Sixteen human rights activists affiliated with the Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CRDO) were stopped by the security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Maoist-hit Sukma when they were on a fact-finding mission on various instances of alleged human rights violations in Sukma and Bijapur districts in the Bastar region.
The activists alleged that they were stopped and harassed by the security forces in Dornapal, Sukma. However, the Bastar police claimed that no one was harassed and the team was stopped because of Maoist threat perception.
The activists said they were trying to reach the locations of last month’s alleged aerial attacks as well as the Silger village where a protest against the formation of a new Central Reserve Police Force) (CRPF) camp on a private land led to police firing and killing of three villagers in May 2021.
On January 12, Maoists in a statement alleged that security personnel had carried out aerial strikes on villages in Sukma and Bijapur district, a claim which was refuted by the Chhattisgarh police who said that it was an attempt of Maoists to mislead locals since they are losing their hold in the said districts.
Human rights activist working in the region, Bela Bhatia, who was part of the fact-finding team, said, “In the 36 km from Sukma to Dornapal we were stopped in all CRPF camps. Each time there were identity checks, insistence on Aadhaar cards, inordinate delays (since we were in a queue of vehicles) and arguments. We were told by the CRPF official in-charge that even though we may have informed the district authorities, it did not matter since CRPF was a central force and did not operate under state authorities.”
She further said on Wednesday night the team reached Dornapal and at the checkpoint there, the police official ruled out the possibility of our going any further due to “concerns”.
“We would be allowed to proceed only after a ROP (Road Opening Party) ascertained that there was no danger. And ROPs, we learnt later, were not allowed after 6pm. Even if we wanted to proceed, we could not because the drivers of our vehicles had also taken fright and were now refusing to accompany us any further,” Bhatia said.
She said the team also faced problems for food and shelter.
“The police caused problems on both fronts. Vacant rooms in two government rest houses were reported filled. Way-side eateries said they had run out of food. In one place, the owner was forced to throw all the rice. In another, a shop owner who gave us packed food later hurriedly drawn his shutters and told our friend not to loiter in front of his shop,” she alleged.
“Some local adivasis asked us to use the gram panchayat bhawan in their village, Dubbatota, 5 km from Dornapal, on the road to Sukma. But when we arrived there, we found that the Dornapal police station in-charge had reached ahead of us. He informed us that we would not be allowed to go inside Dubbatota village and could not spend the night in the gram panchayat bhawan,”she said.
“We ended up spending the night on the floor of a shed adjacent to the road. The shed and the village were cordoned off by police,” Bela said, adding that the harassment of the team raised several questions.
“What happened has raised several questions. Amongst them the most glaring, of course, is why was the team stopped if the government has nothing to hide? If these instances of aerial strikes are true, the Centre and the state stand accused of gross violation of international law,” she added.
However, inspector general (IG) of police, Bastar range, Sunderaj P said the team was stopped because of threat perception.
“We learned about the movement of a group of people from Telangana/Andhra Pradesh region to interior areas of South Bastar region. This group was accompanied by a couple of local persons also. When they reached near the security check posts along Dornapal-Jagargunda road, as per the security protocol they were informed about the threat perception in the naxal affected areas due to IEDs planted by Maoists,” said the IG.
He further said that after receiving this input the group took a decision not to further venture into the area.
“None of them were neither detained nor subjected to any sort of harassment,” said the IG.
