Issued by the Office of the Chairperson Prof. Jose Maria Sison
International League of Peoples’ Struggle, April 29, 2018
The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) joins human rights organizations and prominent personalities in demanding a thorough and impartial investigation into what has now come to be known as the Gadchiroli Massacre of several scores of Maoist cadres, Red fighters and civilians.
Reports coming from various sources have cast doubts on the official version issued by the Indian authorities on the said incident.
The Indian government has often been guilty in the past of announcing “fake encounters” misrepresenting the massacre of civilians as armed encounters between government security forces and Maoist fighters.
In the Gadchiroli incident, Maoist fighters were reportedly attending a wedding of an Adivasi couple when they were suddenly surrounded by police and paramilitary forces and being caught by surprise could not fight back. The Maoists were reportedly captured alive but were subsequently tortured and murdered. Civilians were also reportedly murdered in cold blood presumably for being accused of supporting the Maoists.
The renowned Indian writer Varavara Rao has denounced the Gadchiroli incident as another case of a “fake encounter” being foisted on the public by the Indian authorities. He has accused the BJP-led Indian Government of committing genocide against Adivasis in order to pave the way for foreign companies to loot the mineral wealth of the forest regions populated by the Adivasis.
He has accused the government of unleashing white terror against the Adivasis who are at the forefront of the people’s struggles against the intrusion of these foreign companies. He has called on the National Human Rights Commission and international human rights groups like Amnesty International to look into allegations of human rights violations in the country.
Allegations of widespread human rights violations have been raised against the BJP-led government in connection with its Operation Green Hunt — a so-called counter-insurgency campaign targeting the Communist Party of India (Maoist), its people’s army and mass base. This counter-insurgency campaign has been characterized by massacres, illegal arrests, rape of women, enforced disappearances and other forms of violence against the people in the countryside as well as in the cities.
The Indian government’s massive crackdown against dissent has resulted in the incarceration of some 10,000 political prisoners which include prominent intellectuals like Prof. G.N. Saibaba, lawyers, student leaders, artists, trade union leaders and others.
The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) takes this opportunity to express its solidarity with Indian masses and revolutionary forces led by the Communist Party of India (Maoist) in their struggle for national and social liberation through protracted people´s war.
The ILPS condemns the BJP-led Indian government for carrying out a brutal war against the Indian masses and revolutionary forces in the interest of foreign monopoly capitalists and the local ruling classes of big comprador capitalists and landlords.
The ILPS calls on all peace-loving and freedom-loving people of the world to likewise condemn the brutal BJP-led regime and to give their support to the just struggle of the Indian masses for national and social liberation. ###
