Police and state forces are perpetrating some of the most gruesome atrocities: including mass rape, molestation, harassment, extrajudicial killings, “disappearances”, destruction of property and looting of adivasi belongings.

In December 2015, Chitrangada Choudhury reported, ‘a police team and a magisterial probe are investigating alleged gang rapes of adivasi women but over 50 days after a formal police complaint was registered after testimonies of widespread violence, including gang rapes of a teen and a pregnant woman, no arrests have been made'.

Soni Sori, an Adivasi leader, herself a survivor, has been actively fighting for justice and reprieve from police violence for the people of Chhattisgarh for several years. With the escalating situation in Chhattisgarh in the recent months, she is again under attack. On February 5, 2016 Soni Sori received an anonymous letter threatening to burn her alive if she entered the territory of Bijapur. On February 20, 2016 Soni Sori was “informed” by the district civic authorities that her house in Geedam would be demolished. Soon after these threats she was assailed by ‘unknown’ men with acid-like substance, leading to severe burn injuries on her face.

Around the time of the attacks on Ms. Sori, Jagdalpur Legal Aid (‘JagLag’), a group of women lawyers providing free legal aid to tribal people were asked to vacate their houses within eight days, by the police. This was followed by freelance journalist Malini Subramaniam being threatened and forced to leave the state. On February 22,2016 another BBC journalist Alok Putul reported threats that forced him to flee the region. Internationally, the Committee to Protect Journalists has expressed their “deep concern for the deteriorating climate for the press in Chhattisgarh”.

In this backdrop, on the evening of March 11, 2016, Ms. Soni Sori’s brother-in-law, Mr. Ajay Markam, is now being held in police custody, with no intimation to his family about his whereabouts and the reasons for his detention. His wife and Ms. Sori’s sister, Ms. Dhani Markam, has also been picked up by Bastar police and taken to an undisclosed location. All procedures used for detention or interrogation are illegal and violate detainees' constitutional rights. Members of police have now also issued direct threats to kill Ms. Sori’s daughter, her nephew and Ms. Sori herself. All this even as the wounds of the acid attack on Ms.Sori's face have not even had the chance to fully heal.

This creation of a climate of terror in Chhattisgarh is jarringly undemocratic and unconstitutional and is clearly aimed at a brutal suppression Adivasi assertion in an area where the state plans to invest more than 24,000 crore rupees in corporate and “development” projects likely to strip indigenous peoples of Chhattisgarh of their rights and their land.

In response to these infractions we the undersigned,

1. Condemn the state violence perpetrated on the Adivasis of Chhattisgarh including mass rapes, threats, looting and disappearances

2. Appeal for an immediate return to the normalcy through the constitutional implementation of the rule of law.

2. Denounce the attacks on Ms.Sori, ask for the perpetrators to be arrested, charged and brought to justice under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.

3. Demand the immediate release of illegally detained family members of Ms.Sori including Mr.Ajay Markam and Ms. Dhani Markam.

3. Ask for the safe return of all journalists, activists and watchdogs back to the state.

4. Appeal to the democratic structures of India to bring due justice, without partiality, for the survivors and their families with sentences meted out as per the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act to all members of state and police forces who have committed crimes.