Hebri village in grip of fear as Maoist prowl area

Worried people struggling for livelihood

“When we heard that Maoists have come down to Mel Ajjolli three days earlier, we panicked. When I was in the house with children in the evening, the dogs started barking loudly. I came out and was terribly shocked to find four maoists with guns”, said a women of Ajjolli village, who had gone through mental turmoil after the incident.

“They were two women and two men. One of them had two guns. They came at around 8.30 pm. It was two years back”, said a senior citizen of Ajjolli.

He said he was carrying out agriculture in a small land provided by the government. While we are struggling for livelihood, the fear of Maoists has worried us. When the police department learn about Maoists visit, various police teams repeatedly come to our place and interrogate us. We fear whether we will be targetted for speaking to police, he said.

Combing operations

When an incident takes place, hundreds of people come to us and ask a number of questions. We cannot make out whether they are police or officials or journalists.

Maoists have come to several houses of daily waged workers in Ajjolli and have taken cooking materials. They have also said that they won’t let Kasturirangan report to have its detrimental effects on people and requested us to support them in their fight. They asked and took along with them rice and other items.

It has been learnt that Koodlu Vikram Gowda, who is said to be the state maoist leader was not in the team of maoists which visited the village.

Maoists visit the houses of poor malekudiya people as well as rich people. But, the rich mention about malekudiya families and police come to our houses for inquiry. This has been happening from many years, an old lady said.The police have been carrying out combing operations in Ajjolli.