["The attack on the tribal activist, who has emerged as a face of Tribal's democratic protest in Bastar, came two days after a legal aid group of woman lawyers and a freelance journalist were forcibly evicted from their residences allegedly at the behest of Bastar police boss SRP Kalluri."
Also look up: <http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/now-they-are-not-just-coming-after-us-but-also-those-with-us/>, <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/raipur/Acid-like-substance-rubbed-on-AAP-leader-Soni-Soris-face-in-Bastar/articleshow/51073287.cms>, <http://scroll.in/latest/803911/aam-aadmi-party-leader-soni-sori-attacked-in-chhattisgarh>, <http://www.thequint.com/hot-wire/2016/02/20/unidentified-men-attack-soni-sori-with-a-liquid-case-registered>, <http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/unidentified-men-allegedly-hurl-acid-like-chemical-on-soni-sori-in-chhattisgarh-1279564>, <http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/activist-soni-sori-attacked-with-acid-like-substance-in-chhattisgarh/story-0ko6J0lAAV0CJDLpE8dgdK.html>.] I/II. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/soni-sori-attacked/article8262627.ece RAIPUR, February 21, 2016 Updated: February 21, 2016 09:24 IST AAP leader Soni Sori attacked PAVAN DAHAT [Photo: Soni Sori at Maharani Hospital in Jagdalpur after the attack.] Tribal activist and the Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader Soni Sori was attacked by some unknown assailants in Dantewada district of South Chhattisgarh on Saturday evening. According to her nephew Lingaram Kodopi, the attack took place when she was returning from Bastanar town of Dantewada to her residence in Geedam town. "Two persons forcibly threw something on her face. It looks like an acid. Her eyes and face are burning. We took her to a hospital in Geedam, but they asked us to take her to Maharani hospital in Jagdalpur. We are taking her to Jagdalpur now," Mr.Kodopi told The Hindu. No police officer in Bastar was available for comment on the incident at the time of writing this report. According to some reports in local media, which quoted Geedam police inspector Vinod Tiwari, it was not acid but "burnt grease lubricant." ***The attack on the tribal activist, who has emerged as a face of Tribal's democratic protest in Bastar, came two days after a legal aid group of woman lawyers and a freelance journalist were forcibly evicted from their residences allegedly at the behest of Bastar police boss SRP Kalluri.*** [Emphasis added.] Mr.Kalluri had on Friday defended the action saying that the lawyers had been "snatching the employment of locals" resulting in an "atmosphere of tension" in Bastar. On Friday, some civic officials in Dantewada had informed her that her house in Geedam town was on an "encroached land" and could be demolished. Ms.Sori had been consistently and single-handedly raising the issues of atrocities on Bastar tribal by security forces in the name of tackling Maoist insurgency. She came to Raipur on February 16 to lodge a police complaint against Mr.Kalluri, however, her complaint was not registered. "I went to Dantewada police with a complaint against Mr.Kalluri earlier but they refused to take my complaint by saying that Mr.Kalluri is a tribal so no case of atrocity can be made out against him," She told this reporter in Raipur on February 16. She has been consistently maintaining that Mr.Kalluri had been "instigating people" against her. According to some local sources, the attack, even if it turns out to be not an acid attack, was carried out in order to scare Soni Sori, one of the last voices against police brutality in Bastar. V painful. Whats happening everywhere? Hope she recovers fast. Chattisgarh govt shud nab culprits immediately https://t.co/4sSjOExwrE — Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 21, 2016 II. [Further update] From: Shalini Gera <[email protected]> Date: 21 February 2016 at 09:38 Subject: [JagLAG] Update on Soni To: [email protected], women-against-sexual-violence <[email protected]> Spoke with Soni - 1. Her face is swelling up now, and she is still in pain and unable to open her eyes because of the swelling etc. Her voice is also very muffled. 2. The Maharani District Hospital in Jagdalpur has been converted into a "catonement" - according to the Hindi daily Patrika. Apparently, 150 security men are now guarding the hospital. No one is being allowed to meet Soni - even her close AAP party colleagues are being kept out and she is very upset about it. Why is it that when we were asking for her security, fearing an imminent attack - nothing was done and even the phone calls not answered, but now **after** the attack - all the force has been deployed to keep her support group out in the name of "security?" 3. Her police statement has not been taken yet, she says, which means that an FIR must not have been filed yet? Some tehsildar came to take her statement, but she is not happy about that since she could not open her eyes to read what he has written, and doesn't trust him to have written it down correctly. 4. She says that when the attackers attacked her, they told her to "stop complaining against the IG, stop raising the issue of Mardum, and if you don't behave yourself, we will do this to your daughter as well." Please remember that she has been trying to register an FIR against the IG of Bastar Range, SRP Kalluri, under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, but has been unsuccessful so far. Also, Soni has been raising the issue of the fake encounter in Mardum thana in Bastar district, in which Hidma was killed. While the police claim that Hidma was a high-ranking Naxalite ("1 lakh ka inami naxali") whom they killed after a fierce encounter in the jungles, the entire village claims that Hidma was an ordinary villager, who was picked up at night from his house. Not only did he have a voter id, a bank account in his name, he had also been allotted the Indira Awas. Clearly not a Naxal living in the jungles. Also, his wife and elder daughter are eyewitnesses to the fact that police came late at night to pick him up, and the wife even recalls the name of the police officer who had come to the house. Soni had taken these villagers for a press conference in Raipur, and has been trying to register an FIR in this case as well. The earlier information that we had which hinted that an attack on Soni was impending also linked this attack to the Mardum thana. So, it is important that groups which are publicly raising the issue of the attack on Soni, also raise the issue of the fake encounter in Mardum, and also point out that this was a planned attack, not an "accident". Will try to dig up paper cuttings of the mardum incident and send them across (or maybe others can do it). 5. The same Bastar police force which is accused in the Mardum encounter is now providing her "security" in Jagdalpur. We should ask for her immediate referral to a Raipur hospital. -Shalini http://epaper.patrika.com/c/8716457 -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
