"Human rights lawyer Shalini Gera of the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group, which has been providing free legal assistance to prisoners in five districts of Chhattisgarh, was forced to leave Bastar on February 20. She and her colleagues have been receiving threats from the Samajik Ekta Manch. Gera said, “We feel vindicated that the NCST has verified these heinous crimes by the security forces – that they did happen in Bijapur. However, verification is not enough. The impunity the security forces currently enjoy also needs to be challenged. Moreover, in heavily militarised zones throughout the world, such crimes have an ugly tendency to occur again and again. Eventually, we, as a society, have to work towards the demilitarisation of Bastar. For that to happen, we have to seek political solutions to the current conflict.”
There has been a pattern in the repression unleashed in this conflict zone with counter-violenc
e by Maoists also routinely reported from the area, including attacks on security forces. However, it is apparent that the government has decided to clamp down on opinion-makers and locals in a bid to unleash a ‘state of emergency and fear’ in the region. In the process, locals are facing its wrath, often despite no evidence to prove the charges hurled at them. Besides, violence against tribals is mostly unreported."
There has been a pattern in the repression unleashed in this conflict zone with counter-violenc
e by Maoists also routinely reported from the area, including attacks on security forces. However, it is apparent that the government has decided to clamp down on opinion-makers and locals in a bid to unleash a ‘state of emergency and fear’ in the region. In the process, locals are facing its wrath, often despite no evidence to prove the charges hurled at them. Besides, violence against tribals is mostly unreported."
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