In a gruesome incident, four Tibetans, including two females were brutally beaten by a mob of drivers from local taxi and auto-rickshaw unions leaving one critically injured
By Phurbu Thinley
McLeod Gunj (Dharamsala): May 3: Evening had already descended on this hill town, became well known to the world as home to the exiled Tibetan leader, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, when a violent episode broke up late last night here involving an auto-rickshaw driver and a Tibetan, when the latter one was brushed aside by a moving auto.
Soon the incident escalated into more violence when more local Indians, allegedly to be drivers from the local taxi and auto-rickshaw unions, turned up to back up the auto driver. The band started attacking the Tibetan along with another Tibetan friend with him. The two were beaten so severely near the main McLeod square here that they were later hospitalized, and leaving the situation here little tense.
This is not a new and a rare incident here. There are more stories of local taxi or auto drivers thrashing Tibetans in group occasionally for trivial matters, but Tibetans hardly dare to lodge complaints in police station seeing no effect in the end results.
Fed up of the persistently agitating and discriminative atmosphere prevailing here, and to find an amicable solution, Tibetans today gathered at the main Tsuglag Khang court yard. However, there seems to be more complaints against police officers on duty who too occasionally have been harassing Tibetans, especially the newly arrived ones from Tibet in the name of RC (Registration certificate), official residential permit issued by Indian government for Tibetan refugees which has to be renewed every year to extend one’s stay in India. This has been going on for sometime that the officers, stationed in McLeod Gunj on night duty, have been alleged to selectively stopping only Tibetans at late night among other people on the McLeod Street and demanding them to produce RC on the spot.
According to some persons who spoke during the gathering, on failure to produce the book, which is not mandatory for Tibetans to carry it all the time, the officers would then beat them at their own discretion and would charge pecuniary fine or even in some cases they have reportedly snatched away cell phones too.
This is the first time I have seen Tibetans coming together in such a large number, which they say is a result of cumulative angst to vent out their frustration out of sheer helplessness against the frequent injustice they face from local drivers and police alike here.
When you dig out more from the stories, there seemed to be deeper problems provoking the minds of these Tibetans who are more used to the spirit of tolerance and forgiveness and mutual harmony. At the gathering here today, those who got up to speak, many of them for the first time in public, expressed that tolerance seems to be a sign of weakness than of understanding and strength.
At the gathering, none of them talked about revengeful acts, but rather sought to find a meaningful solution to bring into terms the occasional culprits and to ensure such an undesired incident where a large mob would, instead of finding a way out, simply go on with unlawful rampage doest not repeat in future.
One Tibetan, in a hopeless voice, mustered out his courage to say, “We always go by these local taxis and autos. We are their regular customers and we are even made to pay more than the standard fares payable elsewhere in India. I don’t understand what we have done wrong here for them.”
“They usually have a very loathsome attitude against us and are easy in taking provocative stance against us” he added.
As the Dalai Lama tirelessly reaches out around the world using Dharamsala as his base to spread the message of compassion, mutual respect and, religious and social harmony, there seems to be little awareness about his universal message back in his residential home town in exile.
Many Tibetans here are now constantly forced into believing that since the hill town has become a top tourist destination in the country, the amount of money flowing in here is beginning to speak louder than the spirituality of this place for which many of these foreigners flock in here to find a solace into their stressed city lives.
McLeod Gunj, nestled on the upper part of Dharamsala, has also been the administrative centre of exiled Tibetan Diasporas around the world after the Communist China forcefully marched into Tibet in 1949 and forced the Dalai Lama and many Tibetans to flee their country in 1959 after a failed national uprising.
In the last night’s shocking incident, two Tibetan girls who came to their friends’ rescue were also beaten ruthlessly by the mob and one of them was even mercilessly thrown into the roadside gully.
According to onlookers, as the men continued to beat the victims, one of them almost went unconscious and motionless on the street while the policemen and others remained mere spectators. The mob even snatched away a baton from a policeman to beat the victims. They even went on to attack even those who attempted to stop them.
“We can’t stop them and neither can we take up a fight because we are aliens here all these years”, remarks a fellow Tibetan at the gathering. The gathering also expressed dissatisfaction over the indifferences shown by the concerned Tibetan authorities in times like these.
One police officer was even reported to have remarked, “Yeh Tibti logo mein josh agaya hai” (meaning “The guts have come into these Tibetans”.
“I don’t understand what guts he is talking about”, says another.
The whole incident left many foreigners and onlookers, including two Indian journalists who are in the town for holiday, in complete shock. The two Indian ladies even approached local police station of their own late last night on behalf of Tibetan victims to register formal complaints.
One of the female victims who recently came into exile to escape the harsh political situation in Tibet stated that situation is looking even worse here in exile. At least in Tibet, if we don’t meddle in politically sensitive issues, socially there is no need to feel insecure from such angry mobs she said.
It is strange to feel that even police on the scene remained helpless she remarked.
As more Tibetans came to know of the episode and turned up on the scene, the attacking mobs had already gone out of sight and police squad led by Station-house Officer, R. P. Jaswal, Dharamsala Police Station too turned up to disperse the remaining crowd from the main square.
On being asked whether any formal case has been registered of the incident, Mr Jaswal said that process is underway to ascertain the identity of the people involved. On the issue of baton being snatched from policeman’s hand to beat the victims, he said that he did receive the information on that and stated that the case is also under investigation.
He even said that the police officers on late night duty in McLeod Gunj are not supposed to act in the irregular manner alleged by the Tibetans.
At the end of the brutally shocking incident lasting for nearly two hours, a Tibetan who too was badly beaten while attempting to stop the culprits, was taken to the police custody and was released only when several Tibetans along with the two journalists went there to justify the situation.
As of now, the gathering pledged to boycott the local taxi and auto-rickshaw service for an indefinite time as a best way out. The gathering set an unwritten resolution that the effective remedy to prevent confrontation with local taxi and auto-rickshaw union members is not to avail their service. All Tibetan business undertakings, including shops and restaurants are to remain closed on May 4 as a solidarity move.
