Speaking on the occasion the party general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya called upon the people to revive the great tradition of Bhojpur to fight against feudal forces.

Be it the freedom struggle or the fight against feudal forces, Bhojpur has been a land of heroes like Jagdish Master and Ram Naresh Ram, he added.

He started his speech around 2 pm, the time when the carnage took place at Bathani Tola on July 11, 1996. The crowd observed a two-minute silence in the memory of the victims.

Bhattacharya said the party had moved the Supreme Court which would undo the injustice done to the victims and survivors of the massacre.

He said even 16 years on, not a single person has been convicted for the barbaric slaughter of innocent villagers.

Hitting out at the Nitish Kumar government he said it did not pay compensation to the dalit students attacked by the mob on June 1 after the killing of Ranvir Sena chief, Brahmeshwar Singh, but paid Rs eight lakh to compensate the damages caused to utensils and chairs by the LPG cylinder blasts at his shraddh on June 13.

The CPI ML will hold a citizens' convention in Delhi on July 15 to demand the setting up of a special investigation team to probe all the carnages in Bihar. The party also resolved to begin a dharna in front of the state legislature from August 3 in protest against the displacement of people due to the Valmikinagar project.

Those who took part in the rally included Mohammad Nayimuddin, one of the survivors of the Bathani Tola massacre. He lost six members of his family, including his three-month-old daughter Asma Khatoon. He is at present a grade IV employee in Ara circle office.