Pretty upsetting if true. Chidambaram has to seriously think about fast-tracking reforms for our security agencies. Even if they suspect they are involved with the naxalites, there has to be a certain process to be followed.
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Beaten back by Naxals, BSF men torture tribals - The Times of India
KANKER: A hillock is strewn with empty bottles of whisky and sticks remnants of what tribals allege was a 48-hour torture session by drunk BSF men. The enraged people of Panchangi village have accused the paramilitary force, along with Chhattisgarh police, of brutally beating nearly 40 men. Two teenage girls have also alleged that they were sexually molested.
One of them says she was stripped, while another provided a detailed account of both mental and physical harassment. "One of them grabbed me around the chest and said, 'you are a Naxal, haven't you been touched by a man before'," says the 16-year-old girl who lives and studies in a government residential school and had come home to recuperate from illness.
The village has filed a written complaint with the district collector and a magisterial inquiry has been ordered.
Panchangi village is 15km from the site where a Maoist attack left three BSF jawans and two policemen dead on August 29. Exactly a week later, in the early hours of Sunday morning, villagers say a 100-member team of security forces landed up in the village.
"They went from home to home, pulling people out. Everybody was made to gather near the panchayat building. They wanted to know where we were hiding the guns. We told them no one in our village kept guns but they refused to believe us," says Shidre Ram, the village sarpanch.
What began then, according to detailed testimonies of several people, is a cycle of horror. "I was pulled by the hair and dragged to the hillock. I was stripped and told to lie down on stones. Then, they began beating me with sticks," says Amal Singh, a young man.
Villagers say several men were beaten up in a similar fashion all through Sunday and Monday. Narsingh Kumar, one of the five men who was brought to the district hospital at Kanker, shows his bruised back and swollen feet. "They thrust a stick inside my anus," he said.
"The BSF has ordered a court of inquiry into the allegations and it will be completed shortly," said Ram Awtar, DIG BSF. Villagers say another girl, Dhansu, was picked up from Aalor, a nearby village. She is among the six schoolgirls arrested on Wednesday and charged with being involved in attack on BSF. "Some of them are Bal Sangham members," says Kanker SP Ajay Yadav. But the girl's family insists they are innocent.
Meanwhile, another round of arrests have taken place, with 10 men being produced in court on Friday. Four of them are from Panchangi village. The police claims the men were arrested with weapons. "They kept asking us for weapons as they beat us, and we kept telling them we didn't have any," says Sukram Netam, an old man, recovering in hospital. "The police is free to arrest Naxals, but what gives them the right to treat us like animals," asks the village sarpanch.
Mods, request your help to keep this thread free of flame warriors.
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Beaten back by Naxals, BSF men torture tribals - The Times of India
KANKER: A hillock is strewn with empty bottles of whisky and sticks remnants of what tribals allege was a 48-hour torture session by drunk BSF men. The enraged people of Panchangi village have accused the paramilitary force, along with Chhattisgarh police, of brutally beating nearly 40 men. Two teenage girls have also alleged that they were sexually molested.
One of them says she was stripped, while another provided a detailed account of both mental and physical harassment. "One of them grabbed me around the chest and said, 'you are a Naxal, haven't you been touched by a man before'," says the 16-year-old girl who lives and studies in a government residential school and had come home to recuperate from illness.
The village has filed a written complaint with the district collector and a magisterial inquiry has been ordered.
Panchangi village is 15km from the site where a Maoist attack left three BSF jawans and two policemen dead on August 29. Exactly a week later, in the early hours of Sunday morning, villagers say a 100-member team of security forces landed up in the village.
"They went from home to home, pulling people out. Everybody was made to gather near the panchayat building. They wanted to know where we were hiding the guns. We told them no one in our village kept guns but they refused to believe us," says Shidre Ram, the village sarpanch.
What began then, according to detailed testimonies of several people, is a cycle of horror. "I was pulled by the hair and dragged to the hillock. I was stripped and told to lie down on stones. Then, they began beating me with sticks," says Amal Singh, a young man.
Villagers say several men were beaten up in a similar fashion all through Sunday and Monday. Narsingh Kumar, one of the five men who was brought to the district hospital at Kanker, shows his bruised back and swollen feet. "They thrust a stick inside my anus," he said.
"The BSF has ordered a court of inquiry into the allegations and it will be completed shortly," said Ram Awtar, DIG BSF. Villagers say another girl, Dhansu, was picked up from Aalor, a nearby village. She is among the six schoolgirls arrested on Wednesday and charged with being involved in attack on BSF. "Some of them are Bal Sangham members," says Kanker SP Ajay Yadav. But the girl's family insists they are innocent.
Meanwhile, another round of arrests have taken place, with 10 men being produced in court on Friday. Four of them are from Panchangi village. The police claims the men were arrested with weapons. "They kept asking us for weapons as they beat us, and we kept telling them we didn't have any," says Sukram Netam, an old man, recovering in hospital. "The police is free to arrest Naxals, but what gives them the right to treat us like animals," asks the village sarpanch.
