APDR demands judicial enquiry into Malkangiri 'killings'

The Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) on Saturday condemned the "killing" of 28 Maoists, including several women in Odisha's Malkangiri district close to the Andhra Pradesh border on October 24, claiming the ultras were killed in captivity and not in any encounter.

"The incident of killing was described as an 'encounter'. The number and nature of casualties as reported in the media quoting police sources clearly indicate that there was no 'encounter' and people were killed in captivity," APDR working president Amitodyuti Kumar said in a statement.

Kumar claimed the ultras were "poisoned and sedated by agents beforehand and were targeted while asleep, some of them after brutal torture".

"According to reports some people, including a CPI (Maoist) leader, had been taken into custody, but they were not produced in any court or there is no news about their whereabouts," the statement said.

A Co-ordination of Democratic Rights Organisation (CDRO ) team will be visiting the spot in the first week of November to bring out the facts, it said.

The APDR demanded that the government should "stop the policy of physically eliminating political activists and dissenting voices, which tantamount to genocide of people believing in a particular ideology" and initiate a judicial enquiry by a sitting Supreme Court or High Court Judge to bring out the real facts of the carnage.

The non-governmental organisation also called for identifying the security personnel involved in the carnage and punish them as per law.

"FIRs must be lodged against those claiming an 'encounter' as recommended by the National Human Rights Commission," the statement added.

The Odisha government has said that the 28 Maoists died in an encounter in the cut-off areas of Chitrakonda in Malkangiri district.

--IANS

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