New Delhi: More than 25,000 battle-hardened paramilitary personnel will be deployed from November in the jungles of three Maoist-infested states, as the Centre inches closer to a massive security offensive against the insurgents.
The troops will lay siege to about 7,000 square kilometres in the tri-junction between Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa, which is the red brigade's 'liberated zone'. It is from there that the Maoists freely move across seven states for attacks, and it is there that they mostly return for safety.
Sources said around 12,000 of the personnel for deployment will be from Kashmir. Another major chunk, of about 7,000, will come from Tripura and Mizoram, where they are already fighting insurgency.
Over 70,000 paramilitary personnel secure the Kashmir valley alone.
At present, the number of security personnel in the Maoist tri-junction is 25,000 while the total deployment in Maoist-infested states is 35,000. The 35,000 personnel cover an area of over 39,000 square kilometres.
"The broad plan is to surround and secure the area slowly. The greatest difficulty personnel face is the vast stretch of area that has to be covered, but there is a lack of manpower," said a senior home ministry official. He said they suspect that most of the major Maoist attacks are planned in the jungles of this region in the tri-junction.
Apart from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Centre has roped in the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) to secure the area.
The recently concluded conference of chief ministers on internal security, the second this year, followed by a meeting among the seven Naxal-affected states (Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal), constitutes an essential part of the home minister's resolve to refurbish internal security and improve the level of preparedness in dealing with internal security threats. Driven by the objective of promoting knowledge and information-sharing between the states, the chief ministers' conference sought to overcome one of the biggest hurdles in the government's security apparatus - a lack of inter-state and center-state coordination. Through a process of consultation, the meetings have successfully built a cnsensus on counter-Naxal policy and strategies. Accordingly, the center is drawing up a plan for a military offensive, slated for launch by the end of October. These outcomes apart, conferences of this nature convey a strong message of unity among the political leadership in meeting internal security challenges.
At the same time, given the unsatisfactory attempts made so far by the states in meeting the stated objectives, skepticism regarding the government's resolve to counter Naxalism lingers on. These concerns are well-founded, what with the formidable challenges surrounding the oft-repeated two-pronged policy on counter-Naxalism: to subdue the insurgency by force and simultaneously provide aid to accelerate development.
Given the emphasis on police action in fighting the Naxals, the challenges confronting the police force are two-fold - the foremost inherent in police action itself while the other stems from the social and political conditions within which the police operate. Aside from targeting the 'enemy' in situations of ambush or direct assault, the ability of the police in identifying the 'enemy' from the people at large remains highly underdeveloped in a situation of asymmetrical warfare. This is leading to a high rate of human rights violations, including arbitrary detentions at a time when regaining public confidence has become extremely critical for the police to gain success in the fight against Naxals. The often indiscriminate use of force by the police is precipitated partly by the political interference that influences its recruitment and transfer policies, providing them impunity from law. To ensure autonomy of the police force, the Supreme Court had directed the states, as early as 2006, to establish a Police Establishment Board to look into recruitment and transfer issues. The fact that very few states responded to this directive, reflects the unwillingness of states to take up this issue. Until the culture of impunity enjoyed by the police force is effectively broken, through aggressive prosecution of crimes, cultivation of responsible leadership, and constant efforts at regaining public confidence, measures such as increase in the strength of the police force, setting up more military training colleges and their technological up-gradation are unlikely to reap long-term dividends.
The other aspect of the policy- to foster development as the solution to insurgency, is equally problematic, both on philosophical and practical grounds. The thrust on development must be preceded by debates on the nature of development suitable for a particular region. Importing a capitalist-industrialist model of development into tribal lands ahead of other processes of modernization such as spreading literacy and awareness, is likely to meet with resistance, Naxals or no Naxals. In addition to the construction of roads that is often viewed with skepticism by the locals, building irrigation canals, promoting agriculture and tribal skills are other ways of bringing about develop also need to be emphasized. Apart from this, the practical problems of pursuing a policy of fast-paced development range from insufficiency of funds and administrative weaknesses to corruption and politicization of development aid. A step to resolve this problem is the issuance of funds by the Centre being made conditional upon performance of the states in dealing with corruption, particularly with regard to transfer policies. The fear that corrupt practices will be exposed if states are refused funds by the Centre can act as an incentive for the state to fulfill its responsibilities.
It thus becomes clear that both the security and development aspects of the government's policy can be effective only in a political system free of lawlessness, corruption and coercion. As argued elsewhere, for instance, in Sanjib Baruah's latest book Beyond Counterinsurgency: Breaking the Impasse in Northeast India, strengthening the system of governance must be among the highest priorities for the government in its counterinsurgency strategy. This corresponds with the consensus in literature on counterinsurgency, of the salience of a political solution over a military one. Additionally, Chidambaram's acceptance of the option of negotiating with the rebels provided they renounce violence, and the successful and relatively peaceful conduct of general elections by the Election Commission even in violence-affected areas, are positive steps. Ultimately, the Centre must ensure that it does not reach a situation of stalemate as in the Northeast where despite stressing on counterinsurgency operations and development aid, violence, disillusionment and impoverishment persist.
New Delhi - Five policemen were killed and two injured in an attack by Maoist rebels in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, news reports said Sunday. At least 50 armed rebels fired at policemen patrolling near the main market in Sono town in Jamui district, about 100 kilometres south-east of state capital Patna late Saturday, state-run All India Radio reported.
The attackers fled with the policemen's weapons, the report said.
An officer was among those killed, while two policemen were injured, the police said.
Jamui district magistrate Prem Singh Meena said police and paramilitary forces had cordoned off the area and were conducting search operations.
