Hyderabad: A peace rally was held from Sundarayya Vignana Kendram to Indira Park on Saturday, May 3, by civil rights activists, students and other civil society organisations demanding an immediate end to ‘Operation Kagaar,’ launched in January 2024 in the Maoist-affected areas of central India, mainly in the forest areas bordering Telangana and Chhattisgarh.
Participants demanded the governments of Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and the Union government to facilitate peace-talks with the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and resolve the issues in a peaceful environment, with both the sides declaring ceasefire.
In April, Union home minister Amit Shah announced that by 2026, Maoists would be completely eliminated in India.
“Maoism has been confined to just four districts in India. The menace will end in the country by March 31, 2026, as stated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The CAPF (Central Armed Police Forces) and the CRPF, especially its CoBRA battalion, are playing a major role in eliminating Naxalism from the country,” Shah had said.
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The Maoist party offered to declare ceasefire multiple times in the past one month, with the condition that the Centre immediately withdraw its security forces from the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, and stop establishing camps in the agency areas there.
“Peace talks have been a process for the resolution of issues for the past five decades in our country. There is one section (government) which wants to corporatise the country by exploiting the natural resources and violating the rights of the Adivasis, and there is another section (Maoists) who have been supporting the democratic demands and protecting the rights of the Adivasis. Only peace can resolve the issues between the two ends of the spectrum,” said a former revolutionary student leader, speaking on the occasion.
Revolutionary singer Vimalakka reminded that the ones being killed were the sons and daughters of the country, and hoped the Centre would take a favourable view of the ceasefire offer by the Maoists.
The participants alleged that rocket launchers, drones and other sophisticated ammunition were being used by the security forces in the villages near the Karregutta forest area on the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border, where the security forces numbered in tens of thousands, were being pitted against the Adivasis and Maoists, to eliminate them by hook or crook.
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They stated that the Adivasis and Maoists were being massacred brutally, with many of them undergoing treatment in tribal hamlets.
The protesters demanded that both the Maoists and the government declare a ceasefire and that peace talks be initiated immediately.
