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Appeal to stand in support of working class struggles in Delhi-NCR – Issued by Labour Solidarity Forum

An appeal to all democratic and progressive individuals and organizations to stand up for justice and support the Maruti Suzuki workers’ struggle and other working class struggles in Delhi-NCR in all possible ways.
Incidents of industrial accidents, often fatal but seldom reported by the media, have been occurring almost every day in the Delhi-NCR industrial belt—leading to mounting worker unrest that is described by media as a ‘‘law and order’’ problem and is dealt by the police and state authorities with mounting repression. The more than two and a half year long struggle of Maruti Workers and the brutal state-corporate repression faced by them is also an indicator of the simmering unrest among the working class, directly emanating from neoliberal policy framework of the country. Continue reading →

People’s War News 25 February

2 CRPF jawans killed, 10 injured as Maoists blow up mini-bus in Bihar
GAYA: Two CRPF jawans were killed and 10 injured, three of them critically, when Maoists blew up a mini-bus carrying them in here yesterday evening. Bihar Director General of Police PK Thakur said that the ultras planted a landmine on the route taken by the security personnel, police and CRPF, in Imamganj-Dumaria area during anti-Naxal operation. He said, the landmine exploded when the mini-bus came over it. Inspector General of Police (Operations) Sushil Khopde said two CRPF jawans belong to elite CoBRA battalion, were killed and ten wounded in the attack. The condition of five injured is stated to be critical. While four of the five seriously wounded were taken to Ranchi, another was flown to Patna. Mr Khopde said, 30 lakh rupees will be given to each of the families of the deceased jawans.
http://theindianawaaz.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24686&catid=16%22

Naxal beats up foresters on charges of corruption
GADCHIROLI: A forest guard and round officer were thrashed by senior Naxal cadres to protest alleged corruption by their depart Continue reading →

Adivasi protest in Chhattisgarh is gaining strength

A protest that began last Monday with about 1,000 people has now swollen to more than 5,000. As Scroll reported last week, the arrest of a primary school cook, Hadma Mutchaki of Hamirgarh village, brought 1,000 adivasis to demonstrate outside Tongal police station in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district on February 16. The police had charged Mutchaki with aiding the Maoists in the murder of a police informer. But the protestors said he was innocent and had been wrongly framed.
Men, women and children sat on the national highway outside the police station, blocking it for 17 hours, and bringing all road traffic between Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh to a halt. The next day, activists Soni Sori and Bela Bhatia persuaded the protestors to move from the highway to a ground near the police station. But the protest itself did not dissipate. It gained strength after the police detained three of the protestors, Hidma Kawasi, Ramji Mandavi and Podiyami Budhra. The final straw came when the three men emerged from police custody with injury marks. They alleged they had been beaten up while in custody. As the news spread, thousands of adivasis from villages across Darbha, Kuakonda, Chhindgarh and Sukma blocks of Bastar and Sukma districts converged on Tongpal on Thursday.
http://scroll.in/article/708704/An-adivasi-protest-in-Chhattisgarh-is-gaining-strength-%E2%80%93-but-not-getting-much-attention

29 dead in Bastar ‘fake encounters’

The outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) has accused the Bastar police of killing 26 “civilians” and three “political workers” in fake encounters in the last one year in different parts of Bastar. In a press statement sent to The Hindu , the south regional committee (SRC) secretary of the CPI (Maoist), Ganesh Uike, alleged that 20 “civilians” were killed by the police and paramilitary forces in Bijapur district of Bastar between January 2014 and January 2015.
“Five civilians were killed in fake encounters in Sukma district, and one villager was killed by the police in Dantewada district. All of them were later declared Maoists.” He said three of his party workers — Jamali, Rambatti, Lakshmi — were also killed in staged encounters. “In the name of containing Maoism, security men are violating human rights of Bastar tribals,” he added.
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/29-dead-in-bastar-fake-encounters/article6923130.ece