The Maoists have been active in Bihar's Jamui district, a hill area with a large tribal population, over the past couple of years. There have been several incidents of attacks on policemen and attempts to blow up railway tracks.
Maoist guerrillas, who are active in 13 of India's 29 states, say they are fighting for the rights of the landless, poor and tribal people and are inspired by the Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong.
Federal Home Minister P Chidambaram recently told state security ministers that Maoist violence along with terrorism and insurgency in the north-eastern region were the three biggest challenges facing the country.
At least 562 people, including civilians, security forces personnel and rebels, have been killed in Maoist-related violence in India from January 1 to July 30, according to the government.
Geneva, Switzerland — Seven-year-old Juni Kumari was found missing from her house in Ghagni village in India’s Bihar state on Aug. 12. Three days later her body, with head shaven and sandalwood paste on her forehead, was found abandoned in a sugarcane field near her village.
Finding her daughter murdered, Juni’s mother filed a complaint with the local police. Investigations revealed that the girl was a victim of human sacrifice conducted by some Hindu priests in the village. The police reportedly arrested a priest, the prime suspect in the case.
On Aug. 17, in Ahmedabad district of Gujarat state, Muslim and Hindu communities started an armed riot over the petty issue of a religious procession passing by a Muslim school. The police had to resort to firing guns to disperse the fighting mob, which in a matter of hours destroyed buildings and looted properties and business establishments.
On July 23, in a fabricated “encounter” – an incident in which police intentionally shoot a suspect or accused person under the guise of self-defense – police commandos in the city of Imphal, capital of Manipur state, killed Chungkham Sanjit, a 27-year-old youth. In the same incident a woman, seven months pregnant, was killed, while five other civilians were seriously injured.
Justifying this atrocious incident in the state legislature later that day, Chief Minister of Manipur Okram Ibobi Singh informed the state and fellow legislators that terrorism in the state could only be controlled by firm police action. In a single statement Singh not only justified the irresponsible police action, but also declared the two innocent civilians killed were terrorists, denying their families even a simple apology.
Despite the many internal threats like those cited above, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his Independence Day address to the nation on Aug. 15 said, "Terrorism and border infiltration from the neighboring countries is the greatest threat the nation faces."
External threats have been and will remain a threat to India's internal security. However, such threats are not unique to India or for that matter to any particular state. Threats from outside the nation's borders gain seriousness in a country where internal stability is weak.
It is similar to the human condition; a person becomes more vulnerable to infection when his or her internal defensive mechanism is compromised. In such a condition, any sensible physician would first attend to the patient's immune system rather than focusing on removing external pathogens over which neither the patient nor the physician have much control.
The prime minister of India plays a role similar to that of a physician. If the focus is merely on external threats over which the country or its government has no effective control, it cannot improve the country's security.
The biggest threat to India's internal security is its own law enforcement agencies. Atrocious acts involving serious violations of policing standards – like what happened in Imphal – have isolated law enforcement agencies from the people. A law enforcement agency that lacks the support and confidence of the people can neither enforce the law nor be of any help to them.
There is no legislative or normative framework in the country to control its law enforcement agencies. Accountability and transparency are unheard of within India’s law enforcement community. Officers are notorious for corruption and the use of arbitrary force on suspects rather than seeking real solutions to crime.
In India, the use of torture and the practice of extrajudicial execution are so rampant among the police that the term “law enforcement” has become a misnomer when referring to them. But neither politicians like Singh nor other policymakers in India are interested in addressing this issue. Instead, the rhetoric is about threats from outside the country.
In reality, focusing on external security threats is like placing a scarecrow in a paddy field where worms left unattended have already eaten the grain.
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(Bijo Francis is a human rights lawyer currently working with the Asian Legal Resource Center in Hong Kong. He is responsible for the South Asia desk at the center. Francis has practiced law for more than a decade and holds an advanced master's degree in human rights law.)
Youth is the backbone of any country. All major revolutions of the world have been brought about by youth only with its untamed aggression and determination to bring change. History of India cannot forget the contributions of patriots like Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Sukhdev, Rajguru etc., all in their 20s who sacrificed their lives for independence, while in 1942 the youth under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi compelled the imperialist British regime to retreat.
Post independence, the biggest movement against the establishment was JP movement of 1977 which played a vital role in the emergence of youth on the national political scene. And the latest example of the power of youth is the victory of Congress in Lok Sabha polls of 2009, where Rahul Gandhi’s leadership proved vital in consolidating youth in favour of the party.
But the disillusionment of the youth could prove disastrous for any country, as the political equations of the world have changed drastically in last couple of decades, giving rise to a menace called ‘terrorism’. Though this existed for long, all of a sudden it has become a monster. More so as it is fed very often by a sinister foreign hand.
India, one of the worst sufferers of terrorism, is also affected by this geopolitical change, but it has local reasons which compounded with global state of affairs make it only more lethal.
Naxalism
Naxalism is the informal name given to the activities of various Left wing Communist organizations that emerged during the uprising in West Bengal under the leadership of Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal in 1967. The term ‘Naxal’ was given because the uprising started in the ‘Naxalbari’ village of West Bengal.
Naxals, who are also called ‘Maoists’ for following the ‘violent revolution’ theory of China’s Mao Zedong, are present in almost 40 percent of India geographical area. The area under the influence of Naxals is often called ‘Naxal belt’ or ‘Red Corridor’ comprising 92,000 square kilometers of area. Reports from intelligence agencies like RAW (Research & Analysis Wing) suggest that there are almost 20,000 Naxal insurgents currently operating in the country.
It is basically a fight of ‘haves’ with the ‘have nots’. The primary reason for the rise in Naxal movement is the pathetic condition of peasants and laborers in rural areas. It should be noted here that Naxalism exists in the most downtrodden areas of India.
