This story is from November 5, 2016

Rebels campaign against social evils

Rebels campaign against social evils
Maoists
RANCHI: In a bid to regain lost ground in areas which were once considered their bastion, Maoists are holding awareness campaigns against superstitious beliefs and evil social practices such as witchcraft in Latehar district.
In a series of meetings organized in the four blocks of Garu, Mahuadar, Chhipadohar and Burwadih, CPI(M) activists urged the villagers to refrain from violence in the name of sorcery.

"The villagers often enter into quarrel with one another due to superstitious beliefs," one of the villagers said, quoting the 'party' members.
Sources in the banned outfit said that sub-zonal commander Pradeep, special area committee member (SAC) Birsahi, sub-zonal commander Bhushan Yadav and SAC member Chotu Singh Khairwar conducted meetings in Opag, Pipradawa, Lugummi and Henar villages respectively.
"We don't want the police to interfere in the petty issues of the villages. The names of the people entered in the police diary, in connection with any case, is later used by the police themselves to accuse them of indulging in Maoist-related activities," one of the Maoist cadres told a villager.
However, Latehar police denied the organization of any such camps and mass meetings against witchcraft in the district. SP Anup Birthare said that Maoists never interfered in social matters. "In the last nine years of my career, working in Left-wing Extremism affected areas, I never found Maoists interfering in any social norm. Earlier, they used to hold kangaroo courts for settling land disputes, but now, they hold small public meetings to criticize the government and the police," he said.
Police claimed that some of the superstitious beliefs and practices like drinking alcohol is so much deep rooted among illiterate villagers that any attempt to teach them its demerits may boomerang against the Maoist cadres.
One of the senior ideologues of Maoist however admitted that the Eastern Regional Buro has recently decided to take up social issues in order to build rapport in the villages, especially where some of the people are being exposed to education and outer world.
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