New Delhi: Members of the Indian community abroad have issued a statement, condemning the encounters carried out by the Chhattisgarh police and central forces in Bastar.“We, the undersigned, condemn in the strongest possible terms, the continued killing of people by state and central forces in Adivasi regions, including the 28 people killed on 21 May 2025 in the Abujhmad region of Narayanpur District, Bastar Division, Chhattisgarh, India. We equally condemn the further unlawful and deliberate incineration of the bodies of eight deceased individuals by the Chhattisgarh Police,” said members of the Indian diaspora in the statement.Last month, the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) had suffered a serious setback when its general secretary Nambala Keshava Rao and 26 other comrades were killed in an encounter with security forces in the forest of Abujhmad in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district on Wednesday (May 21) morning.“From the start, the actions of the state were characterised not by the rule of law but by a pattern of calculated cruelty. Following the killings, security forces celebrated publicly, dancing with their weapons in front of the lined-up corpses and taking photographs, expressing the triumphalism of the Indian state in killing its own citizens without any due process,” the statement added.The signatories to the statement include International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF India), SOAS Bla(c)k Panthers, Indian Workers Association GB, India Labour Solidarity (UK), Telangana Vidyavanthula Vedika, North America, Punjabi Literary and Cultural Association, Winnipeg, South Asian Diaspora Action Collective (SADAC), Indian Alliance Paris, Indian American Muslim Council, South Asia Solidarity Group, Alliance Against Islamophobia, Periyar Ambedkar Thoughts Circle of Australia, Foundation the London Story, Hindus for Human Rights, Indian Scheduled Caste Welfare Association, UK, Hindus for Human Rights – Australia & New Zealand, The Humanism Project, Australia and Hindus for Human Rights UK.“The bodies were not preserved in cold storage and were instead deliberately left to decompose. When families came to claim the bodies, they were harassed, verbally abused, and systematically stonewalled. Every action taken by the state points to a single strategic goal: the destruction of evidence and the evasion of judicial scrutiny,” said the statement.The organisations said in the statement said that this was a serious violation of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees the right to dignity in both life and death.“The suspected extrajudicial execution, the forcible incineration of bodies, obstruction of families, and deliberate concealment of remains—constitute violations of both treaty-based international obligations and customary humanitarian law as defined by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). These actions amount to war crimes, perpetrated by official forces under institutional authority, with a complete awareness of their illegality,” said the statement.It added that this massacre and public unlawful burning of its own citizens by the Indian government took place despite numerous appeals from the CPI (Maoist) and civil society organisations for ceasefire and peace negotiations.“We urgently call upon the international community and all concerned individuals to respond urgently, strongly, and without compromise. What has occurred in Narayanpur is not an isolated atrocity. It is a watershed moment. It signals with terrifying clarity where this conflict is headed if it is not confronted decisively,” added the statement.