Hindus Try To Storm Indian Parliament

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31211, 8 November 1966, Page 18

Hindus Try To Storm Indian Parliament

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright)

NEW DELHI, November 7.

Hundreds of screaming Hindu holy men, some of them naked, tried to storm the Parliament building in New Delhi today.

Police opened fire and reports said that 10 persons were killed and a number injured.

The mob smashed a police barricade i n front of the main entrance of Parliament House and battled the police. Some of the holy men jabbed the officers with the long iron tridents they carry as their symbols.

Police opened fire to disperse the holy men spearheading a violent crowd of hundreds of thousands protesting against the slaughter of cows in India. Many were injured in the

police firing and resulting stampede. Dozens of cars and scooters were left blazing along Parliament street by the demonstrators as they retreated before the bullets and batonwielding steel-helmeted police on foot and on horseback. Bricks and Stones

Angry Hindus also hurled bricks and stones at the Parliament building. The demonstration, bringing together groups from all over India, was in response to a call by a national “Save the Cow Committee,” which is demanding a total ban on the slaughter of cows in India.

Earlier, the march was punctured by chants of “stop killing our holy mother cow” and “we are ready to die so that cows may live.” Pictures Of Cows Above today’s procession bobbed pictures of cows standing amidst the community of Hindu gods and goddesses. Millions of Indians worship cows as symbols of fertility and motherhood.

Squads of Sadhus (holy men) had kissed the feet of their sect leaders before setting out on the march. Some wore sackcloth and ashes, their faces caked with grey mud and their long hair knotted round their foreheads. Many carried food for the journey in hollow black gourds. Members of the “Naga Sadhu” sect went naked but for a two-inch wide strip of cloth.

City shops here were shuttered up as the procession passed. Towns in other parts of India were reported to be observing a business shutdown in support of the cow crusade. Bringing Pressure The Indian Government maintains that it is the responsibility of India’s 16 States to ban cow slaughter, though it has promised to bring pressure on those States which still permit it. The demonstrators say they will only be satisfied with central legislation on the subject