‘Factual Inconsistencies’

The article published in the Outlook dated 16th July, 2012 pertaining to [an] encounter held between security forces and the Naxals in the night of June 28-29, 2012 has a number of factual inconsistencies.

It is well know[n] that the area where the encounter took place is a liberated zone—as stated by the Naxals.

This is an area where there is hardly any govt. presence and the security forces have not ventured in this area for a long long time.

The normal democratic process as elections and the conducting of census have never taken place here.

This is the reason which the Govt. records are not able to bear out the exact name and the identity of the people who stay there or their background.

It has now been firmly established that 07 of the people who were killed in the encounter on that fateful night had clear-cut criminal records in the different police stations pertaining to Naxal activities. The encounter happened in the dead of the night and it was [the] Naxals who initially fired on the security forces as a result of which 06 security personnel suffered bullet injuries.

The media reports in the National dailies as Indian Express, Times of India etc. have clearly brought out the presence of Naxals in the village at that point of time when the encounter took place.

It is difficult to confirm whether the other persons who died that night were Naxals, their accomplices, their sympathisers or innocent persons.

A full-fledged investigation and judicial enquiry which have been ordered will bring out the facts in due course of time.

It is also a fact that after the firing stopped that night 06 injured security force personnel and 03 injured Naxals were taken immediately to the nearest hospital at Bijapur where they were attended by a doctor and given medical treatment.

In order to ensure their well being, they were transported by helicopter in the early hours of next day from Bijapur to Raipur so that their security and safety could be ensured.

The encounter took place under strict supervision and control of the officers present and even though there were a wide array of weaponry available, only rifles were used in the encounter.

The forces were moving in a tactical manner and yet the fire came towards them from different directions and so the forces retaliated in order to ensure their safety and security in self-defence.

At this juncture it was very difficult to gauge the strength of the Naxals or the amount of fire-power they possessed which could have caused lot of damage and loss of lives to the security personnel.

It needs to be emphasised that the firing was done in strict supervision of senior officers and no area weapons and other heavy weaponry was used.

It is also factually incorrect that some of the villagers were killed at 06 AM.

The encounter had started around 11 PM and the firing continued for about an hour.

Similarly, the allegations regarding molestation are utterly baseless and only meant to demoralise the forces.

It is difficult to fathom as to how the article states that the villagers were sitting in the open finalising details of an impending festival etc. in the middle of the night.

This is especially so when the article later states that the village Sarpanch was away on an errand and so it is difficult to believe as to how such an important discussion could take place without the Sarpanch being present.

The contention that the security forces did not reach Silger is also factually incorrect.

Even after the encounter took place, the force was split up and went to Silger where it met with another component from Jagargunda and the two after combing and search operations at Silger came back to Basaguda the next day.

It was only the Sarkeguda component which got bogged down whereas all other formations continued their march towards pre-determined locations.

It has time and again been said that the Maoists have used school children in the past to hoodwink the security forces.

Similarly, the very concept of Bal Sanghams also corroborates the version that the Maoists have children in their cadre and have been using them for various activities.

A Board of 04 competent doctors conducted the post-mortem of the dead bodies and gave their conclusions in the best possible manner they could.

Similarly, the injury report in respect of the injured security personnel also

bears out the fact that the security forces were injured in the face, abdomen and limbs by low intensity fire—a common weapon available with Naxals.

Though it is a fact that since the forces got engaged in the encounter at Sarkeguda, no training camp was found at Silger, yet the police party which started from Chintalnar and had an encounter at Penta did recover the remnants of a camp running there by discovering polythene sheets, daily use items and other female cadres, IEDs other training equipment etc.

—B.C.Khanduri, PRO, CRPF, DTE (An abridged version of this unedited piece appears in print)