Vigilantes In A Cycle Of Violence

• On August 7, 2003, a local Village Resistance Group known as the Nagrik Suraksha Samiti (Citizens ProtectionCouncil) in Lango village under Dumaria police station in the east Singhbhum district of Jharkhand killed nineNaxalites of the People's War Group (PWG), including two women and an 'area commander'. Two other Naxaliteswere maimed in the incident.
  
  The slain Naxalites included hardcore cadres of the PWG from Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa. The encounter wastriggered by a feud between the extremists and the villagers over the formation of the citizens protectiongroup, which had been set up by the Jharkhand Police to check the Naxalites.
  
  Villagers also resented the PWG's efforts to stop them from farming their land. The PWG had also instructedvillagers not to accept seeds and other facilities from the Government. The victims of the lynching reportedlycame to the village to warn the villagers against tying up with the local administration against the Naxalites.
  
  
• On August 8, an irate mob of villagers lynched a PWG rebel in Chirugoda village under Potka police station inthe East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. The Naxalite killed was among the 14-member armed squad that hadraided Lango on the previous day. The militant was caught when tribal men maintaining a night vigil gotinformation that a PWG activist had taken refuge at the home of one of his relatives in Chirugoda.
  
  
• On August 22, immediately after the Chief Minister's announcement of a Rs. 150 million development package forNaxalite-affected Dumaria block, the residents of Asthakuwale village of East Singhbhum district lynched oneNaxalite when a group of 20 extremists, including women, arrived at the village under Ghorabandha policestation and opened two rounds of fire when the residents refused to give in to their demand for food

The lynching of 11 proscribed Naxalites last month by local Village Resistance Groups inthree different incidents in East Singhbhum district in Jharkhand has been projected in official circles as apopular upheaval against the Naxalites. It is, however, far from the case that these incidents represent adecisive reversal of fortunes for the Naxalites. Retribution itself has been swift, though still limited.

According to unconfirmed reports, a village watchman went missing after the killing of thePWG activists. The PWG killed two watchmen in Dumaria for passing on information to the police. Fear ofretaliatory attacks continues to haunt the locals and villagers, as youth armed with bows and arrows guardstrategic places in the villages in this hilly region.

At present Jharkhand is the worst Naxalite-affected state in India. Left Wing extremists, mostly the PWG andthe Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) run virtual parallel governments in many areas, holding Jan Adalats (People'sCourts) to settle both civil and criminal disputes, and imposing penalties that range from simple fines tomutilation and death.

The Naxalites are active in 16 out of 22 districts of Jharkhand, of which the worst offinclude: Chatra, Palamu, Garhwa, Giridih, Latehar, Gumla, Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Lohardaga and Bokaro. Nearly 400people, including 144 policemen, have been killed since November 2000, when Jharkhand was created after thebifurcation of the state of Bihar.

Of late, the MCC is trying to expand and consolidate its presence in areas bordering Orissaas well. As a result, there has been a spurt in Naxalite activities in the Sardna forest areas in WestSinghbhum district bordering Orissa. These rebels are also active in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

The increasing lethality of Naxalite groups is, to a considerable extent, due to the deepening understandingand coordination between the MCC and the PWG. In November 2002, a joint Statement issued by the two groups atPatna (Bihar) stated that the indiscriminate use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) against theactivists and sympathizers of Naxalite groups by the Jharkhand Government had "compelled them to iron outdifferences" and fight jointly against the state machinery. The cementing over of differences between thetwo most powerful Naxalite groups in India is part of a larger strategy aimed at the unification of Maoistmovements across South Asia.

Since the creation of the new state in November 2000, the authorities pursued a vigorous anti-Naxalite policy.The state has relied heavily on police operations to neutralize the armed groups. A team of civil societyactivists, which toured six districts of Jharkhand between January 29 and February 3, 2003, concluded that,"all the laws of the land are replaced by POTA".

According to their findings, a total of 654 persons in Jharkhand had cases filed againstthem under POTA, 202 persons, including some 10 minors, had been arrested, and the total number of personsnamed under POTA stood at 3,200. The social profile of most of the arrested persons showed that a majority ofthem were either farmers, students or daily wagers.

A majority of them were booked just because they gave the Naxalites food or were inpossession of Naxalite literature. In contrast, the study noted, only 100 persons had been arrested and 400accused under POTA in Jammu and Kashmir, a state far worse affected by terrorist violence. In Andhra Pradesh,another state significantly affected by persistent left-wing violence, an estimated 40 persons had been bookedunder POTA.

Little attention has been paid by state authorities to other critical issues that sustain Naxalite groups,such as the social roots and support structures of the Naxalite groups, their financial operations and empire,the relative unpreparedness of the police force, and the abysmal performance of the institutions of civilgovernance in Naxalite-affected areas.

The result is that the Government's anti-Naxalite drive, despite the large scale use of thepolice and paramilitary forces, has failed to yield desired results. Rather, the Naxalite groups appear notonly to have expanded their influence, but are increasingly using Jharkhand as an important base to securetheir larger goal of the unification of Maoist movements in the country and across South Asia.

There have been allegations that the state is increasingly taking recourse to or promoting extra-judicialmeans to deal with the menace of Naxalism. The People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Jharkhand Unitquestioned the role of the police in the lynching incidents and said: "No section of the community can beauthorized / allowed for (sic) extra judicial execution and killing." The PUCL has also petitionedthe National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), accusing the police of persistent dereliction of duty inmaintaining law and order in Dumaria block of the east Singhbhum district.

Isolated incidents of mob fury against the Naxalites, while they do reflect increasing popular frustrationswith the 'revolutionaries', can hardly suffice to contain the menace of Left Wing extremism in the state. TheNaxalites are evidently aware of this and continue to respond poorly to the repeated announcements of a'surrender and rehabilitation' policy by the state government.

The recent offer by Chief Minister Arjun Munda to hold talks with the extremist groupsactive in the state has also received scant attention. Under the circumstances, incidents of random violenceby civil protection groups or vigilantes can only result in an escalating cycle of violence in the State.

Nihar Nayak is Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management. Courtesy, South AsiaIntelligence Review of the South Asia Terrorism Portal.