By Sujeet Kumar | IANS – Thu, Mar 31, 2011 4:47 PM IST
Raipur, March 31 (IANS) No one found guilty will be spared, Chief Minister Raman Singh says on the Dantewada arson incident in which policemen allegedly went on the rampage in three tribal hamlets of Chhattisgarh. But he is quick to add that the area is not fully under government control.
Reacting to the attack on Swami Agnivesh, Singh said he had warned the social activist against going to Dantewada as there was a possibly of a 'people's outburst'.
'The government will act hard, no one, no policeman will go scot free if the probe report indicts them,' Singh told IANS even as his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government faces possibly its strongest ever criticism since it came into power for the Dantewada episode.
Villagers of Tarmetla and two other nearby tribal hamlets in Dantewada district have alleged that policemen had gone on the rampage between March 11 and 16, burning down over 200 houses, killing people and even raping women.
Singh, however, said Tarmetla was not fully under the government's control.
'Everyone knows that the Tarmetla area is not under the government's full control. In recent months police have made some penetration and challenged Maoists who are using local people as a human shield in the battle against police,' the 59-year-old politician said.
Tarmetla, about 500 km south of capital Raipur, is the area where Maoists had massacred 76 security April 6 last year, including 75 of them belonging to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
Singh said the 'forces still struggle to enter certain jungle areas in Bastar where Maoists dominate, they have buried landmines, there is always a possibility of civilians coming to harm in the case of crossfire, but the probe report will make everything clear because I too want to know the facts of the Tarmetla arson case'.
Singh, who has headed the BJP government since December 2003 in the country's worst Maoist insurgency-hit state, on March 24 set up a four-member probe panel besides ordering a magisterial inquiry. Newspaper photographs showed the devastation in the areas.
Singh said the 'probe will be completely 'fair and impartial'. I have transferred the Dantewada collector R. Prasanna and Senior Superintendent of Police S.R.P. Kalluri because there was lack of coordination among them and also to ensure that the probe is influenced by anyone'.
He, however, chose to remain silent in the state assembly as the stormy budget session ended Thursday, refusing to make a statement on the Dantewada incident despite the Congress paralysing the house since Monday and terming the incident a fallout of 'jungle raj'.
Even Swami Agnivesh and some mediamen accompanying him were attacked by a mob in Dantewada March 26 while they were on their way to Tarmetla. Agnivesh was pulled out of his car, manhandled and eggs were thrown at him allegedly by policemen in civilian clothes and cadres of the anti-Maoist militia Salwa Judum. The protesters stoned Agnivesh's convoy and forced him to return.
Singh remarked: 'I provided him full security, I had personally told him before he headed to Dantewada that the area is very sensitive, 'I will give you (Agnivesh) security cover till the location where we are in a position to provide it,' I had also told him that people of the area have suffered too many Maoist brutalities, so people's outburst is a possibility.
'Agnivesh should have avoided going to the media in Raipur and New Delhi about what happened to him in Dantewada, it spoils the atmosphere.'
The Congress had sent a 10-member team of party legislators to Dantewada villages March 29 to make an on the spot assessment but they were arrested in Dantewada and returned without reaching Ground Zero.
Asked why his government was stopping those who wanted to know the truth, Singh said: 'It's not an area you can easily go to, roads have multiple-layer landmines and Maoists are dominant, each time an outsider attempts to go there, police have to go first to open the roads and clear the landmines.'
Saturday, April 23, 2011
A year on, Dantewada can’t forget Maoist attack
The Statesman
Sujeet Kumar
DANTEWADA (Chhattisgarh), 5 APRIL: The tribal-dominated jungle area where Maoists carried out the deadliest-ever attack on security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district and butchered 76 jawans exactly a year ago is still burning.
Chief minister Mr Raman Singh arrived in the area on Saturday, along with Governor Mr Shekhar Dutt, state’s home minister Mr Nankiram Kanwar and director-general of police Mr Vishwaranjan to cool frayed tempers of the residents who have alleged that policemen had burnt down hundreds of huts, killed a few people and raped women in a rampage that went on for six days, from 11 April to 16 April.
After the killings of 75 jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and one from the state police on 6 April, 2010 in a jungle near Tarmetla village, some 500 km south of capital Raipur, the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) has emerged stronger than ever before in Chhattisgarh’s 40,000 sq km Bastar region that includes Dantewada.
Indian authorities, too, have deployed more forces in Bastar’s war zone after losing 76 men in a single attack. In the clash between forces and rebels the worst sufferer is the local tribal population who are mired in poverty for decades.
“If you want to know to what extent we are suffering, just visit any jungle area in Dantewada district, there is more than 90 per cent chance you will lose your leg walking on a forested road as all the roads in jungles have been littered with mines, even you risk your life while using the hand pump too,’’ said a 22-year-old youth Mr Moriam, of Injeram area in Dantewada district close to the Andhra Pradesh border. As for him, he had lost his right hand nearly two years back in a blast when he tried to operate a hand pump in his village.
