Hyderabad: The Communist Party of India (Maoist) has claimed that police account of 29 Maoists having been killed in a Chhattisgarh encounter on April 16 is partially false.
A statement released by Mangali, spokesperson of the North Sub-zonal Bureau of the CPI (Maoist) claims that 12 Maoists died of bullet injuries in the exchange of fire but the remaining 17 were killed by police in cold blood.
Anti-BJP message
Maoists have warned the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai that he will be punished for the “crime” in the people’s court.
“The BJP chief minister, a beloved son of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, was installed in the post by criminal conspiracy to camouflage the killings of tribals even though he is a tribal himself,” the statement said.
It added that “BJP leaders not only in Bastar but across Chhattisgarh are responsible for the mayhem.”
The statement also said the alleged encounter was part of Operation Kagar formulated at Surajkund and came into effect on January 1 this year with the objective to mobilise Border Security Force personnel in a big way to counter Maoism in Abujhmad, covering Bastar and other rough terrain of Chhattisgarh. The scheme envisaged the deployment of three military personnel for every seven Adivasis.
‘Propaganda stunt’
The Kanker Superintendent of Police Indira Kalyan Elisela who led the police forces in the encounter told this reporter that police will not be taking the claims of the Maoists seriously. “They will keep on making allegations. It is a propaganda stunt and nothing else,” he said.
The Maoist party has given a call for a strike in Kanker, Narayanpur and Mohla Manpur districts on April 25 in protest against the alleged encounter.
The statement claimed there had been a severe reaction in civil society against the mayhem in Apatola-Kalpar forest, perpetrated by the BSF and District Reserve Guard comprising local tribal youth. Among Maoists who died, according to the statement, are Shankar Rao and his wife Rajita of Telangana. Their bodies arrived in Rao’s native village of Chellagarige of Bhoopalpalli district in Telangana on April 18.
The Maoists’ statement said the party would raise huge funds to help the families of slain members.
Breakdown of ‘encounter’
Giving an account of the incident, the statement claimed that the People’s Guerrilla Liberation Army, comprising activists in different wings of the party, took shelter in the forest between Apatola and Kalpar on that day. The security forces got to know this from its informant network and surrounded the camp from all sides. The forces opened fire indiscriminately, resulting in the alleged death of 12 Maoists who allegedly retaliated. Some others escaped with or without injuries.
Maoists claim that the police later killed eight injured Maoists after torturing them. Nine unarmed members of the Maoist party were taken to a martyrs’ memorial spot two kilometres away and “beaten inhumanely with lathis,” the statement says. They were shot dead as vehicles arrived to shift the dead bodies, it further claim.
The statement pointed to how initial media reports had said 12 bodies were recovered. “Within half an hour, the toll went up to 18 and in less than an hour the figure rose to 29,” the statement said.
The statement said the encounter was aimed to root out revolutionary struggles against sale of huge quantities of natural resources in Bastar region at throwaway prices to domestic and international corporates.
The Maoist party has, however, given immunity to vehicles of election candidates and considered them exempt from the strike on April 25. Bastar went to polls in the first phase on April 19 while the second phase is due in Kanker on April 26.