The Left wing extremists are present in Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. It is because of their wide presence and growing influence that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has declared them the most serious threat to national security.
Khalistan Movement
‘Khalistan’ means the ‘land of pure’. It initially started due to a divide and rule policy of Indira Gandhi, but eventually turned into a violent movement for an independent Sikh state.
Indian Army started Operation Bluestar to flush out terrorists holed up at Harimandir Sahib (Golden Temple), the holiest Sikh temple. Bhindrawale, a Sikh ideologist and propagator of Khalistan who was earlier handpicked by Indira Gandhi to storm the Akali bastion, was killed in the operation but several civilians also died as they were caught in the cross-fire. The firing on Darbar Sahib was an embarrassment for the Indian Army and left the Sikhs severely disgruntled.
The Sikh youth was disillusioned with the establishment and was utterly disappointed with the state of affairs. This feeling of discontent was used by certain leaders to instigate them towards militancy. The highhandedness of Indian security forces acted like the catalyst and soon the whole of Punjab was burning.
The retaliation didn’t take long to happen. Sikhs held Congress responsible for what was happening in the state and Indira Gandhi was perceived as the main culprit. On 31st October 1984, the then PM of India Indira Gandhi, was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards resulting in anti-Sikh riots in northern India and massacre of thousands of Sikhs.
This added fuel to the fire and Sikh militancy continues through the 80s. However it was effectively tackled and virtually over by 1990s, due to strict action by Indian security forces under the then DGP of Punjab, KPS Gill. Today, Punjab is a peaceful and one of the most prosperous states of India. But voices of dissent rise periodically from overseas.
Secessionist movement in North-East
The north-eastern parts of India have been disturbed for long. The primary reason for the disturbance is the feeling of alienation of the people of north-east. Different physical attributes and a substantial geographical distance from the mainland adds to this feeling of alienation.
The poor economic condition of north-eastern states and lack of development adds to the agony. The youth feel neglected and alienated in their own country. This feeling of discontent led to the rise of militancy. The demand of Gorkhaland by GJM and a separate Assam by BODO and ULFA is the culmination of this unrest.
The policies of Indian government since independence have converted the north-east region into a hotbed of terrorism. The secessionist movement which gained momentum in 1990s is still continuing. The government has tried to curb the militants highhandedly, but it further complicated the matter. The implementation of AFSPA (Armed Forces’ Special Powers Act) has further led to the feeling of being wronged among the youth of north-east especially after some genuine cases of exploitation.
Besides China’s open support, Bangladesh based Islamic militants have also joined hand with the local extremists in the early 2000s making the situation even more problematic.
J&K insurgency
The disturbance in Jammu and Kashmir is the longest spate of insurgency in India. The trouble started immediately after independence when in 1948, Pakistan attacked J&K and captured a sizeable part of the state. Though India was able to win it back, but due to fatl mistake of Pandit Nehru it failed on diplomatic front and Pakistan captured areas remained with it separated by LoC.
The people of Kashmir seeking complete autonomy started their struggle which was supported by Pakistan as a part of its foreign policy. Lack of infrastructure and development in the area created dissatisfaction and disillusionment among youth of J&K who turned towards militancy. Lack of trust among other countrymen on Kashmiris further alienated them from the mainstream.
The first cases of Islamic militancy in India were only because of the problem of J&K, though it is not right to call it Islamic militancy as it was region specific and had nothing to do with religion.
The state is still affected by militancy but the situation has improved considerably in past 10 years. But it is essential for the government to take necessary steps for the development of the state. Creation of job opportunities, industrialization, infrastructure development and educational facilities are some of the ways to contain the disillusioned youth of J&K. Most importantly the support from Pakistan needs to be crushed and influx of radicals from across the border must stop. Only then, will we be able to restore peace in the ‘paradise on earth’.
Neo Terrorism
There has been a rise in terror incidents in past few years in India. Though some would like to relate it to a global phenomenon and the rise of Osama Bin Laden, Indian terror is sponsored by Pakistan to a very large extent.
The militancy of J&K was responsible for initial terror strikes when militants from across the border attacked India with the help of local sympathizers. The attacks on Red Fort and Parliament are the few examples of such terror.
Besides demolition of the Babri mosque was cleverly used by Pakistan to rope in embittered locals and train them or use them as sleeping cells to support LeT, HuM, JeM etc. The first attack in the form of Bombay blasts in 1993 triggered a wave of serial blasts in other cities over the next decade and the phenomenon continues to this day. Communal divisions within the country and incidents like Gujarat riots only helped the enemy.
Moreover, the poor economic condition of the minority community, lack of education and government’s failure in speedy justice in the riot cases further complicated the situation, giving rise to the homegrown terror outfits like SIMI (Student’s Islamic Movement of India) and Indian Mujahideen. The misguided youth, who believed in a confused concept of Jihad, are used by some Pakistani ‘recruiters’ and they mistake violence for Jihad.
The most recent, daring and dastardly has been a commando style attack, now better known as 26/11, when Mumbai was held siege by 10 Pakistani terrorists. The icons of modern and free India were attacked showing the severity and graveness of the situation. It was a new form of tactics that Pakistan was adopting to destabilize India.
The challenge that faces the government is two dimensioned. First, it needs better equipment, defence mechanism and intelligence to prevent Pakistan from carrying out its nefarious designs. Second political parties should stop treating minorities as votebanks and take concrete steps for their uplift, so that their can earn independent and respectable livelihood. Also there should be more confidence building measures between minority and majority communities. Proper development, education, and infrastructure can go a long way in bringing the misguided minority youth to the mainstream. It remains to be seen how serious our government is.
