Sunday Anchor: Army of assassins

August 23, 2015 12:45 am | Updated November 29, 2021 01:12 pm IST

Private militia Ranvir Sena was formed by Bihar’s Bhumihar and Rajput landlord in 1994 in Bhojpur district. It unleashed a series of mass killings against Dalits and Naxal sympathisers.

According to the on-camera claims made by its members in the Cobrapost film released last week, between 1994 and 2000, the Ranvir Sena carried out six major massacres in Central Bihar, killing 144 Dalits.

The avowed aims of the Ranvir Sena were twofold: to protect the interests of the land-owning castes by brutally suppressing Dalits and landless agricultural labourers; and to wipe out armed Naxal groups.

The Sena sought to achieve this by unleashing a reign of terror. If the Naxals executed a landlord, the Sena would massacre dozens of Dalits.

The outfit notoriously targeting women and children, which it justified by saying, “We kill children because they will grow up to become Naxalites. We kill women because they will give birth to Naxalites.”

The Sena reportedly had the political and financial patronage of several State and national politicians. Its cadre is said to have been trained by Army jawans on leave or retired, and it claims to have procured its modern weapons illegally from the Army.

As of today, the Sena is banned by the Bihar government, and is officially classified as a terrorist organisation.

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