New Delhi. Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association(JTSA) and Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch (AARM) condemned the brutal killing of eight adivasis, including three children, in Arasmetta village in Bastar district in Chattisgarh.

The Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch (AARM) Chairman Bajuban Riyan said, “This is nothing but a cold-blooded murder by a joint team of the CRPF, Chattisgarh armed force and the district force. Nothing can justify the killings, least of all bogus theories that the villagers who were killed in crossfire between Maoists and the security forces. It is shocking that the administration permitted the officials to be present at the time of the post mortem clearly to influence the report and conceal the truth that the Adivasis were shot at close range.”

The AARM demanded immediate action against the security force officials involved, including their prosecution on criminal charges of murder. It demands a high level impartial probe with a time bound mandate. The compensation announced by the government is highly inadequate and must be increased. The BJP state government must be held responsible and accountable for these killings.

The AARM called upon all its units to organise protests against the killing.

Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association (JTSA) said that Impunity continues unabated in Chhattisgarh.

On behalf of JTSA Manisha Sethi, Ahmed Sohaib, Sanghamitra Misra, Adil Mehdi, Tanweer Fazal, Farah Farooqi, Azra Razaack, M.S. Bhatt, M.G. Shahnawaz, Manoj Jena, Ambarien Alqadr, Nabanipa Bhattacharya and Mona Das said, “Exactly one year after the CRPF mowed down 19 villagers who had gathered to celebrate the traditional seed festival in their village in Bijapur district, the act has been repeated: the same festival, the same district, the same class of unfortunate villagers, and the same set of killers. In 2012, the CRPF had claimed that those killed were Maoists who had ambushed a CRPF party – a claim backed and pushed aggressively by the then Home Minister P. Chidambaram. Only when independent fact-finding reports, including one by the Chhattisgarh State Congress, established that ordinary villagers including women and children had been killed, was the bluff of the ‘encounter’ called. Mounting public pressure had forced the Raman Singh government to order a judicial probe to be headed by a judge of the Bilaspur High Court. The fate of that judicial enquiry remains secret. Just as the Justice T.P. Sharma enquiry set up the previous year, in 2011, to examine into the torching of 300 houses and sexual assault on three women in Sukma district, has never been made public.”

JTSA said that there is a continuing impunity afforded to the CRPF and police forces in Chhattisgarh – indeed in the entire tribal belt where struggles for land and livelihood, against large corporations are being waged – to kill, maim, sexually assault, imprison and implicate tribal in false cases. It seems unlikely that in this culture of brazen impunity, a judicial probe, ordered yet again by Raman Singh, will be more than a farce.

Hastakshep