Kalaburagi: “How can you remain silent when government goes on killing own people?” was the question raised in the protest against State-sponsored terrorism and fake encounters organized by students belonging to different colleges under the banner of Campus Front of India. The protest marked the inauguration of the 5-day national campaign against State Terrorism.
Coming down heavily on the extra judicial killings, CFI National Secretary Talha Hussain Gulbargavi said fake encounters are a tool to oppress the marginalized communities. “It is used to subdue the marginalized people when all the other forms of oppression like black laws (UAPA, AFSPA etc) and other tactics like mental harassment and illegal arrest and torture fail to get the results. It is one of most gruesome form of State terrorism. It’s one of the fundamental duties of the state to protect its citizens, but in case of fake encounters the state not just abdicates and fails the citizens those who trust it, but also acts as an enemy.”
In his presidential address, Karnataka State President of CFI Abdul Raheem Saeed remarked countless number of people is being killed in Border States where draconian security laws like AFSPA are in effect. A people’s movement should erupt against encounters that take place on suspicious occasions like either government is in some crisis and desperately in need of an issue to divert people’s attention or security agencies want more funds.
CFI SEC member Dr Suhail Naik said encounter killings are becoming a daily occurrence in our country. It has been a while since this new trend began that our police kill citizens in cold blood and fabricate stories labelling them terrorists afterwards. Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis are mostly the victims of these state sponsored murders. Such sporadic encounters are being staged at specific intervals in order to serve the vested interests of police and security agencies. The latest examples are the killings of 5 Muslim under-trails in Telengana and the massacre of 20 Tamil Dalit laborers in Andhra Pradesh. The government keeps parroting the police version that the youth who were found handcuffed and locked to the seat in the police vehicle were shot at because they tried to snatch guns and attack police, he said.
Students were also addressed by Bahujan Vidhyarthi Sangh Dist Coordinator JaiBheem Shinde. The programme ended with vote of thanks by Basith Arsalan, who said: “Being a vital part of society, students cannot sit idle in campuses.”