Dantewada attack: Apology notwithstanding, Naxals have killed many journalists over the years

On November 1, Journalists organized a candle light march at India Gate in memory of DD cameraman

Achyutanand Sahu who lost his life in Dantewada Naxal attack.

Tellingly, faces of many big and eminent journalists were absent from the march.

Achyutananda Sahu was killed along with two CRPF personnel- sub-inspector Rudra Pratap and assistant constable Mangalu- in an ambush by Maoists in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district on Tuesday.

As soon as news of martyred journalist and security personnel broke, people from all over the country sent their condolences and prayers to all the three martyred souls and also condemned the inhumane acts of Maoists in the harshest possible words.

Editors Guild of India also issued a statement on Dantewada Naxal attack. However, in their statement, the name of the deceased journalist, Achyutananda Sahu was missing and there were no words of condemnation as far as the action of Maoists is concerned.

Now, the Naxals have also issued a statement saying, “DD Cameraman Achutyanand Sahu was killed after being caught in the ambush and we had no intention of targeting the media.” Naxals also said, “We will deliberately never kill journalists….Journalists are not our enemy, they are our friend.”

Since the Maoists have issued clarification over the killing of Achyutananda Sahu, naxal sympathetic Urban based elite media groups are trying to project rosy pictures of naxals and are just one step short of praising naxals for such a lovely gesture towards media.

Well, the claim that Naxals never kill any journalist doesn’t hold water. In the past, Naxals have killed many journalists. In 2013, Maoists killed Journalist Sai Reddy in Bijapur District of Chhattisgarh. In the past, Maoists had issued threats to him and also torched his house which forced him to take refuge in neighboring state.

In April 2013, Maoists gunned down Jitendra Singh, a part-time reporter for a local Hindi daily Prabhat Khabar in Khunti district of Jharkhand. He had written about the activities of Maoists for the past 16 years.

In February 2013, Maoists murdered a veteran freelance reporter, Nemi Chand Jain. A spokesperson for the Maoist group’s central committee, said a misunderstanding between the junior members and the leadership led to the killing of Nemi Chand Jain. Later on Maoists apologized for his killing. So there is nothing new in apologizing after killing the journalist. It is a very old template of Maoists.

In May 2016, Maoists killed Jharkhand based journalist Akhilesh Pratap Singh after he refused to pay extortion money of Rs 7 Lakh.

In October 2018, in Jharkhand, Chandan Tiwari, a journalist with Aaj News was abducted and killed. He had filed two police complaints in the last six-and-a-half-months. The Indian Express has quoted DIG (Hazaribagh) Pankaj Kamboj saying, “The first one was filed more than six months ago against a mukhiya and another person, alleging threat over a report. About two months ago, he had filed another application alleging that TPC operatives were threatening him, apparently for taking a stand against them. The victim’s father… has also named a person with whom Tiwari apparently got into an altercation last night.” Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC) is a Maoist splinter group.

Naxals have been silencing the voice of dissent for long. They kill each and every one who are not the patriots of their ideology. But still our elite journalists, academicians, and so-called social activists paint a rosy picture of naxals. It is one of the reasons why they are termed as Urban Naxal. As they are the one who provide financial and intellectual support to naxals fighting against Indian state in jungles. Maybe this is one of the reasons why they create huge hue and cry when a journalist of their tribe is killed by unidentified killers but when a non-believer is killed by Maoists there is hardly any outrage from the cabal’s side.

The recent clarification given by Naxals over killing of journalist Achyutanand Sahu is nothing but an excuse to justify their existence and further mislead the people.