KOCHI: An Adivasi woman, claiming to be a member of one of the Maoist armed squads operating in the tri-junction of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, has sent an open letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking his intervention to stop the harassment of her family by police and other security agencies. The woman identifying herself as Jisha, 28, belonging to Athimala in Tavingaal panchayat, Wayanad, said the police and intelligence officials were harassing her family members and other residents in the tribal colony for the past many months. “I humbly request the respected chief minister, who had undergone horrifying torture for the crime of being a communist during the Emergency, to intervene immediately to end the police harassment".
A police official involved in anti-Maoist operations in Wayanad confirmed the existence of such a woman. "We came to know about the woman joining the Maoists two years ago and as part of investigation the police visited her parents and the settlement. I think the place is still under the surveillance of the security forces," he added. The four-page letter, not carrying any dates, said the police and police intelligence agents were scouting her house and other houses in the colony probing her whereabouts. “The police have told my family members that I should be asked to present myself in the police station or inform them immediately if I come home,” the letter said. Claiming that there was not a single case or complaint against her, she said the experiences in life had made her a "communist and Maoist activist.”
Describing the action of the police and other security agencies as illegal, she stated that even the "court has made it clear that it was not a crime to believe in socialist, communist and Maoist ideologies." She listed out the pitiable living conditions of the tribal community in the state and claimed that she had to work as a housemaid from the age of 10. “I was forced to work in the house of rich people in many parts of the state from a very young age and was unable to see my parents or siblings for many years. The situation has changed only after I became an adult,” she said. She had also worked in a garment unit at KINFRA Textile Park in Thiruvananthapuram, set up with the specific purpose of improving the condition of tribal community. But the unit closed down without paying any wages to the workers after a few months, she said.