People’s Union for Democratic Rights denounce harasses by security forcesn on tribals in Bihar

Routine raids, beatings, loot, detentions and compelling tribal villagers to perform begaar or free labour and a large number of permanent warrants are among the allegations the latest report of the People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) has levelled against security forces in Bijapur district of south Chhattisgarh. A PUDR fact-finding team published its report on Thursday, after visiting nine villages in December last to “ascertain reports of arrests, intimidation and harassment, including sexual abuse by security forces stationed there to fight Maoists.”
“A rough estimate indicates that 15,000-35,000 people live under the threat and fear of arrest warrants in Bijapur alone. Instances of sexual torture of tribals were also noted. In flagrant disregard of international covenants, the security forces deliberately regard passengers in local transport as ‘human shields’ during possible encounters,” the report said. Blaming the police camps for affecting the living conditions of tribals, the report said the present situation was comparable to, and a continuance of, the Salwa Judum activities: eviction and mass displacement of villagers from 2005 to 2009.
“Despite recurrent… bomb explosions and targeting of the roads by Maoists, the villagers fear the security camps as it is the armed personnel who punish and brutalise them. The aim of the present military initiative is to cleanse the area for redoubled mining activity,” the report said. In a statement sent to The Hindu , CPI (Maoist) south regional committee secretary Ganesh Uike accused the security forces of killing around 20 “innocent villagers” in “fake encounters” in Bijapur between January 2014 and January 2015, and they were later declared “Maoists.”
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/tribals-harassed-by-security-forces-pudr/article6918491.ece

People’s War News 20 February

Naxal Blast Injures Two Policemen in Chhattisgarh
RAIPUR: Two police jawans were injured in a pressure bomb blast triggered by Naxals in Chhattisgarh’s insurgency-hit Bijapur district today, police said. The blast occurred near Emargunda village when the security personnel were carrying out a combing operation in the Gangaloor police station limits, a senior police official told PTI. The security personnel accidentally came in contact with a pressure bomb planted by Maoists outside of the village. In the explosion, head constable Rajesh Sen and assistant constable Asharam Netam sustained injuries, he said. Reinforcement was rushed to the spot and the injured policemen are being brought to a local hospital for treatment, he said. Continue reading →

Engine derails as Maoists damage railway track in Chhattisgarh

The outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) damaged a railway track near Kamalur station in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh on Thursday, leading to the derailment of a goods train engine. The driver and helper of the engine suffered minor injuries in the accident. The Maoists have called for a ‘Dandakaranya Bandh’ on Friday in protest against the Polavaram Dam project and the “All-out war” by the Government of India to “flush out Maoists from Bastar.” “The Polavaram Dam project will displace 2.5 lakh Dorla Tribals from different parts of Bastar and Telangana. To oppose this project, our Central Regional Bureau has called for Dandakaranya Bandh on February 20. We appeal to the people of Telangana, Orrisa and Dandakaranya to observe strict bandh on February 20,” said Ganesh Uike, Secretary of the South Regional Committee (SRC) of the CPI (Maoist) in a statement sent to The Hindu.
In an effort to enforce the bandh, the ultras damaged the railway track. Accusing the State police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) of “oppressing and harassing” the Tribals of Bastar in the name of “anti-Maoist operations,” the Maoist leader also claimed that the police arrested three “workers” of the CPI(Maoist) on February 5 from Kotrapal village in Bijapur district. “Mallesh, Podyami Sukhram and Madavi Lachhu were picked up by police from their homes. All three are being tortured inhumanly in police custody and are being forced to join police as ‘Gopniya Sainik’ (secret agents). We demand that all three be produced before the court immediately,” the SRC secretary said.
The Maoist leader also accused the police of arresting two villagers from Bodali village in Bijapur and not disclosing it to the media. “Police and CRPF are going on rampage in many Bijapur villages. People from interior villages are scared to go to market places because common villagers are being arrested as ‘Warrantee Maoists’ and are being forced to surrender,” Ganesh Uike said while expressing solidarity with the teachers, laborers and Anganwadi workers of Chhattisgarh.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/engine-derails-as-maoists-damage-railway-track-in-chhattisgarh/article6912850.ece

