It all began in this small village when in November last year the police allegedly beat up women and children and made indiscriminate arrests following a blast that narrowly missed the Chief Minister’s convoy. Today, after the security forces ‘liberated’ Chotopelia, villagers here feared that there might be a police backlash again.

Empty houses, locked doors, cows, pigs and goats roaming around — the village looked like a ghost town. But with the security forces taking over the relief camps, local residents, who had fled the place, started coming back, though fear was still writ large on their faces.

The past few months have been difficult for the villagers, with neither shops nor schools functioning in this place. Chotopelia was the epicentre of tribal outrage and the birthplace of the People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA). The call for police boycott originated here and spread to other areas later.

“Last year, around midnight, hundreds of policemen came to our village. They said we were Maoists. They beat us up. Even women and children were not spared. The people agitated and since then not one policeman came back,” said 70-year-old Bina Tudu, who had stayed back in the village with her sister Panmuni, who is sick. “Now the police are back. How can we trust them? Who knows, they might come back tonight,” added Bina, who could not leave her ill sister and flee the village like others after the news broke that security forces were coming to the village.

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