Word: salwa
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...response to this growing threat, the Indian government launched a counter-offensive christened Operation Green Hunt in 2009. However, a “hunt” in one form or another has been on for a while now. Since 2005, there has been an armed militia called Salwa Judum (“Purification Hunt” in the local language) in the state of Chattisgarh, comprised mostly of tribal people and blessed by the government that purported to take on the Naxalite menace. This has created a state of near civil war in that state, often pitting people within tribes...
...being applied in an arbitrary manner," Salwa Duaibis, Coordinator for the Right to Enter Campaign in Ramallah, told TIME. "It depends on the discretion of the person sitting at the border. If you want to go and visit family in Jerusalem and you get this visa, then your whole plans are thrown out of the window...
...That would be easier if not for the emergence in Chhattisgarh three years ago of a civil militia known as Salwa Judum, which means either "peace mission" or "collective hunt" depending on who's doing the translating. The movement's backers say it developed spontaneously when local villagers grew tired of the Naxalites' brutal mafia-like tactics. Chhattisgarh police then appointed thousands of young men, some of them still teenagers, as "special police officers," supplied them with weapons and pushed them to fight the Maoists. Human-rights groups say the special police officers use many of the same tactics...
...Salwa Judum movement has worsened the situation, draining the countryside of potential informants and convincing thousands of people that the Indian state really is as bad as the Naxalites say it is. A central government committee has recommended closing the camps and disarming the special police officers, whom India's Supreme Court recently termed illegal. Salwa Judum supporters say the criticism is proof of how widespread sympathy for the Naxalites is. "Should we stop fighting terrorism?" asks Chhattisgarh opposition leader Mahendra Karma, a member of the Congress Party and a strong backer of the militia. "Even [Mahatma] Gandhi...
...including one in Harvard Square, will not only mark one year of Dr. Sen’s imprisonment, but also bring attention to the countless others who have also been targeted under India’s anti-terrorism laws and displaced, injured or killed by Salwa Judum who are not receiving adequate attention. They are being swept aside for the more glamorous (and sometimes deceiving) stories of growth, technology and democratic participation in India. A visible minority is benefiting from India’s economic and political structure; an unseen and unheard majority is bearing the disproportionate burden the social...