By HIMANSHI DAHIYA / The Quint
On 5 August when Krushna Sikaka and Bari Sikaka, two Dalit-adivasi youth activists in Odisha, associated with the Niyamgiri movement, went to mobilise residents in Kalahandi district’s Lanjigarh town for a protest, little did they know that their visit to this thinly populated town — 400 km from Odisha’s capital Bhubaneshwar — will trigger a series of events culminating in nine activists being booked under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
“When Krushna Sikaka and Bari Sikaka, our fellow activists went to mobilise people for a protest which was to be held on 9 August to mark the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, some officials in plain clothes shoved them in a car and took them somewhere. We thought they were picked up by the police. So some adivasis from Lanjigarh went to the police station to demand their release. The police, in turn, booked several of them under UAPA,” Lingraj Azad, a Dalit activist from Odisha, popularly known as Azad bhai told The Quint.
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