This was published, edited, here.
 |
| Kaleshwar, left and Surender, right reveal injuries |
During a meeting within Latehar district, the spokesperson of the CPI-Maoist's Koel Sankh Zone has alleged that CRPF personnel used the villagers - even women and children - of Lai as human shields during an encounter on November 26.
Five Lai villagers to whom this newspaper talked to corroborated the Maoists' version; they went further and added that even the women among them were abused and beaten by CRPF personnel during the course of the day. Lai has an almost exclusively adivasi population; three of the eight detained for about three days by the police were of the Parhaiya tribe, classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group.
The formation allegedly adopted by the CRPF is similar to that adopted by the paramilitary force in the aftermath of a January 7 encounter. The attempt, to retrieve the bodies of their dead colleagues, had resulted in the death of four villagers when they were allegedly forced to retrieve the bodies.
In a phone conversation with this newspaper, Michael S. Raj said the allegations were a propaganda effort by Maoists, who forced the villagers to say what they said.
The Lai encounter took place during the day on November 26, as CRPF and CoBRA personnel were on the 12 km stretch from Kotam village to Sarju police picket within Garu block. They were returning after providing security to the first phase of polling in Manika constituency, held the previous day. EVMs and civilian officials had already been airlifted.
"Our PLGA team was waiting in ambush, but the CRPF took another route. So our team followed them and began the encounter at about 8.30 in the morning," said the CPI-Maoist leader who assumed the sobriquet of spokesperson Manasji for this interview. The name has been used by multiple Maoist leaders since Lalesh Yadav, who used to handle the responsibilities of spokesperson using the name, was killed last year. This particular leader, a senior operative in the Maoist organisation, refused to be identified by his real name for this story.
The encounter would go on till about four in the evening, at the end of which the Maoists burnt eight tractors carrying the CRPF's supplies before retreating in the face of the arrival of massive reinforcements. There were no injuries on either side; it was ultimately the villagers, caught in between, who suffered.
Maoists claim that the PLGA had asked villagers of Lai - a village with 85 households and a population of 400 - to move out as they took positions. However, villagers were in the village as the encounter began.
Manti Kumari (18), who lives closest to the location the security forces were concentrated in - there are four bullet holes on the outside of her house - said that about five CRPF personnel arrived at her door an hour into the encounter. "They began slapping me and my sister. She was beaten more than me," she said. This newspaper is withholding Manti's sister's name as she is likely a minor - 16 years old and a ninth standard student.
Manti said they were taken to their brother's empty house and asked to search inside. "All the while, while, the forces kept calling us Maoists and kept abusing us. Once they confirmed Jiten's house was empty, they kept saying we had to take off our clothes. We refused. They later left us in a different part of the village," she said.
Around the same time, security forces searched Jagdish Parhaiya's house and found three country-made guns. "I have to go into the jungle all the time; I am a Parhaiya, after all. It comes in handy while hunting," said Jagdish (60). "They dragged me and my son out and started beating us. He was beaten with lathis," said Jagdish. Surender Parhaiya (22), who was celebrating the sixth day of his firstborn's birth, has six marks on his back, allegedly from being beaten with lathis.
Kaleshwar Parhaiya (51) was hit with the butt of a rifle as he sat crouched in his potato field to escape the crossfire; he has two half-moon marks on his back. Indermani Devi, his wife said she was kicked on the back and beaten with lathis as she sat on her haunches. Sushil Oraon (25), said the personnel who entered his premises shouted at him saying, "Yeh hai Naxali hero" and took him along with about 50 others to Chiratola Middle School, two kilometres away. "Almost all of us has our hands tied - they did not tie women's hands. They asked us men to take off our shirts and tied our hands with it," said Sushil. When asked to describe how they were taken, Sushil said, ".... beaten throughout, like cattle."
Security forces, which had retreated along with the tractors, to the school's vicinity, then attempted to get out quickly by instructing the tractors to move out quickly. They also sent out a villager to scout the area. Personnel followed on foot, with villagers and Maoists alleging that they took shelter behind villagers' bodies.
The position described by villagers - and demonstrated - was similar to what the CRPF allegedly used in Amwatikar village of Latehar on January 8. This was when they were attempting to retrieve the bodies of 10 jawans killed in an encounter the previous day. Four villagers were killed and a fifth injured as an IED that the Maoists had planted inside the abdomen of a dead jawan exploded.
"They made us stand in a (horizontal) line and walked behind us, adjusting our position from the back," said Sushil. By then, the Maoists had intercepted the tractors. "When the Maoists saw us, they began shooting. The bullets passed overhead. The forces crouched when they saw the Maoists and began shooting from behind us. We also crouched," Sushil said.
Maoist spokesperson Manasji claimed the PLGA stopped shooting when they saw the villagers were in the way. "The PLGA did not want to harm the villagers, so they stopped shooting. Then a decision was made to set the tractors on fire," said Manasji. He claimed the Maoists did not get time to take out what he estimated was 5000-odd bullets and several grenades from within the tractors, but this newspaper saw no evidence of the remains of these items at the encounter site.
"The fact that the Maoists invited you to the region and told you about the incident means that they are making this a propaganda issue. If the villagers had invited, it was a different matter altogether," said Latehar SP Michael Raj. He said that Jagdish Parhaiya, from whom weapons were recovered, were let off after an investigation. "Lai is in a region where the Maoists enjoy immense support. They have forced the villagers to make these claims," said the SP.
After the encounter, the security forces took along eight men - including Jagdish Parhaiya - and detained them for about two days before letting them off without levelling any charges. "The rest were let off at the banks of the river, but they asked us to carry their belongings across. However, when we crossed, they took us all the way to the Sarju (police) picket," said Sushil.
