The Leftist rebels, or Naxalites as they are popularly known, have been active in the Bastar division of the Chhattisgarh state, which encapsulates the Sukma district, for more than three decades. They have been taking up issues of land and forest rights for the indigenous people or Adivasis, keeping out mining companies, and establishing an almost parallel state. In the last decade, however, the war between them and the Indian government has intensified, ever since the government sponsored Salwa Judum, a vigilante movement aimed at depopulating the region and forcing villagers into camps.
In April 2010, 76 men from the CRPF were ambushed and killed by the Maoists in the same stretch of the Sukma district. More recently, in March this year, Maoist rebels killed 12 paramilitary men after ambushing their convoy. There have also been several unmarked deaths among the Maoist cadres over the years. But above all, there have been continuous, relentless assaults on the lives and human rights of indigenous villagers across the region.
In March 2011, security forces burned down at least 300 homes in three villages in Bastar, a brutal attack during which three men were killed and three women were raped. And this was not the first time that these indigenous villages were burned to the ground: In 2007, men from the state-sponsored Salwa Judum vigilante movement, which included members of the security forces, had burned down the same villages.
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