Indian forces kill two people in Chhattisgarh
Incident follows killing of 14 alleged Naxalites in Bastar region on Jan 3
Bijapur: Indian forces’ personnel killed two people during a cordon and search operation in the Bijapur district of the disturbed state of Chhattisgarh on Saturday.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the joint team of Indian forces was carrying out an anti-Naxalite operation following intelligence inputs about the presence of Maoist cadres in the area, a senior official told the media.
The incident comes weeks after at least 14 people, described by authorities as Naxalites, were killed in two separate operations in the Bastar region on January 3. The Bastar region comprises seven districts, including Bijapur.
Last year, as many as 285 Adivasis were killed in Chhattisgarh after being labelled as Naxalists or Maoists by Indian forces.
Civil society groups and political leaders have strongly condemned the killings, describing them as “fake encounters” carried out by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Indian government against members of the CPI (Maoist) organisation.
Human rights and civil liberties groups across India have also denounced extrajudicial killings of CPI-Maoist leaders and cadres, many of whom are Adivasis. They assert that no person, regardless of political affiliation or ideological beliefs, is beyond the protection of the law. Such killings, they argue, violate the right to life and due process and undermine the foundations of a democratic society governed by the rule of law.
According to reports, more than 430 individuals, including Maoists and civilians, have been killed by Indian forces’ personnel in fake encounters in the Bastar region since January 2024.
The Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has stated that despite clear legal precedents, ongoing operations such as Operation Kagar, and its offshoots Operation Sankalp and Operation Black Forest, exhibit a disturbing pattern of indiscriminate killings. It maintains that the operations reflect a systematic policy of extermination that bypasses the criminal justice system and violates constitutional norms.
The Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO) has demanded that arrested Maoists be produced before a court immediately and that a judicial inquiry be conducted to investigate the alleged encounters.
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