Sr Valsa john (53), who had been successfully leading a crusade against the brutality of coal miners, and had succeeded in enabling the rural folk to assert their rights and claim compensation towards allowing miners to operate in the villages, was done to death on the night of Tuesday November 15.
Since 1995, she was leading an agitation under the banner, ‘Rajmahal Pahar Bachao Andolan’ under which the local tribals protested against forcible acquisition of their lands for Pachuara coal project undertaken by Punjab State Electricity Board and Eastern Mineral Trading Company jointly. The nun, who used to stay in a rented accommodation in Pachuara village in Pakur district in Jharkhand, was dragged out at around 10.30 pm by a gang. The gang members then attacked her indiscriminately with lethal weapons, resulting in her instant death.
