New Delhi: As many as 53 people were executed by Maoists after ‘kangaroo courts’ found them ‘guilty’ in the five worst Naxal-hit States of the country in the last three years, according to Union Home Ministry’s statistics. Highest of such killings were executed in the `kangaroo courts’ known as Jan Adalats of Maoists are in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Meanwhile, the recent studies by US based National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, known as START had listed Indian Maoists as the fifth most dreaded perpetrators of violence.
The US study group has listed ISIS as the first most dreaded perpetrators of violence in the World. Second terror organisation in the list is Boko Haram, followed by Taliban and Al Qaeda.
According to Home Ministry statistics, 18 people were killed following the directives of ‘kangaroo courts’ or ‘Jan Adalats’ in 2015 for being alleged police informers or “for not believing in Maoist ideology”. During 2015, 41 ‘Jan Adalats’ were held by Naxal cadres in five Left Wing Extremism affected States — Andhra Pradesh (1), Bihar (6), Chhattisgarh (14), Jharkhand (14) and Odisha (6).
Altogether 15 people were executed in 2014 following orders of 54 ‘Jan Adalats’ and 20 people were killed in 2013 under the directives of 63 ‘Jan Adalats’.
“To create terror among civilians in the LWE affected areas, the Maoist cadres, in their ‘Kangaroo Courts’, also called ‘Jan Adalat’, or ‘Praja Courts’, execute sentence against the civilians, who do not subscribe to their ideology in the areas under their domain or labelling them as police informers,” a Home Ministry official told PTI.
In 2016, till February 15, two ‘Jan Adalats’ have been held in Chhattisgarh. While nearly one lakh paramilitary personnel continued to be deployed in Left Wing extremism-affected areas, the 10 Naxal-hit states Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, West Bengal and UP saw 226 deaths in 1,088 incidents of violence perpetrated by Maoists in 2015.
In 2015, of the 226 deaths, 168 were civilians and 58 were security forces personnel. As many as 89 Maoists were also killed and 1,668 were arrested and 570 cadres surrendered before authorities during the year.
The START’s study reveals that during 2000 to 2014, the Indian Maoists has conducted 337 “coordinated terrorist attacks.” The top ranking terror organization ISIS conducted 757 and African jihadi organization Boko Haram executed 558 coordinated terrorist attacks.
Taliban conducted 444 and Al Qaeda conducted 400 terror strikes. ULFA is listed as
eighteenth in the list of the US study for coordinating terror attacks during 2000 to 2014. ULFA has conducted 60 coordinated terror attacks.
Al Qaeda’s Somalian affiliate Al Shabaab is sixth in the list by executing 244 terror strikes during the past 14 years. Pakistan based Tehrik-I – Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is seventh in the list with 175 terror attacks.