Dead Naxals carried like animals, NHRC objects

Agencies

New Delhi, 29 June 2010: The National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the Union Home Ministry following media reports showing the inhumane manner in which the bodies of Naxals were being carried by security men.

Media had shown pictures of eight Naxals including three women who were carried like hunted animals, with their hands and feet tied to bamboo polls. At the time, the Home Minister had slammed the CRPF and state police for such treatment meted out to the Naxals following an encounter in a forest in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district.

 

 

The NHRC is seeking a factual report from the Home Ministry and says that if the pictures are indeed authentic, it raises serious questions of human rights violations.

The Commission has sought a reply from the Secretary of Home Ministry within a month, ie by July 27, on the issue, an NHRC statement said here Tuesday. The Commission observed that the report, if true, raises a serious issue of violation of human rights of the victims.

"The photos were published on June 18 and it was alleged that they were taken following an anti-Naxal operation in West Midnapore, West Bengal. The report, if true, raises a serious issue of violation of human rights of the victims," the NHRC said in a statement.

In a major success, security forces had gunned down 12 Maoists, including three women, in a fierce encounter in Ranja forest of Salboni in West Midnapore on June 16, almost a year after anti-Naxal operations were launched in the district in West Bengal.