The People’s Union For Civil Liberties (PUCL) on Saturday demanded the immediate release of all tribal activists who have been arrested in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar over the past few years, including PUCL executive committee member Suneeta Pottam.
“Release all Tribal activists and innocent villagers arrested in the last few years, including Sunita Pottam, Surju Tekam, and other Moolwasi Bahao Manch activists at the earliest; FIRs be lodged and police investigation be undertaken against the false cases filed against all Tribals including activists,” it said, also demanding that first information reports (FIRs) be filed regarding several recent encounters with security forces listed by the organisation.
It has also sought a judicial commission headed by a Supreme Court judge to enquire into those encounters; the creation of conditions for peace and security talks with the local population, Adivasi community, and the Communist Party of India (Maoist); an end to the targeting of democratic rights activists; and the lifting of all restrictions on democratic movements.
Encounter deaths
In a statement, PUCL alleged that over the past six months, more than 150 people in Bastar were killed in counter insurgency operations by security forces. “We also are concerned at the indiscriminate arrests of activists, in particular 26-year-old Suneeta Pottam, a young Tribal activist associated with the PUCL, and Moolvasi Bachao Manch senior activist Surju Tekam and others who are raising their voice against the unchecked human rights violation in Bastar,” it said.
“It should be known that Sunita Pottam as a minor, had filed a PIL along with another activist in the Supreme Court of India (SC) on the extra judicial killings taking place in Bastar, in 2017. She also went up to the National Human Rights Commission with similar complaints in 2022, along with the false cases that were filed against her. She also exposed through fact findings the sexual violence that took place in Bijapur in 2016,” the PUCL said.
The PUCL alleged that many of those killed in the encounters were ordinary villagers, some of whom had been identified as minors.
Activist arrested
“What is alarming is that instead of trying to build trust in the citizenry by holding independent probes into these incidents, the Chhattisgarh government has reacted by arresting one of the foremost activists from Bijapur… Suneeta Pottam, on June 3. Suneeta Pottam had protested the spate of extra judicial killings of villagers in Kadenar, Palnar, Korcholi, Andri, and Peddakorma in Bijapur in 2016 by gathering evidence that the deceased were ordinary villagers shot in cold blood, and filing a Public Interest Litigation on this before the Chhattisgarh High Court, seeking an independent Special Investigation Team to inquire into these,” said the PUCL.
Ms. Pottam is also a member of the national-level organisation, Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression, since 2015.
