Maoist violence can’t last: Modi
PM asks rebels to give up arms even as they take 300 hostage, kill one before releasing the rest
DANTEWADA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked Maoists to give up arms and spend five days with orphaned children, an ‘experiment’ he promised would help them change their violent ways, on a day the rebels took around 300 villagers hostage in Chhattisgarh.
The Maoists, who were protesting the construction of a bridge in Sukma district, released the hostages late at night on Saturday, after killing one of them.
“A villager identified as Sadaram, who was coordinating the construction activities, was killed in a jan adalat (kangaroo court) held by the Maoists. Around 300 tribals returned to their village at around 9pm,” said Sukma superintendent of police D Sharawan. The tribals were rounded up from Morenga village on Friday night. They were still in captivity when the PM delivered his message of peace to the Maoists in neighbouring Dantewada district, just 80km away.
“Humanity exists in them (Maoists) and they will change,” Modi, the first prime minister to visit the Maoist- infested Bastar region after the late Rajiv Gandhi, said. “The macabre drama of death will end. There is no future for violence.”
Modi said that if peace could return to Punjab after years of militancy and to Naxalbari in West Bengal, where the Maoist movement began, there was no reason to be pessimistic about the problem in Chhattisgarh.
Launching schemes worth `24,000 crore for the region — including a steel plant and railway lines — he said the state must move from violence and towards development. “Only a plough on the shoulder can bring development, not guns,” he said.
Both Dantewada and Sukma are in the Bastar region and have seen a string of Maoist attacks. Rich in minerals, especially iron ore, Dantewada witnessed its worst massacre in 2010 when the rebels killed 76 security personnel. In April this year, seven members of the elite Special Task Force were ambushed and killed in Sukma.
Earlier in the day, the police played down the hostage crisis. “This is not like a hostage situation where a ransom is demanded. It’s normal practice for Maoists to assert their domination over villagers this way. The ultras may hold a meeting where these villagers will participate and sooner or later, they will be let off,” said Shrawan.
They denied reports that the rebels’ actions were prompted by the PM’s visit.