This is to draw your kind attention to the incident of police firing in which took place on 20 November in which two people have been killed and several people injured. As you would have noticed from the media reports over forty people have been arrested so far. However, what is not being reported in the media is the scale of brutalities unleashed on the adivasis by the local police and the para-military forces deployed in the area.
I made a visit to the area on 23 November and have seen myself three tribal youths being mercilessly beaten up by the police and the security forces in the premises of the Narayanpatna police station. If the security forces could dare do this in the presence of civil liberty activists you could well imagine what they would be doing when no one is watching them. It has come to our notice that before the police firing of 20 Nov. there have been combing operations in the area carried out by the security forces to look for the ‘Maoists’ and in the name of combing operations people have been harassed. People’s houses have been ransacked; men, women and children have been humiliated and threatened. In fact PUCL’s fact finding into the incident of police firing confirms that people had come to the police station on the 20th to complain about the security forces’ excesses in the name of combing operations. After the firing incident, again combing operations are carried out and people are being tortured. The terror created by the police and the paramilitary forces is such that people injured in police firing are scared to come to the hospital for fear of being arrested. The day to day living of the ordinary adivasis has been severely affected as they fear to go out for agricultural operations and other ordinary survival needs. And their fear is real.
The PUCL appeals to the Honourable Commission to look into the police firing of 20th November and all other cases of human rights violations by the police and security forces following the incident. We, particularly urge the Commission to intervene in the treatment of seriously injured persons as many of them might die if they don’t get proper treatment immediately.
With regards,
Yours sincerely,
Pramodini Pradhan
Convenor (PUCL- Bhubaneswar)
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