New Delhi: Scores of victims, affected by the decades long violence unleashed by the Maoists, gathered in the heart of national capital on Thursday, September 19 to hold a silent protest (“Kenja Naxali- Manwa Mata” meaning listen to our talks Naxals/Maoists) against the atrocities unleashed by the proscribed outfit in the hinterland of Bastar.
The protestors, mostly comprise of victims who have suffered atrocities at the hands of Maoists, during their silent protest call upon to end the four decades’ long conflict culminating in loss of thousands of innocent lives alongside hindering progress in one of the remotest part of Bharat.
More than 50 victims, under the banner of “Bastar Shanti Samiti” after their protest at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi later met with the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah narrating their sufferings caused by the violence unleashed by the Maoist group. The victims will all also meet with the President Draupadi Murmu alongside visiting premises of Jawahar Lal Nehru (JNU) and Delhi University during their five-day visit to the national capital.
More than 50 residents of Bastar, who are victims of Maoist violence, have arrived in Delhi with the aim of sharing their pain and suffering caused by the violence and to demand liberation from Maoism
They are protesting at Jantar Mantar for Justice pic.twitter.com/YAm4VcDzZq
— Organiser Weekly (@eOrganiser) September 19, 2024
In a press release issued after the protest, the demonstrators while seeking liberation of their homeland from the clutches of the Maoists narrated details dealing with lives lost in the deadly violence along underscoring sufferings of those who survived explosions caused by Maoists.
The group termed the ideology of the Maoists, largely represented by the outlawed CPI (Maoist) as Anti-National, Anti-Woman, Anti-Democracy, Anti-Human Rights, and Anti-Tribals, citing incidents of civilian killings including of elected political representative alongside hindering the development work aimed at uplifting the lives of locals.
The release issued by the peace committee emphasised that tales of the victims who have suffered the burnt of the one sided violence unleashed upon them by the extremists often go unnoticed as the so-called right activists and human right groups deliberately ignores their pain and agony. The committee in the release has mentioned details of a few such incidents which underscores the grim reality of the residents who have faced atrocities at the hands of the outlaws in conflict ridden areas of Bastar.
According to the details of the release, Guddu Ram Lekam, an 18-year-old local tribal villager from Kachilwar village of Bijapur district lost his right leg in a severe explosion planted by the outlaws when he was on his way back to home after collecting forest produce from the local forest adjoining the Telangana border in March this year.
In another similar incident, Madvi Nanda, a 22-year-old tribal youth from Bijapur accidently came in contact of an IED explosion leading to amputation of his right leg below the knees. The committee claimed that there are thousands like Madvi and Lekam who have been forced to live an imperfect life due to the Maoist insurgency.
In another incident cited, a woman identified as Kartam Jagakka (45), who was the sole breadwinner of her family suffered severe injuries in an IED explosion planted by the outlaws, the explosion eventually led Jagakka to depend upon her family members for her daily activities.
Jagakka had grown up children who looks after her but another victim Sukki Madkam, a resident of Sukma district was only 14 when she suffered critical injuries in a similar explosion leading to amputation of her left leg below the knee. The incident is of 2014 which has forced Sukki to walk with assistance for the rest of her life.
The release further cites another incident of the year 2019, when a four-year-old Sunita Hupendi, a resident of Rampur Kuwapara in Kanker accidently picked up an explosive device assuming it as a toy and bring it home. The device exploded in her hands causing severe injuries to her left hand, right legs and ribs.
Maoists have ruined the lives of hundreds of common people. We want to get the attention of the government through today’s protest. Our demand is that Maoism should be vanished
– Jairam Das, Member, Bastar Shanti Samit pic.twitter.com/ycxNgxxwFp
— Organiser Weekly (@eOrganiser) September 19, 2024
The victims in the press issue, further underscored that more than 8000 innocent villagers have been killed by the Maoists in the ongoing deadly conflict in the last two and a half decades while there are thousands who have been forced to live with assistance due to explosions triggered by the Maoists.
They further come down heavily on the narrative that the Maoists are fighting a war to safeguard the Jal, Jungle, Zameen (Water, Forest, and land) and rights of tribal communities terming it as entirely false and baseless. The release asserted, that the Maoists never allowed development in Bastar, as they disrupt road projects, destroy schools and prevents children from education. They have targeted basic health care centres meant for treating locals along executing innocent civilians after branding them informers, all with an aim to kept the residents backwards and exert control over them.
The demonstrators have also accused the Maoists to destroy their age old culture and traditions alleging that their age old unique culture is under threat due to the presence of Maoist insurgents in the region for the past four decades. “The Ghotul” tradition, a thousand-of-years old practice among tribals, has almost vanished because of Maoists. Bastar’s culture, which neither the Mughals nor the British could destroy is now endangered due to these Naxalites (Maoists),” read the press release.
Further while calling out the double standards of Human Right groups and activists the peace committee alleged that “whenever Maoists are encountered, human right activists or organisations raise their voice for them advocating for the human rights of Maoists. But why do these groups never speak about the human rights of those Bastar resident who have become disabled due to Naxal violence? Why is there no discussion about the victims who have lost their hands and legs because of Maoist terror? Why are the sufferings of tribals who have lost everything not heard?”
“Maoists talked about human rights in their press release but the truth is that Naxal affected areas, the biggest violators of local residents’ human rights are the Maoist themselves,” it added.
In the end, the peace committee slammed the urban counterparts of the Maoists accusing that “The Urban Naxal group in the country are as responsible for the injustice faced by these victims as the Maoists who carry out this violence. These Urban Naxal groups label Maoists’ killing as fake encounters, write literature and make films for them but turn a blind eye to all the atrocities committed by Maoists.”
“These are the groups that sometimes reach Bastar as lawyers, sometimes with fact finding teams, sometimes as journalists and sometimes as filmmakers but they have never tried to raise the voices of victims like Guddu Lekam and Madvi Nanda. They have never tried to highlight incidents like that of Sunita Hupendi and question what fault that four-year-old girl had to become a victim of Maoist terror. This is the reality of Urban Naxals, and they are as guilty as the armed Maoists hiding in the Jungles (forests),” read the press release in the end.
It is worth mentioning here, that the Bastar division of the state of Chhattisgarh which encompasses the Bijapur, Sukma, Dantewada, Narayanpur, Kanker, Kondagaon and Bastar districts all marred by the Maoist insurgency for decades is considered the strongest bastion of the Maoists who have been in an open declaration of war with the republic of Bharat.
The decades old conflict has resulted in loss of thousands of lives including of security forces, Maoists and the civilians making it the most significant threat to the nation’s internal security as stated by the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The war with the Maoist terror however has intensified in the last one decade resulting in sharp decline in casualties pertaining to security forces and civilians along reducing the spread of the insurgency in states like Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha.
Though despite a consolidated approach to deal with the red terror menace in recent years, which includes of tightened measures to counter armed insurgency along ensuring development work on a war footing in the regions marred by Maoist terror, the banned outfit still manages to dominate in the areas adjacent to its strong bases such as the Abujhmaad of Chhattisgarh’s Bastar and adjoining localities, posing a significant threat to lives of civilians and security forces.
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