Was Police Savagery in Azamgarh the First Episode of a New Wave of Violence Against Dalits?

“At around 8 pm I heard a commotion outside. Suddenly, the power supply was disconnected and everybody in the house started shouting, ‘Run! The police are here’!” recalled Sandhya, a 22-year-old Dalit resident of Palia village in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, about the horror endured by her family on the night of June 29, 2021. 

“Before I could understand what was going on, a dozen policemen barged into the house. One of them hit me on the hand with an iron rod while hurling abuses at me. The policemen began vandalising everything in the house. 

I grabbed my sister’s hand and fled to the lake behind our house. It felt as though my heart would stop and I’d die. I still feel the terror. That night, it seemed we were attacked by a bunch of criminals, not cops,” she said….

https://thewire.in/caste/azamgarh-police-uttar-pradesh-dalit-atrocity