A girl's tormenting days with naxals

NIZAMABAD, JUNE 14. ``I was starved of food, forced to walk long distances and not allowed to go back to my parents despite repeated pleas,'' was how 12-year-old Ullendula Sattavva alias Monika alias Bujji, began narrating her harrowing five months experience as member of the Kamareddy Local guerrilla squad of the banned People's War Group after being taken away by a woman dalam commander.

As the girl started speaking out, more and more horrifying details of her brief stint with the PWG came out. The girl surrendered before the Superintendent of Police, Dr. Ravi Shankar Ayyanar, on Wednesday after escaping from the dalam some three months ago. A thoroughly shaken Monika, spoke to The Hindu, explaining in detail her plight and treatment meted out to her in the dalam by the naxalites.

The only daughter of a landless labourer who was killed in an exchange of fire, Monika was taken into the PWG by the Kamareddy LGS commander, Swaroopakka, and made to work in the dalam. During this period, she was asked to undergo military training and handle weapons. Not interested in the underground life, she requested the PWG to send her back but was refused permission. During one brief halt in a village in Machareddy mandal, she made her escape and managed to reach her house. After three months, she surrendered before the police.

``When I was a small kid, one Swaroopakka, a naxal leader, used to come to our house on Pakal village and give us Rs.50 for our expenses. She used to enquire about our well-being and then go away,'' Monika recalled her first encounter with the naxals adding that one day, the same woman naxal came and took me along with her. ``She took me into the forest where I was introduced to several uniformed persons and told that she would also become a member.''

The girl went on to add that after her father, Ullendula Devanna, an active member of the PWG, was killed in an exchange of fire in 1997, the naxals used to frequent their house and meet her mother, Laxmi, in Hussainagar. Laxmi used to roll beedis to eke out her livelihood. ``Once I was taken into the dalam, my problems started,'' she said pointing to those hunger filled days, when no food was supplied to her. ``After much requests, they used to give me two three biscuits and asked me to accompany them. I was made to walk long distances during nights even as I expressed my inability to undergo such an experience.''

Monika said the naxalites were in no mood to listen to her pleas and questioned as to what she would do after going back to the village as her father was killed by the police in an encounter. The naxals tried all means to retain her in the dalam despite her disinterest. The naxals made her to undergo training and also gave uniform and asked her to accompany them where ever they went. Fed up with the difficult life, she decided to escape and her chance came when the dalam made night halt at Yellampet tanda. She managed to flee from the place and walked all night and reached her house in Hussainagar.

This is not the only case where innocent minors are forced to join the PWG, according to the SP, Dr. Ravi Shankar Ayyanar. He said that some months ago, another 14-year-old girl, Rajeswari, also surrendered before the police not able to adjust to the underground life. He also referred to another instance which occurred recently, when a dalam member, Narsaiah, told the police that the PWG had forced him to send one of his daughter into the dalam. The girl was forced to join the Sirnapalli dalam but could not face the hard life. When the dalam was taking rest in Nallavelli village, she escaped and reached her house.

The SP said the desperate naxals were trying all means to lure the people, including minor children, into the naxal movement. He said the girl would get instant relief of Rs.5,000 and the police had also proposed a reward of Rs.10,000 on the girls head. She is not involved in any offence.

The Additional SP (Operations), Mr. Atul Singh, said the situation was peculiar in Nizamabad only, where young children are lured by the naxals. He referred to the setting up of Radical Balala Sanghams (RBS) in the different villages of the district. More recently, some RBS were reportedly formed in Varni mandal, he added.

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