KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, Nov 15: Former MP and Aadivasi Sengal Abhiyan president Salkhan Murmu has been subjected to house arrest in view of the outfit’s agitation in support of its demand for accepting Sarna as a religion.
Functionaries of Aadivasi Sengal Abhiyan are demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi declare the Sarna religion code, something the outfit has been pressing for a couple of years.
In the course of the agitation, several members of the Aadivasi Sengal Abhiyan had threatened to self-immolate in the wake of Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Ranchi.
As many as three members of the tribal outfit had declared to take the drastic step of self-immolation in Jamshedpur itself in the event of the Prime Minister failing to declare the Sarna religion code during the latter’s visit to the state capital during the past 24 hours.
Apart from the threat of self-immolation, the activists of Aadivasi Sengal Abhiyan had on Tuesday evening set up a blockade at Karandih on the Tata-Hata road, causing vehicular traffic problems for hours together.
The police had, however, taken the three members of the Aadivasi Sengal Abhiyan, including a woman into custody, apparently to prevent them from taking the drastic step.
Acting on the line of action against the outfit’s president Salkhan Murmu, the police have laid siege to his residence at Kadma since Wednesday morning. With Murmu inside his residence, the police are not allowing anyone to either enter the house or come out of it. Several lady cops have also been pressed into the situation which is literally the house arrest of Salkhan Murmu.
