Thaindian News

Panaji, June 20 (IANS) Outraged tribal leaders Monday called Goa’s Director General of Police ‘General Dyer of Goa’ after he said he would have “ordered fire” during a tribal protest May 25.

Prakash Velip, convenor of the United Tribal Associations Alliance (UTAA), said the state administration should immediately transfer or suspend Aditya Arya for his “insensitive” and “threatening” comments.

The police department said in a statement that the Arya was being subjected to a media trial and his comments need to be seen only from “an operational point of view”.

“This is how the state treats its tribal population? The top policeman of Goa says he will ‘order fire’ on agitating tribals. We can only call him the ‘General Dyer’ of Goa,” Velip said.

Brigadier General Reginald Dyer was a British Army officer infamous for ordering firing on unarmed Indians at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar in 1919.

The cold-blooded firing killed over 300 people and injured over a thousand.

Arya was taking part in a workshop on human rights, organised by the International Centre Goa and chaired by former chief justice of India J.S. Verma when he was asked to respond to a query on ineffective police action during a May 25 tribal rights agitation at Balli, 40 km from here.

“The leaders had lost control of the agitation. Several vehicles were burnt by the mob… had I been there, I would have ordered firing,” Arya said.

The opposition has said that Arya’s comments mirrored the views of the Congress-led government towards tribals, who account for 12 percent of the state’s 14 lakh population.

Two tribal activists were burnt to death May 25 by local thugs at Balli, even as the police watched it happen, according to the findings of a magisterial inquiry ordered by the Goa government.