Odisha anti-Maoist ops: ‘When I returned, my wife was lying dead in the drain’
I/II.
http://indianexpress.com/
Odisha anti-Maoist ops: ‘When I returned, my wife was lying dead in
the drain’
Asked why the SOG team could not determine through their
night-vision devices that the villagers were unarmed, Mishra said the heavy
rains that night had hampered the policemen.
Written by Debabrata Mohanty
<http://indianexpress.com/
Kandhamal | Published:July
11, 2016 5:51 am
[image: Mallick shows a cartridge he found where his wife was killed.
(Source: Express photo by Debabrata Mohanty)] Mallick shows a cartridge he
found where his wife was killed. (Source: Express photo by Debabrata
Mohanty)
A grandmother weeping for her two-year-old grandson, a husband who found
his wife’s body in a drain, a son who watched his mother running towards
him, blood streaming from a gunshot wound in her back.
The stories that echoed on Sunday at Kandhamal’s Tumudibandh block were
soaked in sorrow and tinged with rage. And they were told at the homes of
the five tribal and Dalit villagers who were killed, allegedly in crossfire
between Maoists and the police’s Special Operations Group (SOG).
The initial count was six dead until villagers and police realised that one
among that group, Luta Digal, a Dalit, had survived with injuries. But that
was hardly any consolation for those who had lost their close ones in the
firing, with some questioning the police version of events.
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“If there was crossfire, why were 21 bullet marks found only on one side of
the autorickshaw? When the 16 people squeezed into that autorickshaw got
down to push the vehicle out of the slush a few minutes earlier, there was
no crossfire. The police are lying,” said a villager, who did not wish to
be identified.
*Also read | Two-year-old among six villagers killed in Odisha anti-Maoist
ops
<http://indianexpress.com/
When contacted, Kandhamal SP Pinak Mishra said an inquiry being conducted
by a DySP will arrive at the truth.
“A 15-member team of the SOG (the state’s anti-Maoist force) had gone to
the area after getting intelligence inputs. The team’s chief maintains that
they came under fire and had to fire back. But let me make it clear that
the deceased were not Maoists,” said Mishra.
Asked why the SOG team could not determine through their night-vision
devices that the villagers were unarmed, Mishra said the heavy rains that
night had hampered the policemen.
The killings also triggered a political firestorm with the BJP
<http://indianexpress.com/tag/
Monday. Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram accused Odisha’s BJD
government of being “against Adivasis” and announced a separate probe by
the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes.
Back in Gumudumaha village, however, as politicians and human rights
activists streamed in on Sunday morning, tribal Bibi Mallick was seething
at the way his wife Kimuri was killed.
Mallick said he and his wife were returning that evening from Baliguda
town, 30 km away, after withdrawing Rs 5,500 from their National Rural
Employment Guarantee Scheme (NRGS) bank account and picking their ailing
daughter Chandrika, 10, from a tribal residential school, when the vehicle
got stuck in the slush.
“We had two 50 kg sacks of rice with us, too. We managed to push the
autorickshaw out of the mud. But as soon as we got into the auto, there was
a hail of gunshots from the left. Before I could realise what had happened,
my daughter and I fell off the vehicle. A few minutes later, there were no
more gunshots. I found my daughter standing on the road, crying and looking
for my wife. I was so scared, I took her to the village first and returned
with other villagers. I found my wife lying dead in the drain,” said Bibi.
Dulara Digal, 20, son of Kukula Digal, former sarpanch of the Parampanga
gram panchayat, said his father and mother had gone to Baliguda to buy
provisions and withdraw money from their NREGS account.
“Close to around 9 pm, I heard the sound of what I thought were
firecrackers near the village. A few minutes later, my mother came running,
she had been hit by a bullet on her back. An hour later, when I went with
some other villagers to the spot, we found my father lying dead,” said
Digal.
At Gumudumaha, Mina Digal, the grandmother of Jehad Digal, wept bitterly as
villagers lowered the two-year-old’s body into a grave. Jehad was the first
child of her son Luta and daughter-in-law Sunita, both of whom are
undergoing treatment at the MKCG Medical College Hospital in Berhampur town.
“My daughter-in-law was carrying Jehad in her arms, when they killed him,”
said a sobbing Mina.
II.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/
GUMUDUMAHA (ODISHA), July 11, 2016
Updated: July 11, 2016 08:21 IST
We have never seen a Maoist here, say Odisha villagers
PRAFULLA DAS
Countering the claim of Odisha police, villagers here said security
personnel engaged in anti-Maoist operations opened fire at innocent
people in this village in Odisha’s Kandhamal district on Friday night,
killing five persons. .
