Brutality in Phulpad

The news of villagers being beaten up by Maoists in Phulpad village of Dantewada district emerged a few days ago in the local media. We put together a fact-finding team (Bela Bhatia, Soni Sori, Lingaram Kodopi, Jean Drèze) and went to Phulpad on 15 September 2018. Soon after we arrived, the villagers assembled outside the local school and spoke to us about the incident. Most of them were very poor people who subsist mainly on farming.

We learnt that on the night of 5 September 2018, at around 3 am, a large Maoist cadre went to two parts of Phulpad (Koyalanpara and Markampara) and woke people up saying “sab ko jama hona hai” The men, women and children all gathered at one place. Meanwhile, the Maoists caught nine persons, including one woman who had tried to intervene when they caught her son. Some were beaten in front of the crowd, others, some distance away. Many had their hands tied behind their backs.