WASHINGTON - Majority of Pakistanis are against the suicide attacks being carried out in the country by banned terror outfits in the name of religion, a poll has revealed.
According to a poll conducted by Washington’s Pure Research Centre, 87 percent Pakistanis did not support the suicide attacks.
The percentage marks a major change in the view of Pakistani people since 2004 when only 41 percent people were against the attacks, The News reports.
The survey also revealed that 69 percent people considered India as the prime threat to the country, while 57 believed that it was the Taliban which possess real threat to Pakistan.
Majority of people (57 percent) did not support US’ subversive acts in the region, while four percent believed that Washington supports New Delhi in Kashmir dispute.
“There is need for utmost vigilance. There is credible information that terrorists in Pakistan will carry out fresh attacks in India, says Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.
The area of operation of terrorists today extended far beyond the confines of Jammu and Kashmir and covers all parts of the country, Singh said while addressing a conference of the chief ministers on internal security, PTI reported.
Noting that there were signs of revival of over-ground militant activities, he said attempts were being made to link isolated and unconnected incidents like the one in Shopian, Sopore and Baramulla to create an impression of a groundswell of anti-India feeling.
"All this shows that efforts to disturb the current status quo have not been given up. Fortunately, the annual Amarnath Yatra passed off without incident, a tribute to the secular character of Jammu and Kashmir," Singh said.
He said the situation in the state during past few years has seen a substantial improvement with figures of violence steadily declining and touching an all time low, PTI reported.
Earlier, union home minister P Chidambaram said that the gravity of the terror threat remains undiminished and the country cannot lower its guard.
“We will encourage state governments to talk to Naxals on the condition that they abjure violence and give up their misconceived arms struggle,” Chidambaram said while inaugurating the internal security conference.
Chief ministers will submit their action taken reports (ATRs) on suggestions they had agreed upon to strengthen security and intelligence apparatus when they had last met here on January 6-7.
Their seven-month report cards will be compared with what the home ministry has done during this period in front of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
NEW DELHI - Prime Minister Manmohan Saturday asserted he was confident that India would crush terrorism with the help of everyone.
Speaking from the Red Fort on India’s independence day, Manmohan Singh said that violence and terror could not be accepted in a democratic set up.
He said while the government respected the people’s right to air their grievances, nothing can be achieved through violence. There is no place in our democratic system for those who resort to violence.
Manmohan Singh said that terrorism had become a global menace. He said his government had taken several steps to improve the internal security since the Mumbai terror attack of 2008 that left nearly 170 people dead.
The prime minister said that Maoist guerrillas, or Naxalites, were not able to understand the strength of Indian democracy.
He vowed to step up the campaign against the Naxalites and provide all help to state governments to overcome the Maoist menace.
At the same time, Manmohan Singh pledged to improve the social and economic disparities that provide oxygen to the Maoist insurgents who hold sway in many parts of the country.
Paramilitary forces take position during a recent operation against Maoist insurgents. Asiapics
NEW DELHI // Concerned by mounting security force casualties in the battle against Maoist guerrillas, India has announced it will deploy the army and air force to combat the rebels, described by Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, as the “single largest security threat” to India’s national security.
The high-profile cabinet committee on security (CCS), which is headed by the prime minister and comprises representatives from the army, air force, navy, paramilitary forces and intelligence agencies, has approved the anti-Maoist operation, which is to begin next month.
The CCS has also given the go-ahead for the use of helicopter gunships in the “most desperate of situations” and an inter-services committee under the home ministry has already begun charting the road map for next month’s operation, unnamed sources in the ministry told newspapers last week.
They also said it would be the “most widespread” action ever undertaken against an insurgent group in the country, and the home ministry had acknowledged that it could last years.
The air force was last used to fight insurgents in the 1960s in Mizoram, in north-east India, against Mizo separatist rebels.
Maoists, who are also known as Naxalites here, have been active in India since the 1960s and have been countered by state police forces and occasionally central paramilitary forces.
According to Indian intelligence reports, up to 22,000 Maoist rebels are active in half of the country’s 29 states, having carved a “red corridor” from the country’s border with Nepal in the north to Tamil Nadu in the deep south. And they are spreading.
In recent years, the Maoists have dramatically stepped up their attacks. In 2007 they killed 231 members of the security forces followed by 230 in 2008. By the end of last month, Maoist landmine and gun attacks had already taken the official toll to 255 for this year. Last month they killed 36 security personnel in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh in a single ambush.
Activists of the Communist Party of India-Marxist shout slogans against Maoists and the Congress-led UPA government as they condemn the killing of their cadres by alleged rebels in the West Midnapore district in West Bengal. Raveendran / AFP
In the eastern state of West Bengal, the guerrillas have in the past two months killed what they say were 30 police informers and allegedly corrupt workers of the state’s ruling Communist Party of India – Marxist (CPI-M).
Although a 5,000-strong police-paramilitary joint action force patrols the area, an estimated 350 cadres have been regularly killing their targets in villages, in their usual hit-and-run style.
More than 500 CPI-M leaders, who believe themselves to be Maoist targets, have fled West Bengal in recent months, and, according to a story in The Telegraph, a Kolkata newspaper, almost all state police personnel posted in the area hold two to three life insurance policies each, spending up to 20 per cent of their income on the premiums.
Ardhendu Sen, the home secretary of West Bengal, last week admitted to the media that the government had failed to completely check Maoist activities in the state, despite engaging special counterinsurgency personnel in operation.
Referring to Maoist-infested regions as India’s “killing fields”, P Chidambaram, the home minister, said in parliament recently that federal and state governments had underestimated the strength of the guerrillas for several years, which had enabled them to grow.
