Hindu bodies protest Police atrocities in Kandhamal

Hindu bodies protest Police atrocities in Kandhamal
From Our Correspondent

The team led by State President, Hindu Jagaran Samukhya, Ashok Sahu accompanied by Ajit Patnaik, the General Secretary and Advocate Rabi Patnaik, Member Central Body and some press reporters visited the affected areas and personally met people who have been subjected to Police torture in the district. Though 36 days passed after the brutal murder of Swamiji and four others by a group of about 28 to 30 armed assailants, the State Government has miserably failed to nail down a single culprit. But on the other hand, with the help of Rapid Action Force from the Centre, a reign of Police terror has been unleashed throughout the district leaving nine members of the Kandh tribe dead by Police firing and hundreds with injuries that include women and minors.

Among the detainees in the jail is Sunita Pati, mother of a two months old baby, separated from her sibling and tortured for more than 80 hours in Police custody and produced before the Magistrate only after Shri Sahu protested before the district authorities. Persons jailed include three school going minors Gokul Konhar, aged 15 years (10th class), Dilip Mullik, aged 14 years, (9th class) and Manoj Pradhan, aged 20 years on their way back home from the bus stop, who were picked up by the RAF after merciless beating. A mother (Mani Mullick) with her two minor daughters (Poppy and Chandni, both below 13) was returning from the market when curfew was relaxed at Raikia. They were picked up by the Police, badly beaten up and now in jail. The minors should have been produced before juvenile court and not kept in the general ward in the jail. Persons who accompanied the deceased Banadeo Pradhan were tortured in police custody for 80 hours and then jailed without any medical treatment.

At Gundhari, a Christian dominated village, the lone house of Rajendra Digal, a Kandh was attacked and hacked to death by Sujit Nayak, a notorious Christian militant of the area. Sujit Nayak is freely moving in company of Police officials and despite protest by the eye witnesses is not being brought to the book.

At Gundhari, the militant Christians are making country made explosives four of which are in possession of the Kandh tribes, but none dares to handover those to Police for fear of arrest and torture. Due to the partisan action of the Police, the local tribals have lost trust in the system and finally they might have to arm themselves with weapons from the Maoist arsenals which is on easy reach in the area. The government is pushing them into the lap of the Maoists, Shri Sahu alleged.

As long as such blatant discrimination against the local Kandh tribe continues and the efforts by the Chief Minister to politicise the issue for electoral gains by separating the tribes from the rest of Hindus continue, restoration of normalcy in the area is too remote, Shri Sahu, alleged.

Maoists who are active in the nearby Gajapati district and all other southern districts bordering Andhra Pradesh and Chhatisgarh are just ready to seize the opportunity to spread their tentacles to Kandhamal crossing. They had attacked the police training centre, months back at Nayagarh, only 90 km away from Bhubaneswar, the State capital. The church has been frantically trying to aid the Maoists by separating the tribes from the rest of Hindus in the area. This is part of a grand design, that is being fuelled by the blatantly partisan handling of the prevailing situation by the administration, Shri Sahu warned.

Since August 24, prohibitory orders and curfew clamped in the district has prevented ‘common men’ i..e. daily wage earners and the poor and indigent from earning their livelihood. They are starving in a climate of terror unleashed by the local Police. Indiscriminate arrests of innocent tribals and uninterrupted torture in police custody has betrayed the public trust on the administration and the Police. Ironically, only Christians and non-tribals are fed in the government run relief camps. This sort of blatant discrimination has further widened the decades old animosity among the warring sectors in the population.

Reacting to the ‘Special Package’ declared by the Chief Minister on the September 27, at Phulbani the district headquarters, Shri Sahu compared the offer with ‘Lollipop’ to entice kids, but on the other hand continue repressive measures only against the Kandh tribes in the name of maintenance of ‘law and order’. Most of the measures promised in the so called ‘special package’ constitute the constitutional duties of the government and the rule of law to deliver justice to the people. The expeditious disposal of land disputes and withdrawal of privileges to the persons with false certificates have been part of the government negligence for decades despite a High Court writ to that effect. On September 28 the government organised a meeting at Chakapad in presence of local ADM. This has exposed the government’s effort to ‘divide and rule’ the tribes. In contrast, congregations to pay homage to Swamiji and others killed in recent troubles were disallowed at G. Udayagiri and else where in the district. Such discriminatory treatment, partisan arrests, torture in custody, and reign of terror, besides sectarian politics must first stop, if the government is sincere in bringing back normalcy in the area. The killers of Swamiji are known to the police and the CM and they must be brought to the book by the State Government to regain public trust.

(With inputs from Vishwa Sambad Kendra, Orissa.)

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