“Being Neutral is Our Biggest Crime” - Global Coalition to Protect ...

Gangi, one of the villagers, said that her nephew Baman had come to stay with her in
Nayapara in Dantewada to look for employment as a laborer. Six other young men,
all in their early 20s, had also come with him. They had arrived on May 16, 2007, and
the next morning they went to Dantewada town to see if they could meet a labor
contractor. They failed to find work and returned with food rations and vegetables
that they cooked and ate. At around 11 a.m., when they were resting outside Gangi’s
hut under a mantap (shed), a Marshall jeep arrived.
Baman’s cousin, Aitey, was bathing at a hand pump nearby when the jeep arrived.
She said that there were children playing there and her eight-year-old son was trying
to learn how to ride a bicycle. Aitey said,
I saw the Marshall. I thought that some people had come to buy some
alcohol from us as people usually come for that. But several men got
out and started firing at Baman and his friends. Everyone was running
away from the firing. My son dropped his cycle and started running. I
shouted, “Watch out, there are children!” and started running to shield
my son. The men shouted back at me saying, “You are feeding
Naxalites!” The firing continued. Two of Baman’s friends were killed
right away. The others ran away—except Baman. 120
Meanwhile, Gangi said that she had heard the firing and had come out of her house
to see what was happening:
Baman did not escape. They caught him. They would not listen to him.
He tried to explain that they had come here for work. They tied up his
hands and feet and started beating him. He kept screaming he was
innocent, but they were beating him. He screamed for help and called
out to me to give him water, but I was too scared to go near him. 121
120 Human Rights Watch group interview with Aitey and Gangi, Nayapara., Dantewada, January 29, 2008.
121 Ibid.
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