Eerie silence hangs over ground zero, villagers feel trapped in the crossfire

Kanpur: An eerie silence hung over Bikru village, hours after TOI visited ground zero that witnessed one of the bloodiest encounters in decades, leaving eight cops dead. The hamlet, inhabited mostly by Brahmins, wore a deserted look with only a handful of elderly villagers huddled in their homes. Most of the village youth seemed to have moved to safer areas, fearing a police backlash.The villagers remained tight-lipped about the shootout. Nobody wanted to share clues on what happened after midnight — sound of gunshots, sudden blackout in the road leading to the fortified residence of gangster Vijay Dubey or whether their loyalty to the don stemmed from fear or caste compulsion.
When women folk were asked about the absence of male members, they said, “All have gone to the fields to sow paddy.” Overcoming hesitation, a youth in his twenties, one of the few still around in Bikru village, told TOI, “Whatever be the reason for the encounter, the killings have left us deeply shaken. We are caught in a crossfire between criminals and police. Any of us can be picked up for questioning and never return home.”
Dubey’s neighbour, a 75-year-old man, can recollect the din outside his house after midnight when he saw several people moving a JCB machine to block the path leading to the gangster’s residence. “We don’t know anything about Dubey or his gang. They just seemed angry and were hurling expletives at police while pushing the earthmover,” he said.
Another neighbour said, he heard gunshots and initially thought someone was bursting crackers. “Reality sunk in when we heard the clank of police boots and sirens. Whatever could be the trigger for the gun battle, I felt sad when bodies of policemen kept piling up,” he said.
Amidst the blame game, many villagers said, they find themselves caught in a Catch-22 situation. “We are poor, innocent farmers and fear both the gangster and policemen,” said another elderly woman.
By evening only Rapid Action Force jawans and SWAT teams were seen marching through the empty dirt roads. “Raids are on to arrest the criminals,” SSP Dinesh Kumar Prabhu told TOI.