Indian villagers went on the rampage Friday as police tried to enforce a ban on a bizarre annual stone-pelting ritual which often leaves people dead or injured, a local official said. Officers trying to uphold the ban in two villages in an impoverished central region of the country were subjected to a hail of stones themselves and were forced to withdraw, Nikunj Srivastava, a district civil servant, told AFP.
The angry mob then got their way and the ritual went ahead as usual, causing at least two serious injuries. "As soon as the festival started and villagers from both sides came to know that they would not be allowed to hurl stones at each other, they started pelting stones on the cops and their vehicles," Srivastava told AFP by telephone. Two police officers were injured and several police vehicles were damaged, he added. "Our motive was not to suppress people going to participate in the festival but to reform them and educate them," said Srivastava.
"We have succeeded in the sense that the use of liquor by the participants was almost negligible and they did not use slings to pelt stones or the injuries would have been on a larger scale," Srivastava added. The annual Gotmar festival involves teams from the villages of Saargaon and Pandhurhna competing to capture a tree placed in a riverbed running between the two settlements. Crowds pelt the participants with rocks and pebbles as they attempt to reach the target.