Three Odisha Adivasis Killed In Firing By Anti-Maoist Security Forces
By Countercurrents.org
17 November, 2015
Countercurrents.org
In a shocking incident on Sunday, three innocent villagers have allegedly been killed in the encounter launched by Odisha’s elite anti-Maoist combat force Special Operation Group (SOG) in western Odisha’s Kalahandi district.
On Sunday morning, a group of adivasis from Nisanguda village under Jugasaipatna grampanchayat of Bhawanipatna block had gone to look for the missing goats of panchayat wardmember Jay Majhi when they came under fire from the SOG. Within minutes wardmember Majhi and two others — Jaya Shankar Naik and Sukru Majhi — fell to the police bullets.
Two minor boys, Arjun Majhi and Ichhu Majhi, were seriously injured in the firing. The two boys were first admitted to a local hospital in Bhawanipatna and then taken to VSS Medical College and Hospita in Burla town of Sambalpur.
The Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) has sought a report from the state police on the killing of three villagers. OHRC directed the deputy inspector general (DIG) of police in charge of south-western range to conduct an inquiry into the incident and submit a report within four weeks. The OHRC ordered the probe, while responding to petitions filed by two human rights activists.
Meanwhile, the local police in Kalahandi district reiterated that the security personnel did not kill the villagers and they (the villagers) could have died during an exchange of fire between the security personnel and the Maoists.
“According to preliminary inquiry, there was a heavy exchange of fire between the security personnel and a group of Maoists. After the encounter, the ultras fled from the spot. The three dead bodies were recovered during a combing operation after the exchange of fire”, the superintendent of police (SP), Kalahandi, Brajesh Singh said. The incident took place inside a forest near Bhawanipatna, the headquarter town of the tribal-dominated western Odisha district.
However, two survivors of the incident, both minor adivasi boys who had received bullet injuries had said on Sunday that the police started firing at them as soon as they (the security personnel) saw them.
In a similar incident on July 26 last, a couple identified as Duba Nayak and his wife Budi Nayak were killed in firing by personnel of the Special Operations Group and the Central Reserve Police Force, deployed for anti-Maoist operation in Kotagarah block of Kandhamal district.
Since the couple were unable to get network on their mobile phones, they had trekked the Ladima Hills to talk to their son, who was in Kerala. While talking to their son over phone, they were hit by bullets.
Their son, Rahul Nayak, in his petition submitted before the State Human Rights Commission, narrated that he had heard over phone their parents screaming in pain. Next day, the villagers discovered their bullet-ridden bodies.