29-04-2018

Press Release

Civil liberties Monitoring Committee in its press statement ruled out encounter story propagated by government of India; this committee states that it was a massacre which took place in the jungles of Gadchiroli district few days after the visit of Prime Minister of India in this area. In Gadchiroli, a district of India, Indian security forces as part of Operation Green Hunt by naming it as “operation Samadhan” killed declared 40 people on 22nd and 23rd of April 2018. They also said that the figure may increase further. As per the sources there are many under detention by security forces and many villagers are still missing. As per the information received from the different sources, Indian security forces killed unarmed villagers in which some were Maoists who went there to attend the marriage function. The news is also coming that the security personnel had poison the food of the Maoist cadre; later they pumped bullets into the bodies of the Maoists who died and threw them into Indravati River. It seems that the massacre is still continuing because no one is permitted to visit the deep forest area which is seized by the security personnel.

 

Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee strongly condemns the inhuman killings of Maoists and villagers in the name of “Operation Samadhan”. Not only this, the security personnel celebrated these killings with dancing on Haryanvi song. (https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/988523040899260417). By this shameful act, anyone can understand that the aim of security forces was not of arresting the Maoists or uphold the rule of law, but it was to take the revenge. It is a matter of fact that there is a war between the government of India and Maoist party. But there are some principles of war as well which were violated by the security forces that come under war crime. The poisoning, not giving any chance to surrender, firing with the intention to kill unarmed people using under barrel grenade launcher (UBGLs) clearly indicates that the state committed crime against humanity and it is a matter of grave concern that the Indian government that follows the constitution is itself violating the rule of law.

 

Not to forget that this massacre is part of Operation Green Hunt which began few years back to eliminate the Adivasis from their lands & forests thereby paving way to Multi-National companies. The Maoists who have been fighting against this injustice and protecting & educating the Adivasis are being continuously killed in fake encounters, and even the innocent villagers have been the target of the security personnel. This is the biggest casualty where such a large number of people were killed by the security forces as this was not an encounter but purely one sided attacks, not even one security personnel was injured or killed.

 

Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee while strongly condemning the massacre, demands the government of India to stop killing people, it should order its security personnel to accept that is was not an encounter but massacre and the security personnel who were involved in these attacks and killings should be booked under law and punished for their crime.

 

This committee appeals to the people of India to understand the anti-people policies and lawlessness of the state and combat these policies as well as come forward to stop the genocide, massacres and war carried out by the state and its machinery against its citizens.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/Naxal-encounter-in-Gadchiroli

 

 

Lateef Mohd Khan

Gen. Secretary