Operation Green Hunt to flush out the Maoist rebels from central India may have begun only last November, but the hapless tribals of Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region have been at the receiving end of official hostility for years before that.
Ujjwal Kumar Singh, Professor of Political Science, Delhi University and I have just returned (January 1st) from a visit to the police state of Chhattisgarh.
Javed Iqbal is a photo journalist based out of Mumbai. He has covered the Bastar tribal region extensively, and has published several photos from the remote areas in the region. This has made him a target of the administration. When the VCA premises were demolished, he was badly beaten up for his work on exposing the state brutalities at Badepalli.