Bhubaneswar: The survivors of Kandhamal communal violence of 2008 have requested Indian President Pranab Kumar Mukherjee to ensure peace and justice in the volatile district of Odisha state in eastern India.
In an August 31 letter, the members of the “Kandhamal Nyaya Shanti O Sadbhabana Samaj” (Justice and Peace for Kandhamal Survivors Platform) pleaded the president’s “kind perusal and appropriate, necessary and urgent action” on their memorandum.
After seven years of Kandhamal communal violence in 2008, the victims have been suffering from various socio-economic constrains and psychological trauma. There is a serious dissatisfaction among the affected communities. .
Anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal began in 1969 and there were several attacks after that. The first major attack in Kattingia village was in 1984. Nineteen churches were burnt in 1986-1987 in different parts of the district and further the atrocities in different stages and places continued unabatedly, the letter said.
The anti-Christian violence in 2007-2008, claimed a total of more than 90 lives, including disabled and elderly persons, children, men and women. The communal frenzy engulfed more than 600 villages.
At least 6,500 houses were looted and burnt, 56,000 people were made homeless, and 350 churches and worship places were razed and gutted. The violence also led to loot and destruction of 35 schools, philanthropic institutions including leprosy homes, tuberculosis sanatoriums and dozens of non-profit organizations.
More than 10,000 children became school dropouts because of displacement and insecurity while thousands were pushed to unhygienic relief camps for nearly three years, the memorandum said.
It also regretted that most culprits in the communal violence cases were acquitted because of what it said was shoddy investigation by the police and intimidation of the witnesses in the court premises.
“This miniscule conviction rate has led to a stage that people are losing faith in the justice delivery system. Therefore, we demand a judicial enquiry by a panel of sitting judges from the Supreme Court of India, into all 3,330 complaints lodged in police stations.”
The memorandum also demanded reopening of 302 First Information Reports that the police closed claiming lack of evidence.
“We also demand proper assessments of charge sheets in 518 cases to secure justice for the survivors of communal violence,” said Adikand Singh, a social worker associated with Justice and Peace for Kandhamal Survivors Platform.
He further alleged that the anti-Christian minority violence was “engineered, directed, instigated and operationalized by the fundamentalist outfits and groups backed by some political parties. Therefore we demand judicial enquiry into their involvement in the communal violence.”