Sunday, July 17, 2016
india - Modi's regime organised squads antinaxalites in Jharkhand,
Under the pretext of fighting Maoism, armed splinter factions fight among themselves, threaten villagers with extortion, beatings, and interfere in elections.
When panchayat elections were announced in Jharkhand in November, Nagmani Yadav, a former Maoist, supported his wife Anwari Devi, to contest from their village in Latehar district. Yadav was a member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) for 10 years till he was arrested in 2011. He was acquitted four years later after charges against him could not be proved in court.
Anwari Devi was up against Juleshwar Lohra, whose brother Pappu Lohra leads the Jharkhand Jan Mukti Parishad, an armed militia tacitly supported by the police, which is allegedly aimed at countering the Maoist influence in the area. Though Yadav received threats to ask his wife to withdraw from the contest, and was even beaten up by Jharkhand Jan Mukti Parishad cadres, he refused to ask her to do so.
Anwari Devi eventually lost the election. A few days later, Yadav, a clean-shaven youth with a wide smile, was back to living in the shadow of the gun.
Forced to take up arms
“I feared for my life,” said Yadav, dressed in camouflage, holding a carbine. “The Jharkhand Jan Mukti Parishad men had already attacked me once and they would have come after me again.” Yadav was seated on the ground in a forest clearing. Near him, a dozen men in olive combat gear rested on rocky outcrops in the shade of trees, while more armed young men kept watch at the edge of the clearing.
These men were cadres of the Tritiya Sangharsh Prastuti Committee, an armed Maoist splinter group of which Yadav is now an area commander.
Yadav contended that the Jharkhand police actually supports the Jharkhand Jan Mukti Parishad, which is another Maoist splinter group. He said after he was beaten by the militia, he went to the police. “I registered a complaint on December 3 against Pappu Lohra,” he said. “But the police took no action. Instead, the police supported Lohra’s brother in the election.”
While Yadav went back to the gun, there are many in Jharkhand’s villages who are powerless against the humiliations and threats they are subjected to at the hands of police-backed Maoist splinter groups…
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