The prime minister will hold a meeting next week with chief ministers from all the states affected by Maoist activities to discuss the blueprint and possible outcome of the offensive.
The process of preparing the estimated 26,000 ground personnel for the anti-Maoist operation began last week, sources in the home ministry told journalists this week, adding that many specially-trained counterinsurgency forces had been taken from other volatile areas such as Kashmir and some of India’s north-eastern states for deployment in the Maoist-affected areas.
Quoting an unnamed source in the home ministry, The Telegraph reported that the army’s role in the operation would be confined to operational advice and training of personnel while the air force would have a more direct role.
Depending on conditions, such as terrain, in the areas where the operation will take place, helicopter gunships may be used, The Telegraph reported.
Some analysts, however, believe physical force is the wrong approach in dealing with the Maoists and say tackling the issues that led them to take up arms is the only way to resolve the crisis
“Maoist insurgency is a governance-related issue and it cannot be fought militarily,” said D Suba Chandran, the deputy director of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in New Delhi.
“Even if they bomb village after village, they cannot finish off the insurgency. Only good governance can address people’s grievances and neutralise this insurgency.”
For their part, the Maoists anticipated the operation months ago and have been making preparations.
In an intra-group statement in June, the Communist Party of India [Maoist], the banned party that controls the Maoist guerrillas, said it believed that its strongholds in different parts of the country could come under intensive attack from the Indian government in the near future, the Times of India reported.
“The experience of the LTTE’s setback in Sri Lanka is very important for us to study and take lessons from. The mistake of the LTTE lay in its failure to adequately study the enemy’s tactics, capabilities, international support and open assistance by imperialist powers, et cetera … [There was] an underestimation of the enemy along with an overestimation of its own forces and capabilities,” the statement said.
“The unfolding state terror and state-sponsored terror under Sonia-Manmohan-Chidambaram will be far more brutal, deadly and savage than under any other regime witnessed so far.” Two weeks ago, the Jharkhand branch of the Maoists issued a statement warning that if Mr Singh, Mr Chidambaram and the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi did not stop “daydreaming to wipe out Naxalites from the country”, they would be eliminated. “They should stop daydreaming or else they will be given the death sentence [by the Maoists],” the statement said. It dared Mr Chidambaram to come to the “land of Jharkhand” and see that the “Naxalites are not clay toys”.
India’s civil society, business community and government must work together for internal security
First, the kudos. Union home minister P. Chidambaram deserves praise for putting order in the slumbering bureaucracy of North Block, headquarters of the ministry of home affairs, the largest government ministry. A shift from dysfunctional silos to coordinated functioning is evident. Intelligence warnings are now in the public domain and agency satraps are falling in line with the needs of local police through the mechanism of multi-agency centres.
Chidambaram has also been more frank in sharing his concerns about terrorist threats, the spread of Naxalism and other issues, than his predecessor. Yet, for an internal security system that has been hijacked by apathy and a deep-rooted nexus of the executive and the criminal-politician class, there are miles to go beyond the monthly report card.
The report card itself denotes selective reporting. For instance in the one for July, released by the home minister promptly on 1 August, major Naxal attacks such as the one in Chhattisgarh—where a brave police officer and 35 others lost their lives in an ambush—find no mention. The chaos of bandhs and strikes in the first two weeks of July in Kashmir in the wake of the Shopian tragedy—and its diffusion as separatists paint a normal crime as the handiwork of security forces—was also ignored. Nor was there any mention of the Dimasa-Zeme Naga collision in Assam. Moreover, the report read like a supply order for the police forces rather than an assessment of capacity building, gaps and measures taken to fill the same.
Whatever it be, this is a good beginning, and we hope there is a progressive follow-up. But the challenges to India’s internal and external security are far beyond the narrow band of issues covered by the report card or witnessed in public debate.
Take, for example, Naxalism. It has spread like a virus exactly as predicted by the Prime Minister a year or so ago. Naxals influence 180-195 districts of the country in varying degrees, with at least 50 in which they are increasingly calling the shots. This area is also the core of India’s resource base from where we mine our strategic minerals as natural uranium—not to mention coal and iron ore, much of which is exported to China.
As per media reports, the government is now planning offensive sweeps across central India, involving 20,000 policemen to secure this belt, then hold and govern it. This may well achieve the short-term objective, but Naxals have been forewarned about this offensive. With approximately 10,000 trained cadres in their guerrilla army, the challenge cannot be wished away.
Such enforcement of law and order is one cure; development is the other panacea. But the expenditure-driven approach is not likely to give desired results unless the core issue of empowering tribals and the poor farm labour is addressed through holistic land and forest reforms, generating permanent livelihood to make them stakeholders in the state rather than those who oppose it.
There are also reports of discord between Central and state police forces in Chhattisgarh. A lack of institutional mechanisms—such as the unified commands at the state and district levels where more than one force is operating—is contributing to dysfunctionalities at the grass-roots level. Moreover, management of Central forces such as the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is grossly inefficient at the force and unit levels. Systemic transformations would be necessary to come out of this negative spiral.
Another core issue is the division of responsibility on internal security between the Centre and states. While this division was drafted in the Constitution with good intent—with the just expectation of policy coordination in a federal democracy such as ours—today this has been hijacked for political purposes: The farce at Lalgarh in West Bengal is too recent to need recounting.
While we gloat over our Agni missiles, internal security in its many dimensions remains India’s biggest challenge. It is already having an impact on our economy and business continuity in affected areas; here, development has come to a standstill. For instance, in North Cachar in Assam, companies have left in the wake of repeated kidnappings and extortion. The additional cost of security is leading to loss of investor confidence, a loss of opportunity which has to be calculated separately.
