It needed gunshots to remind everybody of the existence of Bhawanipur, near Mirzapur, on the map of east UP. This tiny hamlet of around 400 Dalits and Kol tribals still shudders when reminded of that fateful March 19 afternoon—16 youth, suspected to be Naxalites, were gunned down by the police. "Who knew that a simple tip-off about Naxalite presence in the area would have such a gory end?" asks Ram Asrey, a landless farmer. The eerie silence in the village echoes his state of shock.
Compare this with the upbeat mood at the Madihan police station. Panna Lal, the officer-in-charge, is most excited about his feat: "All of us have lived up to the expectations of our CM." He's now staking his claim for a reward for having wiped out 16 'criminals' in one go.
Combing operations were initiated in the village after a tip-off about Naxalite movement in the area. Police officials from the adjoining districts were also summoned to coordinate the operation. Says S.C. Gupta, dig Varanasi, one of the officials who led the operation: "This is our first major success against Naxals. This operation will put a full stop to their activities in the state."
But the villagers are not ready to buy any of these stories. Eyewitnesses claim that it was a ruthless operation and their ire is aimed only against the police. Asks a villager: "Why on earth were these men killed so brutally even after they had come out of their hideouts and surrendered themselves?" But the Varanasi IG, V.K. Singh, thinks otherwise. Says he, scoffing all allegations: "This was the cleanest police operation under the given circumstances. We gave ample time to the criminals to give up on their own." Police officials justify their action saying that the Naxals have been exploiting the poverty in this region bordering Bihar. Adds Gupta: "Besides, the villagers are lured by such criminals to help them in their activities."
The sense of achievement is indeed infectious. All the local constables are only too eager to play up their role in the operation. Says one: "We were ready to execute the orders. No wonder it happened within just two hours." Adds his colleague: "Now we can look forward to a quick promotion." Such statements have only fuelled the wrath of the local cpi-ml leaders and the villagers. "Isn't it strange that the police have been able to identify only four of the dead even after a week? What about the other 12 men?" asks Prashant Shukla, the city secretary, cpi-ml, Varanasi.
Incidentally, the villagers claim that there are too many loopholes in the police version even about the four they've identified as Lalvrat, Deonath Kol, Tyagi Kol and Suresh. Both Lalvrat and Deonath, they claim, are area commanders of the Maoist Communist Centre (mcc). And then the most poignant question: "Why was 12-year-old Kallu killed so brutally?" The boy had come to the village to attend a marriage party. Eyewitnesses allege that the police did not spare him the moment they came to know that he was from an adjoining village. "Even his maternal grandmother Pyari's appeals fell on deaf ears as they shot him down like a dog," says one local leader.
The villagers allege that all those killed were mere outsiders who had come to attend Pyari's daughter's wedding. They curse the one who went to the police with the information that a group of Naxalites had gathered at Bhawanipur. "It was just on hearsay that within minutes the village was surrounded by around 150 over-eager policemen who started firing from all sides," says one villager.
Human rights activists Chittaranjan Singh of the Peoples' Union for Civil Liberties and Krishna Avatar Pandey of the Peoples' Union of Human Rights, who visited the spot, refuse to believe that it was an encounter. Chittaranjan says that it was nothing less than manslaughter, especially after the surrender. Krishna Avatar Pandey says that "IG V.K. Singh is the man behind this cold-blooded murder". He has demanded an enquiry into the "fake encounter". The villagers, in the meanwhile, have lost all hope of a thorough and fair probe into the incident, lamenting that "no one's interested in a handful of Harijans and tribals".
But, unmindful of the public ire, senior officials like V.K. Singh are exuding confidence. "This is a typical reaction because political parties try and whip up emotions to gain mileage at such times," he says. Whatever his take on the incident in Bhawanipur, the police today stands accused of being brutal and trigger-happy.