Gujarat: Harijan family Flees from Terror of Honour Killings
Patan, 25 th November 2016: Fearing for their lives due to death threats by a Patel family, a newly wedded couple and the bridegroom's family of six Harijans (Scheduled Caste) have fled their village in Gujarat's Patan district on 16 th November, and are hiding in faraway towns and villages. The death threats started on the afternoon of 16 th November, when 21-year-old Vishal Chawda – a graduate -- married his school classmate Khushbu Patel. Khushbu's father Ganpatbhai Gangaram Patel had evidently planned to get her married off on 25 th November i.e. today, along with her sister. Khushbu, who clearly had her own plans for her life, secretly got wedded to Vishal Chawda on 15 th November in a private ceremony, and their marriage was registered in Ahmedabad on 16 th November . Then the newly-wedded couple went underground. The parents and other relatives of Vishal Chawda, who lived and earned their livelihoods in Dhinod Village (Taluka Chanasma, District Patan), h...