RAIPUR: Citing “brazen intimidation” of activist Bela Bhatia by unidentified men, the Amnesty International India said that the Chhattisgarh government needs to do much more to end the threats and violence faced by human rights defenders in Bastar.
In the statement issued on Wednesday the human rights advocacy group stated that in recent months, several human right defenders in Chhattisgarh have been threatened, intimidated or arrested under trumped-up charges.
“It is chilling to see the continuous intimidation of activists in Chhattisgarh taking place under the noses of the state police. The Chhattisgarh government should be embarrassed about failing to uphold the rule of law,” said Aakar Patel, Executive Director of Amnesty International India.
On 19 and 20 January, Bhatia had accompanied a team from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to record the statements of tribal women who had registered complaints of rape, sexual assault and looting by security forces in 2015.
Earlier on January 7, the NHRC in its press release had said it had found prima facie evidence of rape, sexual and physical assault by state police personnel in three separate incidents, including one in which Bela Bhatia had helped tribal women to register a complaint.
The civil rights activist Bhatia said that the Monday incident was the third such attack in the last one year. “I was also targeted in March previous year for my work among the tribals and was asked to pack-up and leave”, she said.