CHENNAI: Taking a cue from Sri Lanka’s war tactics against the Tamils, the Indian government, in the name of Operation Green Hunt, has launched an armed offensive against the tribals in Chhattisgarh, alleges Gopal Menon, an activist-filmmaker who is working on a documentary on atrocities by security forces When the State Declares War on the People.
Three-and-half lakh tribals have been displaced internally and have moved to the border areas of Andhra Pradesh after Operation Green Hunt, launched in the name of fighting the Maoists, to wipe out all forms of resistance, he told Express during the screening of a 10-minute trailer that depicts the atrocities in Chhattisgarh.
Among the chilling vignettes is visuals of a one-year-old child, whose four fingers were chopped off by the security forces comprising the CRPF and police. The child’s mother, Katam Kani (20), was killed after her breast was cut off. The narration of a gang rape victim and an elderly man, who was hung upside down and tortured, inside a police station, were also touching episodes. “When I landed in Chhattisgarh to document the problem, the police didn’t allow me inside the forest. I was taken to various places in a police jeep for six hours before they let me free,” he said, adding that he could not document more testimonies because of that.