Police Official Hurls Shoe At Kashmir CM

By Fayaz Wani

Srinagar, Aug 15: In a major embarrassment to pro-Indian government in Indian administered Kashmir, a police officer hurled a shoe towards chief minister of the region Omar Abdullah during a function of India’s Independence Day on Sunday.

The August 15 (India’s Independence Day) function was being held at Bakshi Stadium in Srinagar, the summer capital of the Indian administered Kashmir, under tight security cover. As 41-year-old chief minister of the region, Omar Abdullah unfurled the Indian flag, a police officer sitting in the VIP enclosure stood up and raised pro-freedom slogans.

The police officer hurled a brown colour shoe towards the chief minister. The show, however, missed chief minister’s cap by a whisker. The police officer also hurled a black flag towards the chief minister.

The police official identified as Abdul Ahad Jan was quickly overpowered by policemen and bodyguards of the chief minister and shifted him to an unknown destination, where he is being questioned.

Embarrassed by the shoe-throwing incident, chief minister later addressing the VIPs said, "Hurling a shoe is better than hurling a stone".

The police officer was reportedly angry over the killing of 58 Kashmiri youth in police and paramilitary soldiers firing in Kashmir since June 11 this year.

A police spokesman while referring to the incident said the police officer (Abdul Ahad Jan) was a suspended Head Constable. "He is reportedly mentally unsound and facing charges in a criminal case under FIR No:123 dated: May 21st 2010. He was arrested by Police in this case and later bailed out by the Court. He was suspended for his criminal activities on May 22, 2010," he said.

If the police version is to be believed, then it is unclear how a suspended police official could get into the VIP gallery, a place where access is granted only on the basis of special passes issued by the security agencies.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people had taken to roads at Bandipora in North Kashmir, where from the police officer hailed, and taken processions in support of shoe-throwing police official.

UP: 3 farmers killed in Police firing

Aligarh, Mathura: As India was celebrating 63 years of Independence, the village of Tappal around 80 kilometers from Aligarh resembled a battleground – the epicentre of violence between farmers and the police since Saturday.

There were protests in Mathura as well. Hundreds of farmers were demanding higher compensation for their land that has been acquired for the Yamuna expressway, a 165-km road corridor between Noida and Agra.

The agitation turned violent after police allegedly arrested a leader of the farmers. Three farmers died in police firing while some others were injured. A policeman was also killed in the clashes.

The Uttar Pradesh government has now ordered a judicial probe into the clashes. District magistrate and the SSP of Aligarh have been transferred following the incident.
"We were peacefully protesting but police started firing," said a protesting farmer.

The state government has appealed to the agitating farmers to maintain calm, but the Opposition is already stepping up the heat.

"The policemen who fired at innocent farmers should be arrested immediately," said Mulayam Singh Yadav, President, Samajwadi Party.

"The state government is responsible for the clashes and the Chief Minister should give a clarification," said Rita Bahuguna Joshi, UPCC President.

Story first published:
August 15, 2010 13:16 IST

This is your Army Mr Chidambaram!

(And the people belong to this country)   SOURCE: SANHATI

by Reyaz-ul-Haq [Translated by Priyanka Srivastava, Sanhati]

A picture could very well be a tide turner. The one image that makes a nation sit up, shake itself off its torpor and ask itself, how much more of this repetitive official nonsense can we accept and justify in our quest to become a developed nation and overlook the rampant denial of due process and decency. A picture can be a conscience raiser, the final straw, the one blow that cuts up the fine line between what a civil society will accept and outright barbarism. Not too many people remember the name of Nguyen Ngoc Loan. But a lot of people remember this picture.

The man who took this picture, Eddie Adams, won a Pulitzer prize. It helped turn the tide of one war-The Vietnam War.
Trevor Selvam, Pictures that Turn a Generation, Armies that Lies (Countercurrents)An anti-people war has been launched in our own country and the descriptions provided in the following paragraphs are from our own country.

***
A year ago we were in Lalgarh where women were telling us how they experienced freedom for the first time in their lives. They said that their ancestors were living a life of slavery since British times and it is only recently that they could claim to have gained rights over their days and nights.