The explosive that went off was put allegedly by Maoists at a hand pump to target a small squad of policemen’s search squad who was expected to use the hand pump for drinking water in the scorching summer month of May.
“We are living under extreme terror-like atmosphere, I can’t spell out the suffering we are going through for years, nobody has feelings and time for the pain and trauma we have been put under in the past one year. The war in jungles between Dadas (Maoists) and police has worsened and so have our sufferings,’’ Mr Sori Hunga, a 50-year-old tribal of village Kasoli, told The Statesman.
He stated police are killing people in the name of fighting Dadas and supporting them and Dadas too target us for spying for local police and being in touch with Judum (Salwa Judum) men and the worst thing is that the war is escalating everyday and so our agony, I don’t see our sufferings are going to end in a year or two, probably it will end when the innocent tribals of Bastar land will be wiped out, both by Dadas and police.’’
A recently published 324-page book ~ Neo-Naxal Challenge ~ Issues and Options ~ written by Chhattisgarh’s additional director-general of police Mr Giridhari Nayak ~ gave some details about civilian casualties and injuries in war zone by mines.
“Mines are a nuisance and hidden killers. They have killed and maimed many innocent civilians. They are indiscriminate weapons harming combatants and civilians alike,’’ reads the book of the 1983 batch IPS officer.
It adds, “anti-personnel mines pose the greatest long-term risk to humans and animals since they are typically designed to be triggered by any movement or pressure of only a few kilograms. Anti-personnel mines are littered by Naxals on the main road, footpaths and near water pumps.’’ Mr Manish Kunjam, who is based at Bastar and president of the All India Adivasi Mahasabha, remarked, “the sufferings of over a million tribal people residing in the extreme interiors of the Bastar region are beyond imagination due to the escalating war between Maoists and police, their (civilians) misery is enormous and is compounding day by day.’’
He added, “since 6 April, 2010 killings of forces near Tarmetla, the policemen have gone on an offensive against civilians with a preconceived thought that they are Maoist supporters, which is not correct, the forces ran over three villages including Tarmetla last month only because police thought they are Maoist supporters.’’
The Chhattisgarh government ordered on 31 March in the state Assembly a judicial probe into the brutalities on civilians allegedly by policemen.
Sujeet Kumar
DANTEWADA (Chhattisgarh), 5 APRIL: The tribal-dominated jungle area where Maoists carried out the deadliest-ever attack on security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district and butchered 76 jawans exactly a year ago is still burning.
Chief minister Mr Raman Singh arrived in the area on Saturday, along with Governor Mr Shekhar Dutt, state’s home minister Mr Nankiram Kanwar and director-general of police Mr Vishwaranjan to cool frayed tempers of the residents who have alleged that policemen had burnt down hundreds of huts, killed a few people and raped women in a rampage that went on for six days, from 11 April to 16 April.
After the killings of 75 jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and one from the state police on 6 April, 2010 in a jungle near Tarmetla village, some 500 km south of capital Raipur, the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) has emerged stronger than ever before in Chhattisgarh’s 40,000 sq km Bastar region that includes Dantewada.
Indian authorities, too, have deployed more forces in Bastar’s war zone after losing 76 men in a single attack. In the clash between forces and rebels the worst sufferer is the local tribal population who are mired in poverty for decades.
“If you want to know to what extent we are suffering, just visit any jungle area in Dantewada district, there is more than 90 per cent chance you will lose your leg walking on a forested road as all the roads in jungles have been littered with mines, even you risk your life while using the hand pump too,’’ said a 22-year-old youth Mr Moriam, of Injeram area in Dantewada district close to the Andhra Pradesh border. As for him, he had lost his right hand nearly two years back in a blast when he tried to operate a hand pump in his village.
The explosive that went off was put allegedly by Maoists at a hand pump to target a small squad of policemen’s search squad who was expected to use the hand pump for drinking water in the scorching summer month of May.
“We are living under extreme terror-like atmosphere, I can’t spell out the suffering we are going through for years, nobody has feelings and time for the pain and trauma we have been put under in the past one year. The war in jungles between Dadas (Maoists) and police has worsened and so have our sufferings,’’ Mr Sori Hunga, a 50-year-old tribal of village Kasoli, told The Statesman.
He stated police are killing people in the name of fighting Dadas and supporting them and Dadas too target us for spying for local police and being in touch with Judum (Salwa Judum) men and the worst thing is that the war is escalating everyday and so our agony, I don’t see our sufferings are going to end in a year or two, probably it will end when the innocent tribals of Bastar land will be wiped out, both by Dadas and police.’’
