Activist and academic Bela Bhatia, threatened by a mob of vigilantes last week in Bastar, has vowed to stay on in the Maoist-infested Chhattisgarh zone.

Bhatia, who had aided a National Human Rights Commission probe that indicted 16 cops for rape, told a Delhi University event on Tuesday that Bastar faced a "crisis unlike any in history".

"What the ordinary adivasi (tribal) of Bastar has witnessed in the last 10 years, has not happened before.... It is a crisis of democracy. It is happening in Bastar in an extreme way, but is also happening in the entire country."

Bhatia claimed the mob that had barged into her house on January 23 had threatened to douse her with kerosene and set her ablaze. The attackers, allegedly from the police-supported Action Group for National Integration (AGNI), branded her a "Naxalite agent". Later, chief minister Raman Singh promised her protection. "I am moving out of my house and the village, but I will continue to work in Bastar," she said.

Bhatia said that after the armed Salwa Judum vigilantes were disbanded on Supreme Court orders in 2011, the state now sponsors unarmed groups. AGNI is one such group, she claimed.#

CPI leader Manish Kunjam and AAP leader Soni Sori - who was sexually assaulted while under trial over allegations of helping Maoists - also addressed the event. "You have to come to Bastar, so the whole country knows the truth," Sori said.

Report by our special correspondent; picture by Ramakant Kushwaha