Dekho, le gaye’ which means, see, they took him away.
In this video, the police can also be seen charging lathis on the saints and seers and firing bullets from their guns. A Ram bhakt can be heard saying, “Come, lathi-charge, kill. We won’t go, even if you shoot.” One can find arson at various places and people collecting stones in this video. People are also chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’. In many places, unconscious people are lying on the ground.
In many places in this video, police personnel can also be seen dragging devotees of Lord Ram on the road. The elderly were also not spared in the lathi charge and were also beaten up. On this day alone, 40 Ram bhakts were killed in indiscriminate firing on karsevaks. Kothari brothers who were killed by the police in Hanumangarhi were also among these people. Many Ram devotees also died due to a stampede on the Saryu bridge caused due to police brutality. A journalist present there put the death toll at 45.
60 people were also badly injured in this incident. In fact, there was no account of the injured. The devotees were not only killed but were not even allowed to be cremated as per Hindu rituals. They were buried. In another rare video, people were seen saying that the police barged into the houses of karsevaks and caught them, and brutalized them. A sadhu is seen saying in this video that more than 100 people have died in the firing of UP Police so far.
