Rights Group Urges Inquiry In Orissa Tribal Killing

Rights group urges inquiry in Orissa tribal killing

IANS

8th January 2006

NEW DELHI: A human rights group has urged National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to conduct an inquiry into the reported mutilation of bodies of the 12 tribals killed in police firing in Orissa.

The South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre (SAHRDC) has asked NHRC chairman Justice A.S. Anand to collect details and direct the state government to prosecute the officials, if found guilty.

The forum pointed out that several newspapers had reported that the bodies of the protestors were returned to their families with mutilated hands and chopped off palms.

The forum condemned the police explanation that the hands were supposedly cut off for forensic identification.

"Such an inhuman and barbaric act by the doctors conducting the autopsy in complicity with the police goes against the very basic standards of forensic examination and international human rights law, it said in a letter to Anand.

The forum said NHRC should take up the issue of violation of medical ethics by the medical doctor involved in the mutilation of the dead bodies with the Medical Council of India and asked for his disbarment from medical practice.

On Monday, 12 people were killed when police opened fire on tribals at the Kalinga Nagar complex in Orissa's Jajpur district, who were protesting the construction of a boundary wall by the Tata Steel Company. The tribals alleged the company had not adequately compensated them for their land for its proposed plant.