Marichjhapi incident | |||
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Date | 24 January 1979 | – 18 May 1979||
Location | 22°06′25″N 88°57′04″E / 22.1070°N 88.9510°E | ||
Parties | |||
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Casualties | |||
Death(s) | 100+ |
Marichjhapi massacre or Marichjhapi incident refers to the 1979 eviction of post-partition Bengali refugees who had moved out of the Dandakaranya camps in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and settled in protected forest lands on Marichjhapi island in the Sundarbans, West Bengal.[1][2] There was a confrontation between the police and the settled population, that led to an economic blockade and later police action was taken to forcibly evict the settlers which all led to several deaths.[3][4]
Not much is known about the Marichjhapi incident that took place under the Jyoti Basu government on a tiny island in the Sundarbans where Hindu refugees had settled.