Part I: Lal Salaam!

In a village of at least 90 houses, a group of Naxalites wanted by the police chose to spend the night of March 8 in the one belonging to a villager called Bhagwandas. The next day, Bhawanipur village was surrounded by a 450-strong police contingent, led by Varanasi's zonal inspector general of police, B K Singh.

In the ensuing encounter, 15 Naxalites and an innocent 15-year-old boy, Hari Narayan, were killed. Bhagwandas has not been seen since. His wife, 45-year-old Dhanpati, says she is clueless about his whereabouts. "He has been away since March 8." But her neighbours say they saw him on the night of March 8, after the Naxalites arrived at his house.

The police, too, believe her husband was in the house when the Naxalites arrived. "The following day," says an officer whose beat now includes the areas in and around Bhawanipur, "he went to the Marihan tehsil headquarters, which is about 36 km away. It was clear from the heavy police movement there that there was some trouble, so he promptly decided to disappear." They say he is has some kind of connection with the Naxals. "Otherwise, in a village that has at least 90 homes, why should they have chosen his house to hide in?"

Dhanpati says she does not know the answer to that question. "I was sleeping with my son and daughter when, at around one or 1.30 am, a group of strangers entered my house (a bamboo shutter serves as the gate to the house). There were were 17 of them, including two women, and all of them were armed. I recognised only Sheshmani, who hailed from a neighbouring hamlet.

"They demanded food, but I told them it was impossible for me to provide them with anything at that time of the night. So they threatened but, after much pleading on my part, they understood my predicament. Then they said they would spend the night here. What could I do? The 15 men slept in the bigger room while I remained in the smaller one with my children. The two women decided to stay in the next house, which belongs to Balari."

While the 15 men succumbed to police bullets the next day, what happened to the two women? The police say one of them managed to escape. The other, they say, is in their "unofficial custody." The house where the two women stayed remains locked. Both Balari and her husband have not been seen since the day of the encounter. The police suspect they slipped away because their connections with the Naxalite organisation, the Maoist Communist Centre, were exposed.

Dhanpati, meanwhile, is being accused of not even attempting to raise an alarm when, the next day, she was allowed to go out to buy vegetables and other ingredients required for their meal. "I was terribly frightened," she said. "They were carrying weapons. Besides, though my daughter was with me, my son was still in the house."

She cooked for the 15 men but the women, she says, ate at Balari's place. "They had just finished eating and were resting when we heard the police making loud announcements, ordering all the villagers to assemble at a particular point. The men allowed me to step out of the house with my children, but warned that they would finish me if I told anyone they were hiding in our house. So I kept quiet. I don't know what happened after that; I only heard the firing of guns for several hours."

The police don't believe her. The fact that the family has a small land holding on the periphery of the Sonabhadra forest -- which is used by the Bihar-based Naxalites to slip into Uttar Pradesh -- also goes against her. The police say the hut built by her husband here was often used by the Naxalites as a base when they crossed over from Bihar.

The villagers now view Dhanpati with suspicion. Her husband is missing. The police threaten her constantly. She has already sent her 15-year-old daughter to live with a relative in another village. Her 12-year-old son is with her, but she is unsure of his safety. "The police keep warning me they will make me a widow. What is my fault? Those people forced themselves into my house and insisted on having food. Tell me, what would you do in such a situation, especially if guns were pointed at you?"

Design: Uttam Ghosh

Part III: Antidote to Naxal fever

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