[Reader-list] PUDR Condemns Central Government's "arrest or kill" policy against Naxalites

[asit das]

  PUDR Condemns Central Government's "arrest or kill" policy against
Naxalites



 *PEOPLE’S UNION FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS*

Press Release

30th April 2012

*Sub: PUDR Condemns Central Government’s “arrest or kill” policy against
Naxalites*

PUDR condemns the Central Governments admission of its ‘arrest or kill’
policy against Naxalites, before the Standing Committee on Home Affairs by
the Home Secretary, Mr. R.K. Singh on April 4, 2012.

>From the time, that the Prime Minister first identified ‘Left Wing
Extremism’ as the single largest threat, to the massive deployment of
paramilitary forces in anti-naxal operations under the code-named Operation
Green Hunt, to the latest disclosure, there can be very little doubt over
the fact that when it comes to Maoists, the Indian State does not believe
in respecting its commitments to constitutional norms concerning lives and
liberties of its citizens.

Fact findings conducted in Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal
by PUDR and other democratic rights organizations have pointed to cases of
increasing intimidation, arrests, torture, custodial rape, targeted
killings and encounters in the course of Operation Green Hunt. To date,
none of the officials perpetuating such crimes have been brought to trial.
In fact Governments have gone out of their way to award some senior
officials like Ankit Garg SP of Dantewada, on whose orders Soni Sori, a
tribal accused of being a Maoist was raped and tortured, with Gallantry
medals.

Despite the Planning Commission’s own report on the social roots of Maoism,
the Indian State has persisted with military suppression and refused to
back down from its savage war for development.

The latest admission brings out the nature of the ‘dirty war’ being fought
by the Government to benefit corporatist development. It also brings out
the hypocrisy of the parliament and the opinion-makers who acquiesce, if
not sanction, policy of individual annihilation by the government forces.



Paramjeet Singh and Preeti Chauhan

Secretaries

pudr at pudr.org, pudrdelhi at gmail.com