http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/in-maoist-land-children-bear-the-brunt-of-police-operations/article4219690.eceIn Maoist land, children bear the brunt of police operationsSUVOJIT BAGCHI In Abujh Maad — a 4,000 sq. km forest area mostly in Chhattisgarh — on December 12, police fired on tribal children attending a Maoist camp and killed a teenager, Chainu Mandawi, and arrested nine others. The police say that they were unaware of children attending the camp when they fired. The few armed Maoist cadre in the camp escaped and the police rounded up the children and sent them to a remand home.In another part of Abujh Maad, which lies in the Maoist-controlled areas of the Chhattisgarh, a security operation in March resulted in the death of another teenager and several arrests. In June, several children were killed in a CRPF operation, this time in Bijapur, outside Abujh Maad area.Around 240 policemen raided the day-long camp that was being attended by over 20 tribal children between the villages Sitram and Bala in Paralkot Reserve Forest area, 10 km inside the Maad. The night before, a few Maoist cadres arrived in the villages to select boys and girls, mostly below 14 years of age, for the camp.The Maoists control the area, which has little police presence otherwise, and villagers would have no choice but to send their children if the Maoists asked. “They [Maoists] said, there would not be any arms training but asked my son to carry his Bharmar [a country-made gun], which he uses for killing wild boar,” said Munglee Mandawi, Chainu’s mother. After the post mortem, Ms. Mandawi was given Rs. 1,200 by ‘someone’ in Pakhanjore civil hospital, for the last rites of Chainu, the breadwinner of the family of six.The Superintendent of Police of Kanker, Rahul Bhagat, in charge of the operation, … (Continued...go to http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/in-maoist-land-children-bear-the-brunt-of-police-operations/article4219690.ece)
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