“These reports included military encampments near the farming communities, coercion to sign documents of disaffiliation, forced surrenders, and the profiling of farmer-residents, who were threatened with arrest and abduction if they refused to cooperate,” said KMP.
“The soldiers have undertaken a psywar campaign for fake surrenders. They utilise intimidation, threats, and coercion in house-to-house interrogations and summons, explicitly red-tagging KMP and the mere act of participating in protests,” KMP said in a statement.
“The presence of the military’s ‘peace and development teams’ in the community bolstered the culture of impunity and even emboldened the perpetrators who killed the farmer-couple.”
“If they evict people just for their own interest, then, that is not development. That is tyranny against the people.”