Appalled by the "savage" attack in Chhattisgarh, NHRC today said the Maoists have now made it impossible for authorities to take social welfare programmes to the most needy and asked government to take precautionary steps to ensure villagers do not suffer in any retaliatory operations.
In a statement, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said it condemns this "brutality" in which around 30 people, including Congress leaders, were killed last week, and urged Maoists to "abandon violence, which has made matters worse for the villagers whose cause they claim to espouse".
The Commission said it was "appalled by the savage attack" on May 25, in which so many people were killed by the left-wing extremists, some after being taken alive.
"Health and education facilities can rarely be provided; only the PDS is permitted to function, because a part of these food supplies sustain Naxals. The children of these families, poor, ill-fed, illiterate, are the pool from whom Naxals recruit their cadres. For the Naxals, therefore, violence is self-serving. There is no just cause which they try to advance through it.
"It was clear to the Commission that the Naxals have now made it impossible to reach social welfare programmes to those who need them most. The plight of the poorest and the most vulnerable, on whose behalf the Naxals claim to have taken up arms, has therefore become even worse," it said.
However, the NHRC urged the Centre and state governments to take "every precaution possible" to ensure that the villagers of the region, already traumatised by the ongoing violence, of which they are the primary victims, do not suffer even more in any retaliatory operations against Naxals.
Noting that it follows developments in Chhattisgarh closely, it said the Commission's special rapporteurs and other officers are making regular visits to the state after its report to the Supreme Court on Salwa Judum.
