By IANS,
Raipur: Dozens of tribals Wednesday threw eggs and tomatoes at social activist Medha Patkar and Magsaysay award winner Sandeep Pandey in Chhattisgarh’s insurgency-hit Dantewada district for allegedly supporting Maoist sympathisers, police said.
Trouble began when Patkar, Pandey and a few activists reached Dantewada, some 380 km south of Raipur, to join the ongoing campaign of rights activists against alleged atrocities being committed by security forces on local tribes.
A large number of tribals, under the banner of Ma Danteshwari Swabhiman Manch, opposed the activists’ visit to the tribal area and alleged that they were supporting Maoist sympathisers, who were trying to stall the anti-Maoist operations in the restive Bastar region.
“Local tribals threw rotten tomato and eggs on the social activists and raised slogans against them,” a witness told IANS from Dantewada town. The protesters were demanding that the activists should leave Dantewada immediately.
The activists then marched to the office of Dantewada district superintendent of police and staged a sit-in, alleging that the local people were being ifluenced by some vested interests.
Superintendent of Police Amresh Mishra told IANS over phone: “Before the people got violent, the police took control of the situation and cordoned off the activist leaders. They were escorted to my office.”