To them this independence was not simply a right to vote. Rather, this was a freedom to go to the jungles for defecating without getting assaulted by the policemen. This freedom allowed them to get their wood from the jungles without having to strip in the name of security inspection. Their nights had become more peaceful because the police and paramilitary no longer ransacked their houses and beat them in the name of conducting search operations. This freedom ensured that their cattle could graze freely and not get caught by the security forces. Moreover, they could get their just wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) or the employment provided by the Gram Panchayats. Now government employees would think twice before asking villagers to pay bribes. For instance, the applications for Indira Awas Scheme were processed efficiently and without bribes. The chappal (slippers) police (CPM’s Harmad Vahini in local parlance) and the British (Indian Paramilitary Forces) could not terrorize the villagers any more. They could freely access their forests now and rightfully use the ponds adjacent to their houses. Their womenfolk had become fearless and their boys safer. There was no fear of the men getting caught and killed indiscriminately by the forces. In short, the villagers could assert their rights over their lives and surroundings.

West Midnapore: Security personnel carrying the body of two alleged Maoists killed during a gun battle between the ultras and a joint team of security forces at Deult village in West Midnapore district on Wednesday. PTI Photo

Mr Chidambaram, till 19th June of last year, this was PCAPA’s Lalgarh.

The images and news of this year present a sharp contrast to this…there is the picture of a young tribal woman who was hauled by the security forces like an animal. In Chhattisgarh where you are desperately trying to grab land and resources for your corporate bosses, women are routinely raped by the security forces and the police. The news from the area reveals that often these women are shamelessly presented as war booties.

Your police and army are correct. The brutalized women have indeed become symbols of victory. You and the system you represent could acquire no better trophies of your conquests. From northeast (Manorma Devi), Kashmir (Shopian) to Jahanabad, Lalgarh, Orissa, Bastar your system has left the same imprints of its victory everywhere.

In fact, you and your security forces seem to be proud of committing rapes because you have never issued any apologies or statements regretting these gory cases of brutalization. You want to establish ‘peace’ and ‘democracy’ in these regions by deploying your supposedly civilized, just, and democratic police and security forces. Probably your definition of civilization justifies these brutal methods of establishing peace and justice.

First Report on Demonstration at Indian High Commission – London 15th August 2010

Democracy and Class struggle

The protest at the Indian High Commission in London on the 15th August 2010 attracted hundreds of people. There were Kashmiri’s, Sikhs, Sri Lankans and Nepalese and other Indian nationalities present at the protest.

There were also representatives of progressive organisations in Britain all protesting Indian Expansionism and Operation Green Hunt and the murder of Comrade Azad spokesperson of the CPI Maoist and Hem Pandey a progressive journalist by the murderous comprador Indian state.

The protest organised on India’s National Day exposed the crimes of the Indian State and the sufferings of it peoples.The newly formed Alliance for People’s Rights in South Asia is to be congratulated for organising a successful protest.

The Gathering Storm of Mass Protest against Indian Occupation in Kshmir

August 14, 2010, NYTimes

Indian Forces Face Broader Revolt in Kashmir
By LYDIA POLGREEN

SRINAGAR, Kashmir — Late Sunday night, after six days on life support with a bullet in his brain, Fida Nabi, a 19-year-old high school student, was unhooked from his ventilator at a hospital here.

Mr. Nabi was the 50th person to die in Kashmir’s bloody summer of rage. He had been shot in the head, his family and witnesses said, during a protest against India’s military presence in this disputed province.

For decades, India maintained hundreds of thousands of security forces in Kashmir to fight an insurgency sponsored by Pakistan, which claims this border region, too. The insurgency has been largely vanquished. But those Indian forces are still here, and today they face a threat potentially more dangerous to the world’s largest democracy: an intifada-like popular revolt against the Indian military presence that includes not just stone-throwing young men but their sisters, mothers, uncles and grandparents.

Anti-Displacement Leader Madan Kalundia Dies in Judicial Custody

Victim of the Police firing at Kalinga Nagar

Source: Face Book

Madan Kalundia, a leader of anti-displacement movement of Kalinganagar (Odisha), died on August 3, 2010 in judicial custody.

Death of Com. Madan in judicial custody has come as a part of the Govt. Admn.-police attempt to crush the anti-displacement struggle of tribals against TATAs. His death is a telling story of the criminal disregard of basic rights of the people by not only the police and admn. but even judiciary in the service of corporates.

Hundreds of tribals have been thrown out of jobs in the industries of the area for refusing to leave their land for TATAs. Leaders and activists of the movement are arrested and not allowed to come out even on bail as they are re-arrested on trumped up charges.

Leaders and activists are being implicated in the open ended FIRs routinely registered against the agitators for false and fabricated charges. The power of different wings of the state and the goondas of TATAs is being openly employed to strangulate the struggle of tribals for saving their land.

