Morung Express News
Dimapur | October 22
Shocking reports of Naga IRB personnel in Chhattisgarh committing excesses – from burning of villages, random murder of men folk to rape and murder of tribal women have been received even while a shopkeeper was allegedly shot dead by assailants believed to be by a Naga IRB personnel on Tuesday, October 17. These atrocities have also found prominent censure in a report complied by an All-India team of women activists dispatched by the Committee Against Violence on Women (CAVOW), which visited select districts in Chhattisgarh like Dantewada between September 30 and October 2nd October, 2006. The women team was dispatched to investigate the conditions of safety, security, life and livelihood of Adivasi women in the naxal-ravaged state. An inquiry by the Independent Citizens’ Initiative (ICI) has also implicated the “Naga police” on similar grounds.
The latest reported excess, sources informed, is the killing of a shopkeeper, identified as one Shankar Shah, who was shot dead at point-blank range at Dornapal by assailants identified to be from “the Naga battalion”. Sources said a jawan of “the Naga battalion” entered the deceased’s shop to buy an undergarment. When the shopkeeper asked him Rs. 30 for it, the jawan refused, insisting that he would not pay more than Rs. 15. Soon, a quarrel broke out between the two, leading to the jawan taking out his weapon and shooting the shopkeeper. A separate report by a Chhattisgarh daily “Highway Channel” (a Hindi eveninger) said that Shankar Shah was picked up by the Naga armed personnel on October 17 evening and his dead body was found the next morning. The camp market was closed in protest the day after, the local based daily reported.
This is the first specific case of human rights violation, involving directly a member of the armed forces, to have come to light. The shocking aspect is that this killing did not happen in a remote village but in the largest Salwa Judum base-camp, where more than 7000 uprooted tribals are being kept, sources added. It may be noted that the state government is running several camps like Dornapal under “Salwa Judum”, a local police-vigilante force instated to fight naxals.
There are also reports that over a 100 women have been impregnated by Naga IRB personnel even while a substantial case-report of rape and clandestine murder of tribal women has been compiled by various rights groups. A lecturer from Delhi University who is also a member from a rights group in New Delhi and who has visited Chhattisgarh on several occasions said that Naga IRB jawans frequently solicit sex from tribal women in exchange for money. “Everywhere they go people are most scared of the Naga battalion. They are the talk in Chhattisgarh because they have free movement into any areas for operations”, sources said. While there are also other security forces, including the CRPF and the SJ, who commit atrocities, particularly rape, the Naga IRB are the talk, the source said adding that a popular tourist spot in Bastar where there is a waterfall is a favorite haunt of the IRB jawans to solicit sex. Also, a latest report said that around the third week of October some Naga IR jawans misbehaved with local women near Mana airport of Raipur.
Meanwhile, according to the report compiled by the All-India team of women activists several instances of atrocities have been highlighted. Madkam Channi of Etpadu village was shot dead by the Naga battalion on December 16, 2005. Madvi Sarita of Karre Marka village was gang-raped by the police and the “Naga police” on August 15. Tilami Jamli of the same village was also gang-raped by the SJ and “Naga Police” and thrown in the jungle. On May 25 the CRPF, “Naga police” assaulted three women. One woman from Phandiguda, whose sister-in-law had been badly injured by a blast at Darbhaguda engineered by the Maoists, told visiting activists that she had heard that people had been burnt alive in their houses in Arlampalli by the Naga battalion and the Salwa Judum. For the report complied by the CAVOW one can contact: sen_ilina@yahoo.com.
A citizen’ group, Independent Citizens’ Initiative (ICI), comprising of writers, media persons, educationists, senior government officials, historians also submitted a similar report to the Prime Minister of India and Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh on July 15 last. The report also implicated the “Naga police.” The report listed out about 16 cases of murder, 91 approximate cases of villages burnt. The report listed name of 25 tribal women who were gang-raped, 6 women who were raped and later murdered. The report also highlighted a considerable number of related cases of rape, torture and random burning of village on the pretext of fighting naxalites. It may be mentioned that the Independent Citizens’ Initiative consists of Ramachandra Guha (Historian and Columnist, Bangalore), Harivansh (Editor, Prabhat Khabar, Ranchi), Farah Naqvi (Writer and Activist, New Delhi), EAS Sarma (former Secretary, Government of India, Visakhapatnam), Nandini Sundar (Professor of Sociology, Delhi University), B. G. Verghese (former Editor, Hindustan Times, Indian Express, New Delhi). For hard copies of the report prepared by the ICI, one can contact independentcitizen@gmail.com. For the web version one can log in to www.cgnet.in.
