At least two tribals were killed in police firing at Narayanapatna, about 100 km from the district headquarter town in south Orissa’s Koraput district on Friday.
Sources said, police opened fire when about 200 members of the Chasi Mulia Sangha, an organization of tribals with ultra left leanings, tried to attack the police station and loot the arms, official sources said.
One of the deceased was identified as the secretary of the Chasi Mulia Sangh, N.Siganna. The other deceased however is yet to be identified, the sources said. Central security forces like the Central Reserve Police Force and Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) have been deployed in the block headquarter town to control the situation.
One of the key functionaries of the Sangh Gananath Patra said, the police start firing to the people who went to the police station to put up their grievances. Several tribal people of the area went to the police station in protest against the attack to them in the name of the combing operation in the name of Operation Godavari to crack down the Naxalites, he said.
“The situation in the area is tense” described a senior police officer. As the news of the death of two activists of Sangh spread, several villagers armed with their traditional weapon thronged to Narayanpatna and blocked the road at several places of Koraput.
Chasi Mulaia Sangh has been agitating for last several months to free the land belonging to the tribals from the clutches of encroachers and opposing the proposed bauxite mining by the Aditya Alumina Limited, a Aditya Birla Group company, at Maliparbat in Koraput district. The Sangh has already forcibly taken possession of about 2000 acres of land from the non-tribals in Narayanpatna block.
Several social activists strongly condemned the police firing on the tribal people and urged the government for a judiciary inquiry into the incident. “The police fired at the tribal mob without any provocation and we condemned it” said Prafulla Samantara, the convener of Lokshakti Abhiyan, Orissa unit.
“The government fired at the tribal people who were protesting in a democratic way at the behest of the corporate houses in the district” alleged Dandapani Mohanty, general secretary of Orissa Bamboo Workers Union.
