Kerala - Kochi

Aerial attack plan on Maoists flayed

KOCHI: A group of human rights activists, writers and intellectuals from across the country has condemned the Union government’s “offensive against Adivasis in the jungles of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, codenamed ‘Operation Green Hunt,’ in the name of wiping out threats from the Maoists.”

In a joint statement, 31 signatories decried the government’s move for aerial attacks on the Maoists by the Air Force.

“This is a matter of great alarm,” they said. “The murderous impact of such aerial attacks on civilians, despite all claims to the contrary, is well documented in all its horrors in every instance, be it Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka or Pakistan.”

They noted that already there was a long record of using the armed forces against internal uprisings and movements in the North-East and Kashmir “with numerous instances of gross human rights violations.”

“The horrors inflicted on the Adivasi people by the State-inspired Salwa Judum, condenamed by the Supreme Court itself, are still fresh in our minds,” they said.

The signatories, most of who are activists and intellectual from Kerala, such as B.R.P. Bhaskar, K. Sathcidanandan, K.G. Sankara Pillai, K. Ajitha, M.N. Ravunni and P.A. Pouran, said the CPI(Maoist) was a political movement that enjoyed wide support among the poor tribespeople of the two States and called for a political solution to the issue rather than a regarding it as a law and order issue.

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