Odisha police had claimed that the villagers were killed when the
autorickshaw they were travelling in was caught in the cross fire
during an exchange between policemen and Maoists. The survivors
however, claimed that their fellow citizens were killed in cold blood.
“I had stopped the autorickshaw as its wheels were stuck in the mud
ahead of a culvert. There was no exchange of fire. Police fired at us
when the people were getting inside my vehicle after they pushed it to
come out of the mud patch,” said Jahan Majhi, the driver.
Jahan and two others managed to escape the police bullets as they ran
away as soon as the security personnel opened fire all of a sudden
from the left side of the road.
Sunita Digal, whose one-year-old son was killed in the attack, escaped
with bullet injuries on the belly. “The armed men who killed my son
and my fellow villagers should be punished,” she said. Neither Sunita
nor her husband Loto Digal could attend their child’s funeral in their
village on Sunday. While Sunita was admitted to the government
hospital at Baliguda in Kandhamal, her husband was admitted to MKCG
Medical College and Hospital at Berhampur with serious bullet
injuries.
“We have never seen a Maoist in our locality till date, but policemen
fired at us for no fault of ours,” said Premila Mallick, who managed
to run away from the spot.
A pall of gloom descended on Gumudumaha village when the last rites of
the five victims were performed on Sunday. A large number of people
from nearby villages attended the funeral. However, no official has
visited the village yet after the killings.
Former Congress MP from Nabarangpur, Pradeep Majhi, demanded that
killing of innocent Adivasis and Dalits in the name of fighting
Maoists be stopped .
Panicked villagers demanded that the anti-Maoist operations be stopped
in the region. The Naveen Patnaik government had ordered a judicial
probe into the killing of innocent villagers.
I/II.
http://indianexpress.com/
Odisha anti-Maoist ops: ‘When I returned, my wife was lying dead in
the drain’
Asked why the SOG team could not determine through their
night-vision devices that the villagers were unarmed, Mishra said the heavy
rains that night had hampered the policemen.
Written by Debabrata Mohanty
<http://indianexpress.com/
Kandhamal | Published:July
11, 2016 5:51 am
[image: Mallick shows a cartridge he found where his wife was killed.
(Source: Express photo by Debabrata Mohanty)] Mallick shows a cartridge he
found where his wife was killed. (Source: Express photo by Debabrata
Mohanty)
A grandmother weeping for her two-year-old grandson, a husband who found
his wife’s body in a drain, a son who watched his mother running towards
him, blood streaming from a gunshot wound in her back.
The stories that echoed on Sunday at Kandhamal’s Tumudibandh block were
soaked in sorrow and tinged with rage. And they were told at the homes of
the five tribal and Dalit villagers who were killed, allegedly in crossfire
between Maoists and the police’s Special Operations Group (SOG).
The initial count was six dead until villagers and police realised that one
among that group, Luta Digal, a Dalit, had survived with injuries. But that
was hardly any consolation for those who had lost their close ones in the
firing, with some questioning the police version of events.
Share This Article
[image: Share]
<https://www.facebook.com/
Related Article
- Two-year-old among six villagers killed in Odisha anti-Maoist ops
<http://indianexpress.com/
- Odisha: Three killed in Kalahandi ‘encounter’ innocent, had no Maoist
link, say villagers
<http://indianexpress.com/
- Odisha: Police kill 3 villagers, SP claims Maoist link
<http://indianexpress.com/
- Getting there a long trek for a phone call: This number is not
reachable
<http://indianexpress.com/
- ‘Fake encounter’: Rights panel tells Odisha to probe killing of Dalit
couple
<http://indianexpress.com/
- 'TPC shot surrendered Maoists,showed CRPF bodies'
<http://indianexpress.com/
*Watch Video: What’s making news*
<http://www.youtube.com/
“If there was crossfire, why were 21 bullet marks found only on one side of
the autorickshaw? When the 16 people squeezed into that autorickshaw got
down to push the vehicle out of the slush a few minutes earlier, there was
no crossfire. The police are lying,” said a villager, who did not wish to
be identified.
*Also read | Two-year-old among six villagers killed in Odisha anti-Maoist
ops
<http://indianexpress.com/
When contacted, Kandhamal SP Pinak Mishra said an inquiry being conducted
by a DySP will arrive at the truth.
