17-Year-Old Chhattisgarh Girl Takes On 8 Armed Men, Saves Father's Life

 

 

Jharagaon village was sleeping silently on a normal Monday night, when eight masked men descended with axes and firearms at the home of local farmer Somdhar Korram. They were out to murder Somdhar. But his 17-year-old daughter foiled their plans, using quick thinking and bravery to save her dad.

 

The girl, a class 7 dropout narrated her horrifying ordeal. "There were eight of them. They banged on the door and said they needed to speak with my father. I went to the window and saw they had masks on and were armed with axes. Two of them had guns. I had no way of knowing which was which. They wanted to know where my father was. I felt my father was in danger, so I approached them and started cross-questioning," she said.

 

Her defiance and refusal to back down irritated the assailants, who threatened to return. Despite the warning, the family felt they had no reason to fear an imminent threat. However, the attackers did return, and this time, they acted with brutal intent.

 

While Somdhar was resting on the porch due to poor health, the masked men surrounded him. The girl, who had briefly left to visit a relative, returned just in time to witness one of the attackers bring an axe down on her father's chest. "I was only a second late, but I grappled with the axeman. I snatched the axe from him, hurled it away, and stood shielding my father. I screamed at them to stay away from him," she said.

 

Her screams alerted the neighbours, who rushed to the scene. The attackers, finding themselves outnumbered and unnerved by the girl’s fierce resistance, fled the village. Somdhar, bleeding profusely, was rushed to Jagdalpur, 120 kilometres away, where he underwent emergency surgery and is now in stable condition.

 

It is one in many such harrowing incidents that serve as a grim reminder of the persistent danger posed by Maoist terrorists to rural communities in Chhattisgarh. While the police are investigating all possible angles, including a family land dispute, the villagers firmly believe that the attackers were Maoists. The modus operandi of the attack and the previous threats suggest a link to the insurgents, who have a history of targeting villagers to instil fear and maintain control over the region.

 

Maoists have long been a scourge in Chhattisgarh, disrupting the lives of villagers with their violent tactics and attempts to establish dominance. These insurgents claim to fight for the rights of the tribal population, but their actions often contradict their purported goals. Instead of bringing justice or development, they impose a reign of terror, preventing any semblance of peace and progress in the region.

 

For the villagers of Jharagaon and other similar communities, living under the constant threat of Maoist violence is a harsh reality. The Maoists’ presence in the region has led to a climate of fear, where every day is fraught with uncertainty. Farmers like Somdhar, who should be concerned with tending to their crops and providing for their families, are instead forced to worry about their safety and the safety of their loved ones.

 

The courage shown by the 17-year-old who fought off the abducters is praiseworthy and must make us deal more firmly with this the menace. The state and central governments will have to intensify their war against Maoist insurgency in the rural belt of Chhattisgarh. This apart from military and police action would also include developmental programmes to change the socio-economic circumstances that drive the tribals onto insurgency.

 

Education, healthcare, infrastructure, and employment opportunities must be prioritised to provide the tribal population with the means to build a stable and prosperous future. Only by addressing these underlying issues can the cycle of violence and fear be broken, allowing communities like Jharagaon to live in peace.

 

While the adversity that life has thrown at a girl from Jharagaon is enough to break any one, it takes incredible courage and resilience for a 17-year-old. What it can do is serve as a grim reminder of Maoist threats to innocent “citizens” and—more broadly —what they represent in terms of needed action throughout other parts of India. This brave young girl ought to motivate all of us into demanding a safer just society and the eradication of violence as such from the earth completely.

 

 

Sub Editor, The Narrative