People’s Union for Democratic Rights, Delhi (PUDR) unequivocally condemns the gruesome killing of Inspector Francis Induwar by the Maoists in Jharkhand.

PUDR has consistently maintained that neither civilians nor captives should ever be subjected to torture or to cause death. Once any person is taken into custody, by any warring side, it becomes the bounden responsibility of the captors to ensure safety of the person in their custody.

It is sad that both the government and the CPI(Maoist) have violated this basic norm that is necessary to minimize brutality against the human body even in the course of war. In innumerable past instances the government through its policy of encounter killings has been indulging in exactly the same practice.

PUDR opposes war against our own people. We urge that Indian state show courage and imagination to engage in dialogue with our people, especially those whom the Prime Minister himself says are supported by ‘poorest of the poor.’ Nevertheless, if war is imposed PUDR appeals to the CPI(Maoist) as well as to the Indian government to bring perpetrators of such crimes to justice. We also demand that the CPI(Maoist) and the Indian government pledge to abide by the Geneva Convention and Protocol III (dealing with non-international conflicts) and other Covenants which govern the conduct of war/s. We also wish to remind the media that they have deliberately suppressed press statements issued from time-to-time by organisations such as ours, only to turnaround later to question us as to why we do not condemn heinous crimes committed by non-state groups. We request them not to become a tool of misinformation or to suppress truth about the crimes committed by any side in the conduct of war.

Moushumi Basu
Gautam Navlakha
Secretaries, PUDR

pudr@pudr.org