‘Exercise caution’ — Chhattisgarh ex-CM Baghel’s word of advice after four children were wounded ‘encounter’

Senior Congress leader Baghel posted on X, “How come these children were hurt when the forces were fighting the Naxals? Was it truly an encounter or the killing of innocent people? The BJP government has a poor record regarding fake encounters. Even during its last tenure, there were numerous cases of such incidents. I believe the Central government should take this matter seriously and instruct the state government to exercise caution. Innocent tribal people should not be harmed in the pursuit of overambitious plans to eradicate the Maoist within unreasonable deadlines.”

He also tagged the official handles of Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, Prime Minister Office and Home Minister Office.

Tribal Activist and a resident of Bastar region Soni Sori visited the villages where the encounter took place. While she claimed called it a “staged encounter”, the security forces released a statement on Wednesday night saying the children were injured because Maoists used them as “human shields” during the encounter. The police said the three boys who suffered injuries on their head, buttocks and back of neck were due to shrapnels from Barrel Grenade Launchers (BGL) fired by Maoists.

Baghel’s remarks on X comes a day after a similar social media post from former deputy chief minister and senior Congress leader T S Singh Deo. In it, Deo said: “As I had said on December 15 that setting targets leads to such dangers. Solving the Naxal problem is a necessity but not at the cost of the lives of ordinary citizens. Poor innocent Tribals and other citizens living in the region cannot become casualties because targets are being set by some people. Innocent citizens cannot be allowed to become collateral damage. I hope these children are taken good care of and provided best treatment available by the government. It is very disheartening that persons who were injured so severely on December 11 have reached Raipur only yesterday”.

The Indian Express had reported about the four children getting injured in the crossfire between forces and Maoists. Among them was a minor girl from Rekavaya village, who suffered a neck wound suspected either to be a bullet or a shrapnel, which is still stuck.

Two days after being shot, the girl was taken to a CHC in Bijapur on December 14 and was then shifted to Bastar’s Jagdalpur over 100 kms away and finally brought to Raipur on Monday night, over 300 kms away from Bastar. The girl is admitted in DKS hospital. An on-duty doctor from DKS hospital said the “foreign object” was stuck in a “highly critical spot”.