Jamshedpur, Dec. 31: For some, there’s going to be unbridled joy and cheer to hark in 2007; for some others closer home, there’s just going to be grief and sad remembrances.

Even as the world will celebrate the arrival of another New Year tomorrow, people of Kharsawan, including chief minister Madhu Koda, his predecessor and Kharsawan MLA Arjun Munda and members of the royal family, will be mourning the death of 2,000 tribals in a police firing way back on January 1, 1948.

The victims had to face a barrage of bullets from the police on that fateful day after they protested against the merger of the Seraikela and Kharsawan kingdoms with Orissa. An agreement in this regard was signed between the Government of India and the king of Kharsawan and Seraikela on December 14, 1947.

According to a confidential report of the Orissa government (a copy of which is with The Telegraph), the Orissa police had to open fire on the tribals, who had flocked at the Kharsawan haat to protest against the merger agreement.

The demonstration, which could well be dubbed the first ever police firing in Independent India, was orchestrated by a large crowd of Adivasis sporting military costumes and armed with bows and spears. “At the instigation of Adivasis and rowdy elements, who came from outside, the crowd at Kharsawan, which was in the beginning behaving in an orderly manner, became aggressive and attacked the police force. And the police had to open fire,” the report reads.

For the past 57 years, the royal family had been paying homage to tribal martyrs. This New Year, P.C. Singh Dev, who represents the 13th generation of his royal family, will not be able to pay tribute because of ill-health. But his son, Gopal Naryan Singh Deo, will be present on behalf of his family.

“Just after the firing incident, the royal family built a samadhi at Kharsawan haat and the tradition of paying homage to the martyrs has been continuing down the generations,” Gopal Narayan Singh Deo told The Telegraph.

The government report, though, does not mention the death figures but P.K. Deo, then Lok Sabha leader of the Opposition, has spelt out a toll of 2,000 in his book titled Memoirs of A Bygone Era.