Moreover, due to this factor, our influence in South Asia is slowly eroding: India is not able to lead by example. China has been quick to sense this opportunity. It is well entrenched in Sri Lanka where, despite India’s large quantum of aid and assistance—most of which is restricted to Tamil areas in the north—a Sinhala constituency favouring Beijing is growing in the south; this may complicate the ethnic discord. Nepal has fallen into China’s lap while the Sino-Pakistan and Sino-Myanmar axes operate in tandem against our interests.
Internal security is, therefore, a priority in more ways than one. The starting point is political consensus, which is as important as external security, and is far more difficult to achieve given vested interests. It is time civil society—including India’s well-informed middle class—rose to the occasion and demanded accountability from the government, particularly since those marginalized in society are not able to make their voices heard from faraway Bastar district in Chhattisgarh, or Manipur. After spending at least Rs1.88 trillion in the combined annual budgets of defence and home, we deserve better.
Islamabad, Aug 11 : With Taliban reported to be in disarray, Pakistan Army attack helicopters and artillery today pounded militant hideouts following clashes between the security forces and militants which left three terrorist and a soldier dead.
The incident happened in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan as a big group of hundred Taliban militants ambushed security forces who were on their way to Mir Ali, one of the towns of north Waziristan, the stronghold of Taliban.
Three security personnel were injured in the clashes as troops captured 10 militants, including a man who indoctrinated young boys to join the Taliban, during search and clearance operations in Malakand division, which includes the Swat valley.
A soldier was killed during an exchange of fire between militants and security forces at Kabal in Swat, a former Taliban stronghold. The gun battle erupted while the troops were conducting a search operation.
In the lawless North Waziristan tribal region, three militants were killed in retaliatory firing by security forces when they attacked a military convoy near Razmak today. Three security personnel were also injured in the incident, the military said. .
It's abysmal lack of development and injustice which have provided the Maoists a fertile ground to spread. But the State seems clueless
Rakhi Chakrabarty Delhi The operation of the joint forces at Lalgarh in West Bengal to flush out the Maoists was hailed by the media. It was the first well-coordinated joint operation by central and state forces.
The success of this operation will determine if this will be tried out in other states reeling under Maoist violence. Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa account for 80 per cent of the violence caused by the Maoists. There are plans to launch joint operations in all states affected by the Maoist problem in October. A big hurdle is the paucity of security forces.
Political leaders and senior police officers in the know admit that the joint operation in Lalgarh happened at the "instigation" of Union home minister, P Chidambaram. "The HM called up Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and proposed a joint action in Lalgarh. The Bengal CM immediately gave his nod, even before he consulted his cabinet colleagues or his party," a senior MHA official told Hardnews.
There has been a paradigm shift of sorts in the MHA ever since Chidambaram took over. Earlier, at the conference of DGPs and IGPs, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had mentioned Left-wing extremism as the biggest threat facing the country. But, the MHA never accorded it the priority it deserved. The entire focus was on 'Islamic fundamentalists' and terrorism perpetrated by them even though the Maoists have spread their influence in 13 states. In 2007, 361 police stations in these states were afflicted by Maoist violence. Besides, there are other states where the Maoists are gaining a toehold.
Repeated Maoist attacks, large-scale killings of security forces and armoury loots didn't change the Centre's emphasis. The Naxal management division at MHA was slack. And, the Maoists seized on the government's lax attitude and turned it to their advantage - they expanded the Red corridor, their area of influence.
Chidambaram has changed priorities in internal security. "The HM lays great stress on Left-wing extremism. He has rejigged the Naxal division and keeps them on their toes," said the MHA official. But, did the Lalgarh operation achieve the objective it had set out for? Not yet, admit those in charge of the joint operation - state police force and the central paramilitary including CRPF and BSF - in Bengal. The forces did not face the retaliation they had expected by the Maoists. However, they had to negotiate a terrain which had been mined by the Maoists. During the joint operation at Lalgarh, there were IED and landmine blasts at several places.
Since November last year, Lalgarh was cut off from the rest of the state. After a landmine blast targeting Bhattacharjee's convoy at Salboni in West Midnapore on November 2, 2008, police conducted nasty raids in adjoining villages, beat up, arrested and harassed locals including tribal women. Bhattacharjee later apologised for the harassment by the police.
But, it didn't help. The police harassment and arrest of seven tribal youths including three teenagers for their alleged involvement in the blast triggered off widespread protests led by the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA). For the next eight months, Lalgarh was practically cut off from the rest of the state. It was kept out of bounds from any form of state administration. The police were not allowed to enter.
The state government let the problem fester. Also, with the Lok Sabha elections around, the government chose the path of inaction. When PCPA members held a large rally in Kolkata and blocked the roads for four hours, the administration did not act.
In June this year, the joint operation was launched with two primary aims: one, to bring back governance to Lalgarh, which had virtually become a "liberated zone"; two, to flush out Maoists who had consolidated their base in Lalgarh.
For the Maoists, it's a protracted battle. They always plan long-term. They are not in a hurry. Their strength does not lie in numbers. True to the ethos of guerrilla warfare, the virulence of their attacks with its surprise element makes them a lethal force.
At the 2007 party congress, the CPI (Maoists) had decided to form a full-fledged mobile army in addition to its guerrilla squad. It was proposed that the cadres for this army would be drawn from the existing action squads in various states and given a higher level of training in sophisticated arms. The Maoists decided to go for expansion through mass mobilisation to upgrade their military activities.