Pseudo-Naxals dupe ISI!

Source: Indian Express

HYDERABAD: Is Pakistan’s ISI trying to establish contact with the outlawed CPI (Maoist)? A pseudo-Naxal gang busted by the Hyderabad City Police has made a stunning revelation that the ubiquitous ISI is indeed interested in doing so.The cops have arrested four persons, including a Telugu Yuvatha leader, who were all set to leave for Dubai to “establish ties” between Maoist leaders and associates of underworld don Shaik Shakeel Ahmed alias Chota Shakeel.

Though it is learnt that the intention of the arrested was to make a fast buck and go on a foreign junket by giving false assurances, the attempt by the Chota Shakeel gang to make contact with the Maoists at the behest of the ISI has come as a surprise.The accused are — Pasham Sridhar alias Tillu (27), a resident of Saidabad who is into real estate, K Sarat Chandra (39), a small time businessman from Mettuguda, D Pradeep Kumar (29), a realtor from Ramanthapur and G Pavan Kumar (38), also a realtor and Telugu Yuvatha president from Uppal.

Telugu Yuvatha is the TDP’s youth wing.In fact, it was the arrest of key accused, Vinay, in Bangalore which led to the arrest of the four. Vinay’s associate P Subbaiah Devaiah from South Kodagu district in Karnataka was also arrested. But the main accused, Altaf alias Rakesh, believed to be having links with the Chota Shakeel gang, is absconding.

PCPA: A Maoist affiliate emerges as a political force

Thousands of Indian activists of People' Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) gather in-lalgarh on august-9-2010

Lalgarh (West Bengal): Until a few months ago, Naru Singh and Debnath Singh of Chandabila village were part of the local folklore in Maoist-overrun Lalgarh, in the interiors of West Bengal’s West Midnapore district.

Active supporters of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM, the Singh brothers were known in this economically backward area, where many people survive on starch and leaves, for their wealth. They controlled at least 50 acres of land and a three-acre mango orchard; what they called home was a mansion.

Click here To view a slideshow of some of the initiatives by the PCPA to boost agricultural productivity and create infrastructure

But now they have lost everything. They have been driven from home, their properties seized and their mansion vandalized by the Maoist-backed People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA)—a less than two years old tribal political outfit founded to protest police incursions in the villages of Lalgarh following an attack on the convoy of West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

CPIM terror continues in Lalgarh

Enayetpur party office

MIDNAPORE/PURULIA: Armed CPM cadres allegedly continued their operation against the Maoists and members of People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities in some parts of West Midnapore. On Thursday, around 200 armed CPM cadres reportedly entered several villages near Belia, Chandra, Malbandhi and Pukurmuri in Midnapore Sadar block and drove out the PCPA supporters. Interestingly, there was little resistance from the Maoists on Thursday.

On Wednesday night, however, the red guerrillas resisted the CPM cadres near Dherua and stopped their advance towards Lalgarh. The CPM force, which had started their march from Enayetpur party office, is now camping at a primary school in Malbandhi.

PCPA secretaryManoj Mahato alleged, “Goons led by CPM leaders Anuj Pandey and Satyen Maity ransacked houses and set villagers’ homes on fire.” Mahato claimed that CPM cadres set fire on houses of Bijay Mandi, Bidhan Mandi and Bishu Mandi at Pukurmuri village.

On Thursday, police admitted that they have heard about some arson in some villages. They, however, did not try to enter those villages.

Purulia police meanwhile rounded up five Maoist squad members including an area commanderNandakumar alias Anandkumar. The four others have been identified as Bhabataran Mahato, Gobardhan Mura, Umacharan Mura and Mansaram Mandi. Police claimed that all five are the members of a Maoist squad active in the Ayodhya Hills.

Land reforms, Maoist style

MIDNAPORE: It was land distribution under Operation Barga that brought CPM to power in 1977. Thirty-three years later, the Maoists in Jangalmahal are treading a similar route to consolidate their support base in 200 villages from Goaltore to Midnapore town. The 60-kilometre stretch forms the ” Maoist core zone”, where men most wanted by the police like Manoj Mahato, Asit Mahato and Gopal Pratihar have a free run.

But this new avatar of Operation Barga is different from the one implemented by the CPM. Maoists have set their own parameters for land reform here. Family income and connections with the ruling party get maximum weightage in this reform process.

The jotedars close to mainstream political parties CPM and Jharkhand Party are the targets, and the beneficiaries are the landless farmers. The Maoists have begun this process in two villages Chandabila and Malkuri under the Midnapore Sadar block, six kilometres from Midnapore town.

