After lying low for about one and half years, salwa judum — a tribal movement against Naxals in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh — is all set for revival, giving a new twist to the ongoing anti-Maoist campaign in the state.
Around 1000 judum members on Wednesday gathered at district headquarters town in Bijapur, located in Maoist-infested belt of Bastar region, and vowed to revive the movement, that once posed the “biggest ever challenge” to the Maoists in their own bastion.
Tribals from nearly 20 surrounding villages assembled on the occasion and staged a silent rally in the town as a show of strength.
“We have been watching silently the savage killings of our members, civilians and security personnel by the insurgents for the last few months. We can no longer sit with our fingers crossed and allow the barbarians to go unchallenged,” Goitia Somaiya, a judum leader told the gathering virtually “sounding a war trumpet” against the Left wing extremists.
The 48-year-old Gond tribal, who had led his folks in 30 panchayats in Sukma block in Dantewada district to flush out the rebels in the region in 2005, told this newspaper from Bijapur after the rally, that senior leaders of the judum have held several close-door meetings recently to give final shape to the plan to give a new lease of life to the movement.
They have been in touch with local judum leaders in villages in Bastar region for the purpose.
The rally signalled the revival of the movement, he added.
The judum leadership, however, preferred to stay away from the rally, apparently to avoid legal hassles, sources close to a founding member of the movement told this newspaper.
Several cases of alleged excesses by salwa judum members are currently pending with the Supreme Court.
Judum lost its momentum a year and half ago when human right activists charged several of its members with committing excesses and dragged them to the courts.
When contacted, the co-founder of the Judum and former Congress MLA of Dantewada, Mahender Karma said the members were ready to join the fight against the Maoists again. He, however, refused to elaborate further on the plan, saying, “It will be against the interest of our members”.
“The battle against Maoism can only be won by a people’s movement like us not by the police bullets,” he said.
Formally launched on in May 2005 at Karkeli in Bijapur district, the movement spread like wildfire in at least six blocks in three districts of Bijapur, Dantewada and Bastar in just three years, wresting nearly 2000 sq km of area from the Maoist hold.
The rebels felt the biggest threat to their existence in Judum and targeted the Judum members.
Mr Karma, who escaped several Maoist bids to his life including a suicide attack, claimed that at least 500 Judum members had been killed by the Naxals so far.