Students defy Naxal pressure to join dalams

NAGPUR: An incident of youngsters, mostly students, refusing to heed the Naxalites call to join their Dalam on August 22 at remotely located Pengunda village of Bhamragarh taluka in Gadchiroli district may come as a big surprise as these places were always known as stronghold for the rebels. The armed Naxalites, despite resorting to pressure tactics, had to return empty handed with none of the young boys or girls ready to join their movement from the village at the foot of a hillock leading to rebels’ stronghold Abujhamadh.
Sources in security agencies claimed Naxalites had been trying to rope in youngsters aged between 14 years or above in different outfits to fight the government forces. The security agencies also have the input that Naxalites are now planning a major attack on police. They are focusing on increasing their logistics support group, like courier or messengers, by including maximum number of students in dalams who generally are able to dodge police surveillance more easily.
In the latest incident, Bhamragarh dalam under commander Dinesh had come to Pengunda village to appeal to the youngsters to join them. The dalam also had three youngsters from Miladapali and another two from Nelgonda villages with them. The youngsters were earlier cultivated as jan militia or mass-based support before being inducted in dalam. Dinesh was persistently appealing to the youngsters to join his dalam. He also tried to convince the tribals to motivate their children to join him but failed. An exasperated Dinesh spent considerable time at the village but later had to leave for the fear of security forces zeroing in on him.
State Anti-Naxal Operations cell chief Shivaji Bodkhe attributed the decision of youngsters to send back the Naxalites to his unit’s efforts to administer patriotic oath at schools in which 2.08 lakh students had participated on this year’s Independence Day in around 20,000 institutions. “The students across the district took oath that none shall participate in anything against the sovereignty of the country or government. Again, on October 2, the students shall be administered the oath as a continuing process,” he said.
The development, which is now learnt to have been reported to the government too, also left section of activists like Professor Arvind Sovani gladdened. Sovani, terming the incident as ‘quite surprising but indicated an encouraging trend’, underlined the fact that the village where the youngsters stood their ground without bowing to Naxal pressure actually served as gateway to Abujhamadh. He attributed the development to rising level and quality of education in and around Nelgonda.