13 tribal villagers

HRDs

Chhattisgarh

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on December 28, 2021, regarding the unprovoked raid and assault on peaceful protestors, who were protesting an illegal police camp being set up in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district.

A police camp was being set up in Nahadi without any consultation with locals in early November 2021.  Officials came and started measuring land, giving rise to fears among locals that construction work may commence soon. Locals feared that if the camp came up, they would not be able to travel to other villages or collect produce from the forest. Women also fear sexual harassment and violence from police personnel posted there. In November 2021, the villagers including men, women, and children visited the protest site every day and raised slogans peacefully against the camp, and demand the establishment of a hospital, a school, and an anganwadi instead of a police camp. Protestors also demanded action against the culprits of the Silger police firing in 2021 and the killing of 17 Adivasis by the police in Sarkeguda in Bijapur in 2012. 

On December 9, 2021, personnel of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) including women commandos raided the protest site in Nahadi’s Karka area without any warning, assaulted the protestors and ordered them to vacate the premises.

We believe that the raid on peaceful protestors in Nahadi by police and paramilitary personnel was conducted to muzzle peaceful protests by villagers against the police camp and is against the values enshrined in our Constitution These actions by the police personnel is a gross abuse of the fundamental right to life and personal liberty and free assembly under the Indian Constitution as well as a complete violation of their human rights guaranteed by national and international laws.