THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The uproar over the “Maoist Hunt” is gathering momentum in the State with more and more prominent personalities from various walks of life coming up with criticism against police for killing them instead of bringing them before the law. Joining the chorus, which echoes that killing people is a practice of an uncivilised society, was the retired Judge of Kerala High Court, Justice B Kemal Pasha. He said, of course, terrorists/ extremists should be punished if are proven guilty by the law. “
Those people (Maoists) should be produced before the law. there is no provision for the Police to shoot them at sight with the help of the term” Maoist Hunt”. Imagine, even a wild animal entering the human habitat is protected under law (Wild Life Act). We cannot simply shoot the creature. here, in the so-called encounters, human beings are not even getting the consideration that we are giving to wild animals,” Pasha told TNIE.
He said in both the encounter killings that happened recently (in Wayanad and Palakkad), it is debatable that whether those who were killed are deserved to be treated with death. “ Those extremists should be brought before the law. It is the Court to decide their fate. If they want to capture them, they could have shot them at the leg. Instead of that, the Police has killed the victims here. I wonder why the Human Rights organisations are not protesting against these incidents,” added Pasha.
The retired Judge also demanded a judicial inquiry into the issue. “What we are now hearing is the version given by the Police. A Judicial inquiry is necessary to know what was happened in so-called encounters. We should know whether the Maoists have fired at the Police first, making it unavoidable for the force to shoot them back,” he said.