The escalated attacks by Maoists on civilians has supplemented the latest findings of the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) that the Naxals have emerged as the “worst” human rights violators in India among all the insurgent organisations.
The report titled “Tortures in India-2010” in a chapter with a special focus on Maoists, says “among all the armed opposition groups in India, the Naxalites or Maoists are probably the worst humn rights violators.”
“In blatant disregard for the international humanitarian law, the Maoists continued to kill civilians on the allegations of being police informers, members of the anti-Maoist civilian militia such as ‘Salva Judum’ and for not obeying their dictates.” The ACHR has analysed numerous incidents of abduction and “brutal killings” across Naxalite infested areas of the states like Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa during 2009. People were killed on mere suspicion of being police informers.
“The Maoists have been responsible for the brutal killing of their hostages after abduction. Often the hostages are killed by slitting their throats or beheading. These killings are authorised by Maoists’ ‘Jan Adalats (people’s courts)”, the voluminous report put on the ACHR’s website has stated. Another rights body — Forum for Fact Documentation and Advocacy (FEDA) — has come out with a startling revelation that “teenage” children of tribals were the most exploited lot as they were being “trained” to fight the Indian state by the Maoists.
The FEDA has termed it as “gross violation” of the child rights. But it has been equally critical to the Chhattisgarh government for recruiting “minors” as special police officers (SPOs) to counter the Naxals.
“Estimated 80,000 children are participating directly or indirectly in Chhattisgarh in the armed conflict between the state and the non-state armed rebel groups,” FEDA says.
It has estimated that at least 12,000 “child-soldiers” were deployed by the Chhattisgarh government either as SPOs or “Salva Judum” activists in southern part of the state, which include the worst Maoist affected Dantewada district.
In the Maoists camps deep in the jungles, minor children, as young as 10-12-years-old were being trained as the “front revolutionaries”.
“They receive full military training, learn how to use weapons, to deal with explosives and once trained are actively fighting in the conflicts with security forces,” the report says.
The young triblas were being “educated” about the Maoist ideology to inculcate in them “the revolutionary thinking” and prepare them for a bigger war against the Indian state.