COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST)
DANDAKARANYA SPECIAL ZONAL COMMITTEE
Press Release
August 20, 2011
Even before the gruesome killing of an adivasi girl Meena Khalkho in a fake encounter gone off from the minds of the people, Raman Singh's fascist government of Chhattisgarh state has carried out one more fake encounter thereby exposing its anti-adivasi face once again unmistakably. Madkami Maasa, the patel (village head) of Chikpal village in Kerlapal area of South Bastar region was picked up by the armed forces from his house and was shot dead on August 6, 2011. Police announced the killing of an unknown Naxalite in encounter and buried his body. Exactly one month prior to this, police had murdered a 16-year-old girl named Meena Khalkho in Sarguja district. She was subjected to gang rape before being killed cruelly. Later, police had claimed as usual that 'a woman Naxalite was killed in encounter'. Earlier in March, the gruesome terror campaign of killing, looting, village-combustion and rape by the state armed forces in Chintalnar area of Bastar region is still fresh in everyone's mind. These acts of terror were widely condemned by the various sections of people of Chhattisgarh and all over India. Supreme Court has ordered the CBI probe into Chintalnar carnage. Despite all of this, the Chhattisgarh government has been carrying on the campaign of murdering adivasis in fake encounters unabatedly.
As part of fascist suppression campaigns of earlier Salwa Judum and ongoing Operation Green Hunt, hundreds of Adivasis were killed by the state armed forces in Chhattisgarh, particularly in Bastar and Sarguja regions. 99 percent of the encounter incidents took place especially during the last six years were bogus, in which police had claimed to have killed Naxalites. During attacks on villages, police and paramilitary forces pick unarmed people and kill them or fire indiscriminately at them on sight. But the truth comes out only on rare occasions because this whole area is transformed into a war zone where it is extremely difficult to get facts out. The journalists and the human rights activists who try to bring truth into the light are attacked and are banished even.
Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee of CPI (Maoist) severely condemns the brutal murders of Meena Khalkho and Madkami Maasa. The family members of Madkami Maasa, the villagers and several Adivasi leaders have mobilized themselves and started their protest program. They are conducting road blockades and dharnas demanding stringent punishment to the culprits. But the government is still bent on protecting the guilty. Actually it would be wrong to believe that police or paramilitary forces are resorting to fake encounters without government's orders. The campaign of murdering Adivasis in fake encounters is a part of the Operation Green Hunt being waged by the Central and State Governments in a coordinated manner. The sole aim of this unjust war which has been going on under the leadership of the ruling clique of Sonia-Manmohan-Chidambaram-Pranab Mukherjee-Raman Singh etc in the name of crushing Maoist movement is to pave way for foreign and big capitalists to plunder the precious mineral wealth. This is a part of the plot to spread terror among the people by such killings so as to separate them from the path of revolutionary movement.
Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee of CPI (Maoist) calls upon the people of Chhattisgarh as well as entire country including democrats, workers, farmers, students, intellectuals, writers, artistes and journalists to agitate with the demand to arrest immediately and punish severely the police and paramilitary officers responsible for the killings of Meena Khalkho and Madkami Maasa and the leaders like Chidambaram, Raman Singh, Shekhar Dutt, Nankiram who provoked them for such dastardly acts. We humbly appeal to one and all to lend your heartfelt support and cooperation to the ongoing struggle of Bastar people against the murder of Madkami Maasa. We warn central and state governments that we would respond with intensified people's resistance against the suppressive policies and we would defeat the designs of pillaging the Jal-Jungle-Zameen of Adivasis by murdering them brutally. We call upon the fighting people of Dandakaranya to build consolidated, broad and militant struggles against the fake encounters being carried on by the government armed forces and to defeat Operation Green Hunt run by the oppressors and robbers.
(Gudsa Usendi)
Spokesperson
Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee
CPI (Maoist)
