Attack on Gaya social activists, NHRC seeks report
New Delhi, February 4, 2004
The National Human Rights Commission has taken suo-motu cognizance based on a media report of the attack on two NGO workers, Mahesh and Sarita, near Gaya in Bihar.
The Commission has issued notices to the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police, Bihar asking them to respond within four weeks.
The Commission views the reports that featured in the press as one that raises serious issues about safety of human rights defenders.
The newspaper story quoted Sarita and Mahesh as having been shot at by assailants on 24 January 2004. It said the two social workers had brought about a revolution in the obscure village of Shabdo in Gaya by helping in busting several rackets of looting and extortion. According to the press, the duo had done wonders in the Naxalite dominated Bihar-Jharkhand border and it is suspected that local mafia were behind the attack
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The National Human Rights Commission has taken suo-motu cognizance based on a media report of the attack on two NGO workers, Mahesh and Sarita, near Gaya in Bihar.
The Commission has issued notices to the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police, Bihar asking them to respond within four weeks.
The Commission views the reports that featured in the press as one that raises serious issues about safety of human rights defenders.
The newspaper story quoted Sarita and Mahesh as having been shot at by assailants on 24 January 2004. It said the two social workers had brought about a revolution in the obscure village of Shabdo in Gaya by helping in busting several rackets of looting and extortion. According to the press, the duo had done wonders in the Naxalite dominated Bihar-Jharkhand border and it is suspected that local mafia were behind the attack
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