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In end August, in the
districts of Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital, near the Nepal border, hundreds of
special police combed the Saufutia forests arresting, beating and torturing the
poor villagers. Having received information of a reported MCCI military training
camp in the area, the ruling classes went into a panic. The media built up a
hysteria sometimes targeting the MCCI, sometimes saying that it was of Maoist
from across the border. The Aug 31 issue of the Hindi daily, the "Dainik
Jagran", said that roughly 35 people who were given military training in a
camp in the area have melted deep into the forests, with no trace. In the
process the police have arrested six people from the Rudrapur area including a
mahilla villager while the Nainital police arrested 11 more. All are villagers
and are extremely poor. Some families have no food to eat. The police said (Amar
Ujalla, Aug.31st) that Maoist influence has spread to three districts of the
Kumaon region —Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar and Chapavat. They claim that April
22, the founding day of the then PLGA (People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army) was
held in a big way in the region. The names of those involved being put out by
the police include two mahilla comrades. They also claim a lot of Maoist
literature has been seized in the area. They further reported that over and
above the existing police force four additional platoons have been combing the
area. The masses say they have been spreading terror in the region.
A five member PUDR
(People’s Union of Democratic Rights) team which visited the area, in its report
stated that: in the name of investigation the police are infringing all the
basic rights of the people; all the arrests made are totally illegal; the
arrested are not being produced in court; that in Uttarkhand anyone who seeks to
fight against the excruciating poverty is framed as a Maoist and attacked; the
charge put on the arrested are ‘anti-national’ which can result in a death
sentence. They have demanded that one Ishwar, arrested from Haldwani, be
immediately produced in court; the continuous interrogation searches and threats
to large number of social and political activists by the police be immediately
stopped; action be taken on those officials that illegally detain people; remove
the anti-national charge on those arrested.
On Sept.15. in
Haldwani a large detachment of armed police surrounded the house of M.B.College
student, Ishwar, demanding his brother, who is an activist of a student
organisation. For five days there was no trace of him. When a team of PUCL
activists went to meet the police in this connection, Ishwar suddenly appeared
and he too was framed as an anti-national.
But the terror of the
Uttarkhand government is not only focused on Maoists there but on all democratic
dissent — and it is increasing day by day. A few months back struggling workers
in Pantnagar were brutally attacked by the police; in the Capital, Dehra Doon,
teachers were lathi-charged; similar attacks on the struggling people were made
at Sultanpur, Ravindranagar and numerous other places. In the present round of
attacks no one has been spared, not even civil liberties and democratic rights
activists.
This continuing white
terror in Uttarkhand by the Congress government there was roundly condemned at a
public meeting held by the Uttarkhand Sanyukt Sangarsh Morcha in Rudrapur (Udam
Singh Nagar) on Oct 15 2004. This Morcha was a front of some 20 mass
organisations covering a wide spectrum of student, youth, women, workers,
peasants and citizens organisation with Kamla Pant as the convener.
Interestingly this
region has a history of the naxalite movement in the early 1970s when 31st
battalion of the PAC had been moved to Rudrapur in 1972 to crush the upsurge
that was spreading like wild-fire against the big landlords of the region.
Before 1947 this region was thick forests, but after 1947 Pakistani and
Bangladeshi (then East Pakistan) were settled in this region by the government
who turned the region into lucrative agricultural land. The land was captured by
big landlords and in the 1960s the situation became tense. The Naxalites
movement entered the Terai and spread fast to Rudrapur, Gadarpur, Kichcha,
Shaktifarm, Bajpur, and Kashipur. Later, due to mass state terror the movement
was crushed. But, as it appears the revolutionary tradition lives on in the
region. No doubt, this time they will more effectively fight back the
landlord-government-police combine.
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