“A 15-member team of the SOG (the state’s anti-Maoist force) had gone to
the area after getting intelligence inputs. The team’s chief maintains that
they came under fire and had to fire back. But let me make it clear that
the deceased were not Maoists,” said Mishra.
Asked why the SOG team could not determine through their night-vision
devices that the villagers were unarmed, Mishra said the heavy rains that
night had hampered the policemen.
The killings also triggered a political firestorm with the BJP
<http://indianexpress.com/tag/
Monday. Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram accused Odisha’s BJD
government of being “against Adivasis” and announced a separate probe by
the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes.
Back in Gumudumaha village, however, as politicians and human rights
activists streamed in on Sunday morning, tribal Bibi Mallick was seething
at the way his wife Kimuri was killed.
Mallick said he and his wife were returning that evening from Baliguda
town, 30 km away, after withdrawing Rs 5,500 from their National Rural
Employment Guarantee Scheme (NRGS) bank account and picking their ailing
daughter Chandrika, 10, from a tribal residential school, when the vehicle
got stuck in the slush.
“We had two 50 kg sacks of rice with us, too. We managed to push the
autorickshaw out of the mud. But as soon as we got into the auto, there was
a hail of gunshots from the left. Before I could realise what had happened,
my daughter and I fell off the vehicle. A few minutes later, there were no
more gunshots. I found my daughter standing on the road, crying and looking
for my wife. I was so scared, I took her to the village first and returned
with other villagers. I found my wife lying dead in the drain,” said Bibi.
Dulara Digal, 20, son of Kukula Digal, former sarpanch of the Parampanga
gram panchayat, said his father and mother had gone to Baliguda to buy
provisions and withdraw money from their NREGS account.
“Close to around 9 pm, I heard the sound of what I thought were
firecrackers near the village. A few minutes later, my mother came running,
she had been hit by a bullet on her back. An hour later, when I went with
some other villagers to the spot, we found my father lying dead,” said
Digal.
At Gumudumaha, Mina Digal, the grandmother of Jehad Digal, wept bitterly as
villagers lowered the two-year-old’s body into a grave. Jehad was the first
child of her son Luta and daughter-in-law Sunita, both of whom are
undergoing treatment at the MKCG Medical College Hospital in Berhampur town.
“My daughter-in-law was carrying Jehad in her arms, when they killed him,”
said a sobbing Mina.
II.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/
GUMUDUMAHA (ODISHA), July 11, 2016
Updated: July 11, 2016 08:21 IST
We have never seen a Maoist here, say Odisha villagers
PRAFULLA DAS
Countering the claim of Odisha police, villagers here said security
personnel engaged in anti-Maoist operations opened fire at innocent
people in this village in Odisha’s Kandhamal district on Friday night,
killing five persons. .
Odisha police had claimed that the villagers were killed when the
autorickshaw they were travelling in was caught in the cross fire
during an exchange between policemen and Maoists. The survivors
however, claimed that their fellow citizens were killed in cold blood.
“I had stopped the autorickshaw as its wheels were stuck in the mud
ahead of a culvert. There was no exchange of fire. Police fired at us
when the people were getting inside my vehicle after they pushed it to
come out of the mud patch,” said Jahan Majhi, the driver.
Jahan and two others managed to escape the police bullets as they ran
away as soon as the security personnel opened fire all of a sudden
from the left side of the road.
Sunita Digal, whose one-year-old son was killed in the attack, escaped
with bullet injuries on the belly. “The armed men who killed my son
and my fellow villagers should be punished,” she said. Neither Sunita
nor her husband Loto Digal could attend their child’s funeral in their
village on Sunday. While Sunita was admitted to the government
hospital at Baliguda in Kandhamal, her husband was admitted to MKCG
Medical College and Hospital at Berhampur with serious bullet
injuries.
“We have never seen a Maoist in our locality till date, but policemen
fired at us for no fault of ours,” said Premila Mallick, who managed
to run away from the spot.
A pall of gloom descended on Gumudumaha village when the last rites of
the five victims were performed on Sunday. A large number of people
from nearby villages attended the funeral. However, no official has
visited the village yet after the killings.
Former Congress MP from Nabarangpur, Pradeep Majhi, demanded that
killing of innocent Adivasis and Dalits in the name of fighting
Maoists be stopped .
Panicked villagers demanded that the anti-Maoist operations be stopped
in the region. The Naveen Patnaik government had ordered a judicial
probe into the killing of innocent villagers.
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