Inida News -Threat within --Maoist menace.

Tete’s murder triggers tribal resentment

Manoj PrasadTags : Maoists, Lucas Tete, Simdega, JharkhandPosted: Wed Sep 08 2010, 02:01 hrs

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Simdega:

A day after three Bihar policemen walked free from Maoist captivity, a mood of sadness and sullen anger hung over the tribal belts of Jharkhand.

                    

Of the four men they took hostage, the Maoists killed one — Lucas Tete, an adivasi from Simdega in Jharkhand. Tete was also the only tribal among the hostages — the very people for whom the Maoists and their sympathisers claim to be fighting their bloody battle.

In Simdega, where Tete was buried on Saturday, schoolteacher Sunil Ekka led his students in a demonstration outside the state government-run Utkramit Vidyalaya. “We have been suffering the fallout of Maoist activity silently for long,” he said. “Now we have to follow the policy of an eye for an eye.”

Not far, next to a paddy field, a group of boys were playing, shooting arrows in the air from toy bows. “The next time I see them, I will shoot arrows at their heads,” said one of the boys.

In neigbouring Gumla, over 50 youths from the Young Men’s Christian Association held a meeting to condemn Tete’s murder in Lakhisarai. “His (Tete’s) supreme sacrifice will not go in vain. We will celebrate the day we get rid of the extremists”, said John Ekka, local secretary of YMCA.

“They profess to be pro-tribal, and say they raise the issues of land alienation, exploitation and deforestation. But in practice, they are our enemies,” John Ekka said.

The politicians of Jharkhand have caught on to this popular mood.

“We have always said that the Maoists cannot help the adivasi agenda. They believe in violence, and the adivasis have always had faith in democracy. Now the rest of the world too must take note,” said Ram Dayal Munda, Rajya Sabha MP from the Congress.

Jharkhand Vikas Morcha president and MP Babulal Marandi, whose son Anup was gunned down by Maoists in 2007, was blunt: “Let there be no confusion. The Maoists are anti-democracy and anti-people.They must be dealt with firmly.

(Indian Express)