Maoists killed two former sarpanchs in the insurgency-affected district of Bijapur after kidnapping them. One of them was a BJP worker who was killed for sticking with the Bharatiya Janata Party in spite of threats to leave the party. Maoists also placed a leaflet on his body with a message to BJP workers, “Quit BJP or die.” On the morning of 5th December, the bodies of Sukhram Avalam and BJP leader Suklu Farsa were discovered at different places in the district. They were both kidnapped a day earlier. Farsa’s adolescent daughter posted a video in which she begged for his life, but all she received was his body with his neck cut.
Since February 2023, eleven BJP officials and three Congress workers have been killed in the Bastar division. Maoists have threatened BJP workers with death unless they leave the party. Police protection was granted to roughly forty-three BJP leaders and workers in March of this year. Farsa headed the BJP farmers’ wing Kisan Morcha in Bhairamgarh at the block level and served as the sarpanch of Aadwada-Biriyabhumi village from 2004 to 2009. Sukhram was the former sarpanch of Kaderh village.
On the night of 3rd December, Farsa was kidnapped from Aadwada while he was 7 kilometres away in Bhairamgarh, a Maoist hotspot, to attend a funeral. This area is around 400 km from Raipur and 50 km from the district headquarters of Bijapur. Three masked guys surrounded Farsa and his wife and pulled him into the wilderness. His daughter made a video plea for his release because the family wasn’t certain the kidnappers were Maoists. Sukhram was murdered in the Naimed area. The killings occur right before the state’s local body elections.
A Maoist pamphlet was found attached to Farsa’s clothes when his body was found in the Biriyabhoomi neighbourhood of Bhairamgarh. It declared that he was assassinated by the Bhairamgarh area’s Maoist committee because of his BJP affiliation. “He was warned two-three times by Maoists but he didn’t pay heed. The fourth time, PLGA punished him with death. We ask BJP workers to quit the party or else they will be given death punishment for sure. This is a warning,” it read.
According to sources, the Salwa Judum, a state-sponsored militia that is currently illegal and was primarily made up of tribal village youths, was founded during Farsa’s tenure as sarpanch. The Supreme Court ordered the disbandment of the militia in 2011, which had been established in 2005 for counterinsurgency operations. An official informed, “While Farsa had moved to Bhairamgarh in 2006, he frequently visited his village but never received threats.”
Sukhram, who had allegedly resided in Shantinagar in the Bijapur block, was apparently visiting the village for some farm-related work when his murder took place in the Gangaloor district of Bijapur. His corpse was located by the side of the road close to Kader village around 20 kilometers away. He was taken into the forest by two men who attacked him on his way back from the village market on 4th December, and he had been missing ever since. A Maoist pamphlet affixed to his clothing stated that Sukhram had been murdered by the Gangaloor area committee’s Naxals, similar to Farsa.
It mentioned, “Sukhram had signed papers for approval of setting up security camps in the region, that’s why he has been killed as a punishment. Any sarpanch who cheats the public, works for the police, will be given a death sentence by PLGA (People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army).” Police filed a case and sent both bodies for autopsy. This year, Maoists have killed at least 25 civilians in Bijapur alone.
A policeman attributed the recent killings on the neighboring Indravati river’s dropping water levels. The official added, “As the river water level has gone down, Maoists from Abujhmad are crossing into Bhairamgarh. Otherwise, we had conducted several operations this year to push them back from Bijapur.” The two fatalities bring the total number of civilians killed by the Naxals in 2024 to over 60, the highest since 85 were slain in 2018.
