New Delhi: In backdrop of incidents of violence in Maharashtra this week and other such incidents elsewhere, Dalit organisations from across the country have called for a nation-wide protest against "attacks on the community".

The dalit leaders will sit on dharna on Parliament Street here on January 5 to protest against the recent Maharashtra incident and also to demand the release of Bhim Army leader Chandra Shekhar who is in custody in Uttar Pradesh.

The dalit leaders have said that they will protest peacefully to remind the government that their issues are not being addressed. They have also questioned the authorities on "why Chandra Shekhar is being held under the National Secrets Act, when there is nothing to prove his crime." Dalit activist Ashok Bharti confirmed that under NSA, Chandra Shekhar will be confined for the next 11 months.

Bharti accused the dalits and tribals, who are in established positions, of not supporting the cause of the community they represent. "There are 84 SC MPs and 47 ST MPs today and about 700 SC\ST MLAs in the country. There are also more than a million government employees and hundreds of IAS and IPS level officers and we have a dalit President at present. Yet, all of them fail to protect the interests of the adivasis and the dalits? Are they morally obliged or are they stooges of the establishment?" asked Bharti.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, dalit leaders, including PrakashAmbedkar of BharipaBahujanMahasangh and the grandson of BR Ambedkar, V SrinivasaRao, secretary, Dalit ShoshanMuktiManch, A Vijayaraghavan of All India Agricultural Workers Union, Paul Divakar of National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights, V S Nirmal of BharatiyaKhetMazdoor Union, G Mallesh of National Campaign Council for Dalit rights, Ashok Bharti, (National Confederation of Dalit Organisations and K AnandRao of All India Dalit Rights Federation, appealed to all democratic and secular forces, irrespective of religion and caste, to support their protest.