Maoists feed on crisis or grievances of the people to strengthen themselves. They harvest the grievances first through front organisations. Eventually, the Maoists infiltrate the area to foment mass discontent and proceed towards militant mobilisation and recruitment.
The tried and tested Maoist strategy was manifest in Lalgarh, too. During the eight-month blockade in Lalgarh, the Maoists recruited men and women, primarily for their auxiliary force, said sources.
According to a senior Congress leader in West Midnapore, the joint operation actually helped the Maoists. "Both the Centre and state governments are bereft of a proper understanding of how Maoists strategise. So, they almost played into the hands of the Maoists by launching this joint operation," he said.
Locals in the Maoist-affected West Midnapore and the adjoining Bankura district liken the joint operation to a hula party (beaters in hunting parlance). When elephants rampage through fields and villages, hula party members beat drums and wave burning torches to drive the tuskers from one village or forest to the next. "The joint forces have worked like the hula party and driven the Maoists out of Lalgarh into neighbouring districts and Jharkhand," said locals of Jhargram.
Also, cordon-and-search operations by the joint forces in villages are proving to be counter-productive. Men, especially, the young, have fled their homes in fear of the police. Their relatives are refusing to give them shelter for the same reason. "So, they are seeking refuge in the jungles where the Maoists are offering them food, a place where the police can't touch them, and gradually wooing these hapless villagers to their fold," said local sources.
Maoists are aware of their strength and vulnerability. Given their current capability, they know they cannot hold a "liberated zone" and fight the State forces. But, confrontations between the State, its police and the people (as in Lalgarh) create situations which Maoists use to identify their potential recruits for their military and front organisations. This helps in political mobilisation and spread their influence. Like Mao said, "The guerrilla must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea."
That's why the security forces did not face any strong retaliation from the Maoists when they finally entered Lalgarh. The attacks followed later through killings of at least seven CPM men, attributed to the Maoists by the state government. Senior officers fear that more lethal attacks will follow once the central forces leave.
Since there is a vacuum in governance in these poverty-stricken areas replete with daily injustice, the Maoists are moving in and spreading their roots. Police action backed by strong intelligence inputs is the first step. The joint security action in Lalgarh was not backed by actionable intelligence. MHA suspects that intelligence available to the police may have been biased as several informers could have belonged to CPM in West Bengal. In Chhattisgarh, operations against Maoists failed due to lack of coordination and intelligence between the state and the Centre, said a former director-general of the CRPF.
Speaking to Hardnews, a home ministry official admitted, "Each state has its own policy to fight Left-wing extremism. Then, there is the problem of jurisdiction and coordination between adjoining states through which the red corridor runs." Maoists strike in one state and cross over to the next and hide. Joint operation of all Maoist-affected states is still not a reality. "It's high time a national policy is formulated before it spins out of control. It can't be left to states alone to handle it," stress police officers.
India is a Hindu dominant country and its society is pluralistic and its political history is full from a rash of spiteful religious and ethnic clashes. There are over 200 different languages, customs and more than one dozen different religions and seven of them being very prominent ones including Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism and Zoroastrians. Imagine a nation where the majority of population does not understand their national anthem or the President’s address to the nation but surprisingly still called one nation. Since long the country is under the grip of severe ethnic tension and socio-cultural violence is common in several corners and continues clashes between Hindus, Muslims, Christians and other minorities presenting the worst scenario of the country. The India’s Constitution guarantees fundamental rights to all its citizens but it has failed to dismantle the Hindu caste system and in particular to erase centuries of discrimination against the “untouchable” Dalit caste. The ethnic and communal tension is totally indigenous in India and many internal security threats are purely home grown and numbers of secessionist and revolutionary movements born because of grave economic and socio-cultural deprivation. They are against the federal structure and New Delhi’s discriminatory treatment with the small states and struggling for secession from the Indian Union. So, since independence (1947), India is facing variety of violent conflicts based on religion, caste, language, ethnicity and regional loyalties. The world media reported that India is the home of largest number of domestic terrorist organizations in the world and according to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the CPI (Maoist) as 34th terrorist organization under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention). In this regard, the small states of India’s northeast are ethnically and culturally distinct from the rest of the country. They are fighting to expand their social and political autonomy and to protect their land against encroachment from India’s expanding Hindu population. Historically, the Naxalites are from West Bengal and have taken an informal name given to communist groups based on India, inspired by China’s leader Mao Tse-Tung. They have popular support from the poor tribal and rural masses and fighting for their legitimate rights for jobs and land ownership. They have expanded their insurgency to 220 districts out of 630, targeting landowners (feudals) and central government institutions. The most recent figures also shows that the strength of the movement is around 25,000 and claimed the guerrillas control an estimated one fifth of India’s forests, as well as being active in 160 of the country’s 604 districts. The states of Maharashtra in the west, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh in the north, the eastern state of West Bengal and the southern state of Andhra Pradesh are the main areas of Naxalites activities. They are around 40,000 and have a loose connection with the Maoist insurgents of Nepal, who are now the leading party in the post-royal government. In the beginning, the Naxalite movement had its centre in West Bengal but in recent time they revolutionary spread into backward tribal areas and in rural central and eastern India particularly in Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh areas through the activities of underground groups such as the Communist Party of India (Maoist). They are conducting an insurgency under the umbrella of the Naxalite or Maoist movement and have great influence in northeast of India, especially concentrated in an area known as the “Naxal Belt” (approximately 92,000 square