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The police, after questioning him, offered protection if he switched sides. He still
fears for his life:
Life is very difficult in this region. If we don’t help Naxalites, they
punish us. And if we do, the police punish us. I told the police that I
did not want to help Naxalites, but they trouble us. The police chief
asked if I would help the police instead. I agreed, and because of
information that I could provide, two Naxalites were arrested. But
since then I have been scared. Naxalites will know that I was
questioned and that must have led to the arrests. They will kill me. 332
The most frequent complaint against Naxalites is their extortion of food and money.
One villager complained that Naxalites demand food grains from them even when
they do not have enough to feed their families:
The people from inside [who live in the jungles—Naxalites] used to
visit my village two years ago, even before Salwa Judum started. They
used to ask us for food grains and if we said we didn’t have, then they
would threaten us with guns and force us to give grains. It didn’t
matter whether we had food to eat for ourselves, but we had to give
them. 333
In another case, Pradeep Rao saw Naxalites extorting money from his sarpanch-uncle:
When I was in class eight [around 2002-2003], I went to my uncle’s
house and stayed overnight at his house. At night, Naxalites came and
beat my uncle and took everything from home. They demanded 50,000
rupees and said that they would kill him if he did not give them the
money. My uncle gave them 50,000 rupees and that is why they did
332 Ibid.
333 Human Rights Watch interview with Prateek (pseudonym), IDP from Sankanpalli, village W4, Warangal district, November
30, 2007.
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Human Rights Watch July 2008