Five Lai villagers to whom this newspaper talked to corroborated the Maoists' version; they went further and added that even the women among them were abused and beaten by CRPF personnel during the course of the day. Lai has an almost exclusively adivasi population; three of the eight detained for about three days by the police were of the Parhaiya tribe, classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group.
The formation allegedly adopted by the CRPF is similar to that adopted by the paramilitary force in the aftermath of a January 7 encounter. The attempt, to retrieve the bodies of their dead colleagues, had resulted in the death of four villagers when they were allegedly forced to retrieve the bodies.
In a phone conversation with this newspaper, Michael S. Raj said the allegations were a propaganda effort by Maoists, who forced the villagers to say what they said.
The Lai encounter took place during the day on November 26, as CRPF and CoBRA personnel were on the 12 km stretch from Kotam village to Sarju police picket within Garu block. They were returning after providing security to the first phase of polling in Manika constituency, held the previous day. EVMs and civilian officials had already been airlifted.
"Our PLGA team was waiting in ambush, but the CRPF took another route. So our team followed them and began the encounter at about 8.30 in the morning," said the CPI-Maoist leader who assumed the sobriquet of spokesperson Manasji for this interview. The name has been used by multiple Maoist leaders since Lalesh Yadav, who used to handle the responsibilities of spokesperson using the name, was killed last year. This particular leader, a senior operative in the Maoist organisation, refused to be identified by his real name for this story.
The encounter would go on till about four in the evening, at the end of which the Maoists burnt eight tractors carrying the CRPF's supplies before retreating in the face of the arrival of massive reinforcements. There were no injuries on either side; it was ultimately the villagers, caught in between, who suffered.
Maoists claim that the PLGA had asked villagers of Lai - a village with 85 households and a population of 400 - to move out as they took positions. However, villagers were in the village as the encounter began.
Manti Kumari (18), who lives closest to the location the security forces were concentrated in - there are four bullet holes on the outside of her house - said that about five CRPF personnel arrived at her door an hour into the encounter. "They began slapping me and my sister. She was beaten more than me," she said. This newspaper is withholding Manti's sister's name as she is likely a minor - 16 years old and a ninth standard student.
Manti said they were taken to their brother's empty house and asked to search inside. "All the while, while, the forces kept calling us Maoists and kept abusing us. Once they confirmed Jiten's house was empty, they kept saying we had to take off our clothes. We refused. They later left us in a different part of the village," she said.
Around the same time, security forces searched Jagdish Parhaiya's house and found three country-made guns. "I have to go into the jungle all the time; I am a Parhaiya, after all. It comes in handy while hunting," said Jagdish (60). "They dragged me and my son out and started beating us. He was beaten with lathis," said Jagdish. Surender Parhaiya (22), who was celebrating the sixth day of his firstborn's birth, has six marks on his back, allegedly from being beaten with lathis.
Kaleshwar Parhaiya (51) was hit with the butt of a rifle as he sat crouched in his potato field to escape the crossfire; he has two half-moon marks on his back. Indermani Devi, his wife said she was kicked on the back and beaten with lathis as she sat on her haunches. Sushil Oraon (25), said the personnel who entered his premises shouted at him saying, "Yeh hai Naxali hero" and took him along with about 50 others to Chiratola Middle School, two kilometres away. "Almost all of us has our hands tied - they did not tie women's hands. They asked us men to take off our shirts and tied our hands with it," said Sushil. When asked to describe how they were taken, Sushil said, ".... beaten throughout, like cattle."
Security forces, which had retreated along with the tractors, to the school's vicinity, then attempted to get out quickly by instructing the tractors to move out quickly. They also sent out a villager to scout the area. Personnel followed on foot, with villagers and Maoists alleging that they took shelter behind villagers' bodies.
The position described by villagers - and demonstrated - was similar to what the CRPF allegedly used in Amwatikar village of Latehar on January 8. This was when they were attempting to retrieve the bodies of 10 jawans killed in an encounter the previous day. Four villagers were killed and a fifth injured as an IED that the Maoists had planted inside the abdomen of a dead jawan exploded.
"They made us stand in a (horizontal) line and walked behind us, adjusting our position from the back," said Sushil. By then, the Maoists had intercepted the tractors. "When the Maoists saw us, they began shooting. The bullets passed overhead. The forces crouched when they saw the Maoists and began shooting from behind us. We also crouched," Sushil said.
Maoist spokesperson Manasji claimed the PLGA stopped shooting when they saw the villagers were in the way. "The PLGA did not want to harm the villagers, so they stopped shooting. Then a decision was made to set the tractors on fire," said Manasji. He claimed the Maoists did not get time to take out what he estimated was 5000-odd bullets and several grenades from within the tractors, but this newspaper saw no evidence of the remains of these items at the encounter site.
"The fact that the Maoists invited you to the region and told you about the incident means that they are making this a propaganda issue. If the villagers had invited, it was a different matter altogether," said Latehar SP Michael Raj. He said that Jagdish Parhaiya, from whom weapons were recovered, were let off after an investigation. "Lai is in a region where the Maoists enjoy immense support. They have forced the villagers to make these claims," said the SP.
After the encounter, the security forces took along eight men - including Jagdish Parhaiya - and detained them for about two days before letting them off without levelling any charges. "The rest were let off at the banks of the river, but they asked us to carry their belongings across. However, when we crossed, they took us all the way to the Sarju (police) picket," said Sushil.
No comments:
Post a Comment