STF jawan killed in naxal encounter in Chhattisgarh
Raipur: A Special Task Force jawan was killedin an encounter between security forces and naxalsin Chhattisgarh’s insurgency-hit Dantewada district on Thursday. The face-off between a joint team of security personnel and maoists took place in Dudhiras village under Gadiras police station limits, Dantewada Superintendent of Police, Kamlochan Kashyap said. A contingent ofSTF and district force was mobilised from Gadrias in the interiors forests, located around 400 km away from here. When they reached Dudhiras forests, after cordoning off some 18 km, a group of armed cadres opened indiscriminate firing on them leaving a jawan dead, the SP said.
http://english.manoramaonline.com/news/nation/stf-jawan-killed-in-naxal-encounter-in-chhattisgarh.html

Families of Thushar Sarathy and Jaison Cooper allege denial of rights

KOCHI: The relatives of activists Thushar Nirmal Sarathy (36) and Jaison Cooper (37), booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for Maoist links, have accused police of highhandedness. Thushar’s wife Uma said she was barred from the district court premises on February 6, on orders from police officers, when the case was taken up. She was also not allowed to give some books to him, on the grounds that he could only read whatever was available at the prison library.
“The search and arrest itself were carried out without a proper warrant,” said Uma, who works in an IT firm. “I had to seek legal aid to remain on the court premises and give books to Thushar. His brother Sooraj was still not allowed to meet him. We are denied our rights and police are terrorizing us. Continue reading →

1000 adivasis blocked a national highway in Chhattisgarh for 17 hours in protest against the arrest of Mutchaki Hadma

For 17 hours over Monday and Tuesday, traffic on the national highway that connects Chhattisgarh to Andhra Pradesh came to a grinding halt. More than 1000 adivasis, both men and women, blocked the highway in protest against the arrest of Mutchaki Hadma, a primary school cook. The protestors brought food and utensils, pots and pans, and sat on the highway, determined to not budge till Hadma was released. The protest started gathering steam in late afternoon as people from eight villages clustered outside the Tongpal police station where Hadma had been detained. Not only did people come from the Chhindgarh block of Sukma district, where Tongpal is located, but also from the Darbha and Kuakonda blocks of Dantewada district, many walking more than 20 kilometres.
Sukma and Dantewada districts are part of the Bastar region in southern Chhattisgarh, where armed Maoist guerillas have been fighting a prolonged low intensity war against the Indian state for more than three decades. The last decade has seen a heavy influx of government security forces in the region. Viewing local people as agents and supporters of the insurgents, the police and paramilitary forces carry out searches and interrogations in the villages, which have created a heightened sense of anger and resentment.
http://scroll.in/article/707787/Why-1000-adivasis-blocked-a-national-highway-in-Chhattisgarh-for-17-hours

Protest march in Delhi against denial of bail to Hem Mishra

Hundreds of students from Jawahar Lal Nehru University marched to the Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi, on Monday demanding immediate release of Hem Mishra. Mishra was arrested in August 2013, on charges of being a ‘Naxal Courier’. Mishra has been former student of the university, a cultural activist and former leader of Democratic Students’ Union (DSU). The protesters speaking with iamin said the march was organised after Mishra was again denied bail by a Maharashtra court on February 5. Logded in Nagpur jail, Mishra has been booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The ex-JNU student has denied all the charges levelled against him. He had also written a letter to his friends and family from Nagpur jail last year mentioning that he was being tortured on daily basis.
http://www.dnaindia.com/delhi/report-protest-march-in-delhi-against-denial-of-bail-to-hem-mishra-2061862