Topic: Extrajudicial killing

Madvi Hidma, one of the most prominent surviving Maoist leaders, was among the six Maoists killed in an early Tuesday encounter with the anti-Naxal Greyhounds and local police in Andhra Pradesh’s Maredumilli forest region.

It was a Friday in September 2008, deep in the holy month of Ramadan, when the sound of gunfire ripped through the heart of Jamia Nagar. I was an undergraduate student at Jamia Millia Islamia then, barely twenty, still clumsy in my ideas of politics, faith and responsibility.

Three Maoists, including Central Committee member Gajarla Ravi and senior female leader Aruna, were killed in an alleged encounter in the Maredumilli forests of Andhra Pradesh’s Alluri Sitharama Raju district on Wednesday.

Following the killing of Communist Party of India (Maoist) supremo and general secretary Nambala Keshava Rao, along with 26 other Maoists, top left parties in India — CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML) Liberation, and others — issued statements condemning the state action.

In Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region, which has been witnessing an intense crackdown by the Union government and security forces, an appeal by the Communist Party of India (Maoist) has compelled the government to agree to peace talks.

The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its order on a plea filed by Arif Md Yeasin Jwadder, an advocate from Assam, challenging the Gauhati High Court’s dismissal of a petition alleging rampant “fake” encounters in Assam and claiming non-compliance by state authorities with Supreme Court guidelines on investigating police encounters, Live Law reported.