Responding to the repeated issuance of letters and posters by Maoists mostly targeting the security forces and the state government, Chhattisgarh police has called it a typical stunt of the guerrillas with which they “try to defame government agencies to hide their own misdeeds”. In the latest letter issued by the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist), the security forces have been accused of killing innocents in fake encounters, inflicting atrocities on villagers including women, and orchestrating fake surrenders under the government’s Ghar Wapsi (homecoming) campaign. Inspector general of police, Bastar range, Sunderraj P, rejected the allegations as Maoist propaganda. “They can’t hide their cruel, illegitimate, anti-developmental and inhumane acts with such fabricated letters,” said the officer.
CPI (Maoist) is defaming government agencies, said the IG. “All our actions are within the legal framework and we are accountable to the laid-down procedures and law of the land,” he added.
The letter comes days after 22 security personnel were killed in action in a “u-shaped” attack by hundreds of Maoists, also known as Naxals, in Chhattisgarh, one of the worst such strikes. On April 3, a group of security personnel was ambushed by hundreds of insurgents who surrounded the jawans from three sides in an area devoid of vegetation in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur and rained on them machine gun fire as well as IEDs for several hours. Officials said an intelligence input had been received that Naxal commander Madvi Hidma was present nearby. Immediately, forces from different parts set out on the intervening night of April 2 and 3 and converged at the area in Bijapur where they were ambushed by the extremists. Several Maoists were also killed in the encounter, sources say.
In the recent past, Maoists have issued letters accusing the state government and security forces of attacking locals and snatching their resources, which, according to them, was compelling the Left Wing Extremists to launch retaliatory action. The guerrillas had even issued a video of holding a so-called people’s court in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district in which a CRPF commando they had abducted during the April 3 ambush, Rakeshwar Singh Manhas, was brought in tied with ropes and was set free later in the presence of hundreds of local villagers. Soon after the gun battle, the Naxals had started circulating news that the missing jawan was with them and he would be released through mediators.
The Maoist movement dates back to 1967 when armed peasants revolted in West Bengal’s Naxalbari village and later the “red” cadres of the CPI (Maoist) led the agitation claiming legitimate socio-economic rights for tribal and locals. Security personnel have been fighting bloody battles with the guerrillas around the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh that comprises remote districts like Sukma, Bijapur, Kondagaon, Kanker, Narayanpur, Bijapur, Dantewada and Jagdalpur.
In the latest letter, the insurgents have accused the security forces of killing several innocent villagers in fake encounters and proclaiming them as Maoists. These included a March 20 incident from Dantewada and others. The CPI (Maoist) also rejected Chhattisgarh home minister Tamradhwaj Sahu’s claim that no one has been killed in a fake encounter in the state in the past two years.
Read all the Latest News and Breaking News here