A recently published 324-page book ~ Neo-Naxal Challenge ~ Issues and Options ~ written by Chhattisgarh’s additional director-general of police Mr Giridhari Nayak ~ gave some details about civilian casualties and injuries in war zone by mines.
“Mines are a nuisance and hidden killers. They have killed and maimed many innocent civilians. They are indiscriminate weapons harming combatants and civilians alike,’’ reads the book of the 1983 batch IPS officer.
It adds, “anti-personnel mines pose the greatest long-term risk to humans and animals since they are typically designed to be triggered by any movement or pressure of only a few kilograms. Anti-personnel mines are littered by Naxals on the main road, footpaths and near water pumps.’’ Mr Manish Kunjam, who is based at Bastar and president of the All India Adivasi Mahasabha, remarked, “the sufferings of over a million tribal people residing in the extreme interiors of the Bastar region are beyond imagination due to the escalating war between Maoists and police, their (civilians) misery is enormous and is compounding day by day.’’
He added, “since 6 April, 2010 killings of forces near Tarmetla, the policemen have gone on an offensive against civilians with a preconceived thought that they are Maoist supporters, which is not correct, the forces ran over three villages including Tarmetla last month only because police thought they are Maoist supporters.’’
The Chhattisgarh government ordered on 31 March in the state Assembly a judicial probe into the brutalities on civilians allegedly by policemen.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
India orders probe into police atrocities in Chhattisgarh rebel areas
Source: Reuters Alertnet
24 Mar 2011 16:40
Sujeet Kumar
RAIPUR, India (AlertNet) - Indian authorities have launched a probe after allegations that security forces burnt down hundreds of homes of poor tribal villagers in insurgency-wracked heartlands of the country, according to a senior government official.
Tribes people in the central state of Chhattisgarh claim around 300 police and paramilitary officers -- deployed in the region to battle Maoist rebels -- went on a rampage from March 14 to 16, razing to the ground over 200 homes across three hamlets in the region's troubled Dantewada district.
"A four-member panel has been formed to report on the losses due to burning of houses allegedly by police," R.Prasanna, the senior-most civil servant in Dantewada, told AlertNet.
"The panel will comprise of a journalist, one from civil society and one lecturer from a government college and the committee to be headed by a sub-divisional magistrate," he said, adding that an outcome would be expected within a month.
The Maoist insurgency, waged mostly from the forests of central and eastern India, has intensified dramatically since early 2005 leaving tens of thousands of villagers uprooted and hundreds killed, tortured or persecuted by both sides.
Rights activists say the local population living in the mineral-rich state have been persecuted by both the security forces and the Maoists, who want to build a Communist state.
Villagers accuse the rebels of forced recruitment, including the recruitment of children, and widespread extortion.
But they say they also face widespread abuses by government-backed vigilantes and security forces, who in previous anti-Maoist drives, have conducted arbitrary arrests, torture and killings, accusing the civilians of supporting the rebels.
Local newspapers carried photographs of burnt houses and reports of the alleged violations, but police have denied the charges.
"It's all Maoist-propaganda, nothing happened there. I have not received any complaint of police brutalities," S.R.P. Kalluri, senior superintendent of police in Dantewada told AlertNet.
24 Mar 2011 16:40
Sujeet Kumar
RAIPUR, India (AlertNet) - Indian authorities have launched a probe after allegations that security forces burnt down hundreds of homes of poor tribal villagers in insurgency-wracked heartlands of the country, according to a senior government official.
Tribes people in the central state of Chhattisgarh claim around 300 police and paramilitary officers -- deployed in the region to battle Maoist rebels -- went on a rampage from March 14 to 16, razing to the ground over 200 homes across three hamlets in the region's troubled Dantewada district.
"A four-member panel has been formed to report on the losses due to burning of houses allegedly by police," R.Prasanna, the senior-most civil servant in Dantewada, told AlertNet.
"The panel will comprise of a journalist, one from civil society and one lecturer from a government college and the committee to be headed by a sub-divisional magistrate," he said, adding that an outcome would be expected within a month.
The Maoist insurgency, waged mostly from the forests of central and eastern India, has intensified dramatically since early 2005 leaving tens of thousands of villagers uprooted and hundreds killed, tortured or persecuted by both sides.
Rights activists say the local population living in the mineral-rich state have been persecuted by both the security forces and the Maoists, who want to build a Communist state.
Villagers accuse the rebels of forced recruitment, including the recruitment of children, and widespread extortion.
But they say they also face widespread abuses by government-backed vigilantes and security forces, who in previous anti-Maoist drives, have conducted arbitrary arrests, torture and killings, accusing the civilians of supporting the rebels.
Local newspapers carried photographs of burnt houses and reports of the alleged violations, but police have denied the charges.
"It's all Maoist-propaganda, nothing happened there. I have not received any complaint of police brutalities," S.R.P. Kalluri, senior superintendent of police in Dantewada told AlertNet.
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