India: FACAM – One year of Operation Kagaar

We hereby share a statement we have received from the Forum Against Militarization and Corporatization (FACAM).

ONE YEAR OF OPERATION KAGAAR: BLOODIEST YEAR IN THE HISTORY OF BASTAR SINCE BHUMKAL REBELLION OF 1910.

Operation Kagaar began overtly as a mass mobilisation of 3000 paramilitary forces from Odisha to Abujhmad in North-Bastar. It first quenched its thirst with the blood of an infant Mangli Sodi in Mutvendi Village of Bijapur District of Chhattisgarh on January 1, 2024. Since then this “Final war”, as it is meant for state’s Anti-Naxal war, has seen endless bloodshed in Bastar, making 2024- the bloodiest year in the history of Bastar since 1910 Bhumkal Rebellion. More than 300 people have been killed across the various states brewing with Naxalite rebellion, with more than 80 percent killings taking place in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar division. It has seen brutal massacre of Adivasi villagers and unarmed Maoists, apart from the Maoists actually killed during exchange of fire. Some of its bloody achievements include massacres of villagers and unarmed Maoists in fake encounters such killing of 3 villagers in Nendra (January 19), 2 unarmed Maoists and 4 villagers in Chipurbhatti (March 27), 10 villagers and 2 unarmed-ill Maoists in Pidiya (May 10), 4 villagers in Ghamandi forest (July 3), 5 villagers and 2 captured Maoists in Ghamandi (December 12) to name a few; the list is too long to be concluded. When it comes to women, bloodlust is not sufficient for the harbingers of “peace and development” in the region. A war is also waged on women’s body and dignity. Apart from routine harassment such as groping in the name of frisking and drone surveillance of bathing women, brutal rape and murder is being committed against them. One such example is gang rape and murder of 16 year old deaf and mute girl Kamli Kunjam in Nendra Village on April 2, 2024. This year also witnessed multiple mortar shellings as well as an aerial bombing attack on April 7, 2024, taking the count of aerial bombings to 5 times since 2021. Unexploded mortar shells, fired by security forces, are also a cause of great threat as two children lost their life when they accidentally triggered one shell on May 12, 2024.

A military operation as regional extension of erstwhile Operation SAMADHAN-Prahar and it’s successor Surajkund Scheme launched by Brahmanical Hindutva Fascists Modi-Shah, Operation Kagaar is similar to but way more brutal than Operation Clean being carried out in Jharkhand-Bihar border region which is rich in mineral resources and brewing with Naxalite rebellion. Supposedly aimed to wipe out the Maoists from Dandakaranya Forest that covers entire Bastar and parts of Andhra Telangana-Maharashtra-Odisha, Operation Kagaar is regardless a war unleashed on the local populace to make way for Foreign and Domestic corporates to plunder more than a dozen precious mineral resources including Iron ore, Coal, Gold, Diamond etc.

It is for this very purpose that as the armed hand of anti-naxal war, Operation Kagaar is also cracking down on popular mass movements of the Adivasis that have been waging at almost 30 protest sites under the banner of Moolwasi Bachao Manch in South Bastar and various other banners in North Bastar (Abujhmad). In this year alone, more than a dozen of leading adivasi leaders such Surju Tekam, Sunita Pottam, Lakma Korram, Madkam Joshan, Madkam Joga, only to name a few from a long list, have been arrested. Ordinary adivasi villagers are also rounded up in large numbers near sites of fake encounters to achieve 3 fold goal: tampering with witnesses, creating fear psychosis among the locals, and project inflated number of arrested “naxalites”. Through this armed hand of the anti-naxal war, the Fascist BJP-RSS is using the multipronged approach of Surajkund Scheme in these areas and sending Gestapo like agency NIA to witch-hunt the adivasi leaders in the name of anti-Maoist investigation. In a scenario, where the state is committing genocide by unleashing an asymmetric warfare and paramilitary forces in thousands of their numbers go out to “hunt” the Naxal guerrillas, encircle them and kill the numerically far less and technologically inferior force often armed with Bolt Action rifles of War War II era or worst, muzzle loading rifles from Victorian era. Despite the asymmetry in numerical and technological strength in such scenarios, forces are hunting and killing them like bloodhounds when they can be captured and taken through due procedure of law. But the state, treating the Naxalite movement as a military question as it has been made in the past years, sees the guerrillas not as their countrymen but enemy’s to be killed; countrymen who have picked up guns because of the socio-economic and political disparities prevalent in the country’s structure something that has been understood by civil society and even government formed committees in the past.

The state is shredding to pieces every pretext of rule of law and due process of law in these regions, bans the organisation of Adivasis of Bastar like Moolwasi Bachao Manch, unleashes NIA and expects the world to believe that they are out to catch Maoists, in a place where they are killed even after being captured as seen in many encounters and alleged by the Maoists in Chhote Betia encounter on April 20 where 29 Maoists were killed. Maoists alleged that among 29 killed, 17 were captured injured and unarmed, tortured and then killed. Let alone courts paying heed to allegations of Guerillas, none of the allegation of fake encounters, rape by security forces or aerial bombings have been heard even when villagers have protested in thousands of numbers. Instead of addressing the far cry of the people struggling to protect their existence and country’ resources from foreign corporate aggression, even superior most courts punish the victims approaching for justice as happened in the case of Gompad Massacre case in which 5 lakh [Editor’s note: 500,000 rupees] fine was imposed on Human Rights Activist Himanshu Kumar. Therefore, the all round attack on adivasi peasants can be summed up as state-corporate nexus saying that “You will be displaced, your house (Jal-Jungle-Jameen) will be destroyed to satisfy our greed, if you resist, you will be killed or jailed regardless if you are resisting through armed or unarmed means. If you raise your voice for being killed you’ll be jailed, if you are women you will be raped. And despite all these, if you still don’t break, we will rain bombs from sky and country will remain silent because of consent manufactured through corporate media”. But despite the brutal war being unleashed on adivasi peasants, they are resisting the corporate-state incursion and the loot and it is our historical political responsibility as patriotic and democratic forces to stand shoulder to shoulder with our brethren fighting to protect the country’s resources, environment, and their existence. Let us plunge into struggle to stop Genocidal operations like Operation Kagaar, Operation Clean and Brahmanical Hindutva Fascist “Surajkund Scheme”.