First, they drove out Toton Singh and Naru Singh jotedars of Malkuri village, who have 150 bighas of land and own a huge ancestral house. Like CPM zonal secretary Anuj Pandey’s house, this building too was pulled down by Maoist-led labourers of around a month and a half ago. Then the guerrillas took possession of the entire land and distributed it among 53 local landless labourers. Naru Singh’s son Ajit, who is known for his proximity to CPM minister Sushanta Ghosh, could do little to prevent it.

San Francisco: Aug 13 Protest against the Indian Government’s “Operation Green Hunt”

Where: Indian Consulate in San Francisco

(540 Arguello Boulevard)

When: 11 am, August 13 2010

The Government of India has launched a domestic war named Operation Green Hunt in the forested regions of East-Central India, stretching from the states of Chhattisgarh to Jharkhand and West Bengal. This region is home to significant amounts of natural resources.

Big corporations, both Indian and foreign, are plundering these natural resources for quick profits and plan to continue doing so while paying almost no attention to the enormous environmental and human costs inherent in their ventures. The state and central governments continue to welcome these big corporations with open arms by signing an unknown number of memoranda of understanding with them-whose details have been kept secret. A recent report by the Ministry of Rural Development, on the other hand, described these trends as one of the biggest land grabs since the time of Columbus.

This forested region, rich in natural resources as it is, is also home to a large section of India’s roughly 100 million Adivasis (i.e., the tribal population). Using all means at their disposal, the Adivasis resisted the government’s efforts to forcibly drive them from their ancestral lands. Drawing on the Fifth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which is devoted to Adivasi rights and provisions for their protection, Adivasi activists challenged the government’s expropriations.

Instead of addressing the genuine grievances of the Adivasis, the Indian government has cracked down on their legitimate protests in violation of the letter and intent of the Indian Constitution. Peaceful resistance movements across this region have been met with police brutality and military might; this forced the arming of a section of the resistance movement. State-assisted vigilante groups like the Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh and Harmad Bahini in West Bengal were a response of the state to the armed resistance of the Adivasis.

When that failed, Operation Green Hunt-a further escalation and militarization of the State’s response-emerged.

We, a group of concerned individuals, urge you to join us in this protest.

Oppose the biggest land grab since Columbus!

Oppose Operation Green Hunt!

Oppose the war on people!

Sponsored by

People’s Front Against Operation Green Hunt

Endorsed by Sanhati

Orissa – Anti-Vedanta Dongria Kondh leader Lado Sikaka abducted

By Surya Shankar Dash. (Source : forestrights listserv from Sanhati))

August 10, 2010

Note 2

The story of Lado’s disappearance might not be as simple as we have assumed.This is what Bhawanipatna based activist Sidhart Naik (President of Green Kalahandi) has to say – About 15 Dongria Kondh people along with Sidharth Naik, Kumti Majhi, etc. were travelling in two vehicles to eventually go to Raipur from where they were to catch a train to Delhi in order to attend a meeting on 12 August. Before leaving Niyamgiri forest they were intercepted by another two vehicles with gunmen in it. Sidharth Naik says they were more likely to be goons and not police or CRPF – some of the gunmen spoke in Hindi and some in Telugu. At gunpoint, they made Sidharth Naik hand over Lado and Sana to them. Sidharth naik has registered a FIR with Lanjigarh police station.

Note 1

Last evening Lado Sikaka and Sana Sikaka were returning from Lanjigarh when a police team attacked and arrested them near Ijrupa village in the Niyamgiri forest. It seems Lado and Sana have been taken to an undisclosed location as they are neither in the Lanjigarh P.S. or Muniguda P.S. which are the nearest Police Stations. A third person who was also accompanying Lado and Sana was not arrested. Lado is one of the strongest Dongria Kondh protestors against Vedanta and he hails from Lakhpadar village that is closest to the mining lease area. A month ago 2 platoons of para-military had carried out a combing operation in Lakhpadar village and had beaten up Sana but were essentially looking for Lado who was not present in the village then. The general fear amongst the people there is that he will be framed as a Maoist and tortured. Also, taking Lado out of Niyamgiri means to deliver a severe blow on the anti-mining movement of the Dongria Kondh. Sources say the next person being targeted is Arjun Chandi of Kadamguda village. Essentially the police and company are targetting local leaders who are uncompromising and incorruptible. My sincere appeal to everyone to stand with the Dongria Kondh as the darkest period in their struggle has arrived.