25 May 2013

Mob in Bajothang- iWitness

I heard of mob attack in Jaigoan, and saw in Indian movies but this afternoon it happened in my school. The school was over and I was with my colleagues shaking hands with movie director Tshering Wangyel who has come to screen his production "Sorry Wai" here. Suddenly we heard our noisy neighbours shouting louder than they usually did. We have over 20 Bengali  labourers working for a construction site in our school. They were chasing something with various weapons in their hand.
We said "Sorry Wai" to Tshering Wangyel and ran to the site to find that they were after the Bhutanese site supervisor who is responsible for looking after the work on behalf of the funder. Stones were flying in his direction, narrowly missing him. We stopped the mob, who were carrying bamboo, iron rod, stone, spade and going 'maro maro' after him. While I appreciate their unity I hated their action and intention.
Instinctively I picked up a bamboo too and pointed at those who were trying to cross beyond where we were standing, I only realized there was bamboo in my hand when my principal called on me to throw it.
"He hit our friend, we have to 'maro' him" They shouted.
"Are you police? Who are you to render justice this way? This cannot be done here. Call you proprietor and solve it with police." My principal sent them back.

Then their theakhadar said something to them which instigated the mob again. They wanted to drag him back and do justice. They began "maro maro' again and came running. We intercepted them and suggested, "How would you like to have it the other way, where we call 50 Bhutanese and thrash your heads with your weapons." By then there were people watching from all directions. The mob retreated silently.
Our principal called the theakhadar and warned him to total silence.

After a while the escapee returned with chief security officer of his company and police. The labours were called and the case was dug. From their conversation I could see that the supervisor had tried to stop a work which was not approved by the company, while the head labourer shouted at his workers to continue. The s supervisor became furious and dug out their finished work when a labourer punched him. He picked up a bamboo and knocked that man down and ran away.

Police after hearing stories from both sides said both of them must go to the office, and even asked the theakhadar to go. That's when I said "what about the mob that came with all sort of weapon?" and my colleagues supported me. Then the whole 'maro maro' gang was loaded behind police pickup and taken to police station. I hope their are not kept in the cell overnight though they deserved it.

9 comments:

  1. That was an disapointing incident but i'm atleast happy because they were not Bhutanese.

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  2. i think its the kind of environment they were brought up in, where justice by law takes ages and justice by all indispensable. the attitude of such kind deserves some sort of empathy. while, making them understand the law and environment of our country is fundamental.
    cheers....

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  3. Seems Supervisor has no say in quality inspection of the work.

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  4. maro maro groups are very dangeroud atleast they settled down here ..in india where we study we go through much abuse verbally and otherwise where they group up and do their maro scene every now and then .. well atleast we can learn from them and know What NOT to do

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  5. We should see the story from both sides... Though their way to approach was wrong but they might have been right,,, anyways this doesn't happen in Bhutan. they should learn to adapt in our place :)

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  6. you have done profound job.well done i do appreciate la.

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  7. you have done profound job.well done i do appreciate la.

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  8. May I use your drawing of the angry mob in a presentation I do for my nonprofit about ecotourism and voluntourism? I want to make the point that people should not expect angry mobs to be part of the experience. Thanks.

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  9. HarvestFlo, I am sorry the picture is not mine. I used it from the web. I forgot to menion the source.

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