Bhima Koregaon case 2018: Tribal rights advocate Fr Stan's arrest to impact NE, says Assam social scientist

GUWAHATI:

City-based social scientist, Father Walter Fernandes has expressed concern over the recent arrest of his long-time associate and tribal rights advocate, Father Stan Swamy by the National Investigation Agency.

He was arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case, in which several rights activists like him have been linked to Maoists and were put behind bars.

Fr Fernandes, who is the director of the North Eastern Social Research Centre, said the arrest of the 83-year-old Jesuit priest from Jharkhand would have widespread ramification in the Northeast because activists in the region to have faced similar repression.

“Rights activists voicing concern against violations of human rights and rights of tribals in the Northeast have been arrested and put behind bars while indigenous communities have been displaced in the name of development,” he said.

Fr Fernandes said that the enforcement of the anti-human Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act across the region, or for that matter the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), have accounted for a region-wide agitation and arrests of many people.

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