kilometers). The term Naxalites comes from Naxalbari, a small village in West Bengal, where a Communist Party of India (Marxist Group) led by Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal against the domination of New Delhi rule. The leadership started movement on May 25, 1967 from Naxalbari village where a peasant was attacked by hired hands over a land dispute. The local peasants retaliated by attacking the local landlords and the violence escalated and Majumdar advocated Indian peasants and lower classes that they must follow Mao’s footsteps and overthrow the government and upper classes whom he held responsible for their plight. Majumdar formed Naxalite movement through his writings and the now this is a one of the most organized party in the country. The Naxalites have gained a strong presence amongst the radical sections of the students movement in Kolkata (Calcutta) and large number of students have divorce their education and joined revolutionary activities. Naxalites claimed that the revolutionary warfare have been taken place not only in the rural areas but also in the urban places. They have entirely indigenous movement and have been trained by volunteers of Indian ex-army personnel. They are actively involved to provide training and guidance about weapons against Indian army. They have high-altitude warfare equipments and hundreds of young women and men have given training about anti-air and tank attack against the Indian army and paramilitary forces. So, it is normal for the Naxalites guerrillas to attack on Indian army barracks, storage depots and power plants. According to Western sources, many fascist militant organizations based on India are involved to provide funds, training methods and special guidance to the volunteer fighters. According to Anasuya Ray (researcher for an NGO based in Pune, India), writes about her recent fieldwork in India’s tribal belt, where grinding poverty and malnutrition are driving villagers to support the Naxalites and rebel group seeking to overthrow the government. She also mentioned that the Naxalites are an assortment of violent Maoist rebel groups who stage internecine attacks on Indian government targets to bring attention to region’s blight. Varavara Rao (the renowned communist author and Naxalite sympathizer based in the southern city of Hyderabad) also indicated that hundreds of thousands of poor people, particularly from India’s tribal belts, are joining the Naxalite militia to conduct raids and participate in attacks for their struggle of freedom from New Delhi’s imperialistic rule. There are also reports that the New Delhi government have been accused of gross human rights violations and for each alleged government abuse, the Naxalites have responded with double the level of violence. In fact, the day indigenous Naxakites freedom movement has been extended in different parts of Karnataka, Kerala, Uttaranchal, Tamil Nadu, Chotanagpur, Maharashtra, and Orissa, the New Delhi security establishment has deployed around 110,000 military and para-military troops to eliminate indispensable spirit of freedom but completely failed to control the situation. They initiated chronic war crimes and thousands of people are imprisoned for political reasons, often without charges of trials. Torture and ill-treatment are common, and hundreds have died in custody. Hundreds more are victims of extra-judicial executions or forced disappearances. Military groups under the planned programme are involved for grave human rights violations, including killings, tortures and rapes, with impunity. In reality, human rights abuses have been a part of a campaign by the Indian military against Naxakites and it is continues to be a major instrument of Indian repression against the northeast freedom fighters. Nonetheless, Naxakites are determined to fight for freedom struggle and they have commitment that they will continue to fight against Indian illegitimate occupation. In this connection, Naxal leader Varghese described that Naxal struggle is an ideal movement to seek inspiration to carry their struggle for freedom to its logical end. The movement is also a message for New Delhi that if the Naxakites did not bow down their heads before the tyranny of British empire, as to how they will succumb to the despotic Indian rule. However, the Naxakites are determined that struggle against India’s occupation will continue because it is a struggle for the basic rights of freedom and democracy.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calls it the biggest threat to the Indian Union. The military is impotent to do anything about it. The goverment is paralyzed. The insurgency spreads. A huge grid of land frm the Northern most border of Bharat (aka India) to the very South of the contry is aflame. The government’s reponse is feeble and anemic. Instead of improving the economic life of the ordinary citizens, the $450 million Untouchable Dalits and the 150 million marginalized Muslims, the government is on a buy spree of iron and steel. As if the concreate and asphalt saved the USSR.
The Center does not deal with the issues of the populaiton, 75% of which lives below $2 per day. Delhi spends Billions on Aircraft Carriers, Nuclear subs and planes from the West–no money to take care of the citizens which are in open revolt against Brahamanism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKnRjV7boK0&feature=player_embedded
According to press reports, the Maoist insurgency in spreading and intensifying in new areas. The Voltaires of India are quiet, too scared to question the carnage. The mighty Indian media controlled by corporatism has become more obsequious than Pravda or Izvestia. Icons of the press freedom like Tehilka cannot survive amid the tough commercial environment. Bigotry sells.
India map: Naxalite Maoist insurgency map of India map : More than 89 insurgencies rage in India
India is like a millstone on South Asia. It has kept all of South Asia in poverty. Now it is beset with humongous problems–the harvest of sowing seeds of destruction in her neighbors. When the tide rises all boats float up. When the tide sinks all boats go down. India is a dead weight on South Asia. In the process all of South Asia is doomed to another century of penury and poverty. The Times of India and other newspapers are reporting an increase in the spread of the militancy.
As many as 217 security personnel and 441 civilians were killed in Naxal violence and action against them till November 30.
Over 1,435 incidents of Naxal violence were reported this year till November 30, Jaiswal said, adding that
1,536 Naxalites were arrested in the same period.
26 policemen killed in separate Maoist attacks in Chhattisgarh
Maoists kill 2 CPM leaders, issue threat in Lalgarh
5000 paramilitary men to be deployed for anti naxal operations
Maoists’ predicament deserves world attention and suitable media projection. India must stop her obstinacy and allow freedom to the Naxalite – Maoists.
…an area comprising nearly 4,000 sq km of dense forest in Chhattisgarh considered to be the Maoists’ safest base.
Chhattisgarh govt creates special post to tackle Naxalism
Earlier this month, 36 police were killed in a series of attacks on one day in Chhattisgarh. Nearly 500 people have died in Naxal attacks this year alone.
An attempt to exploit local rivalries by creating a rival militia, the Salwa Judum, only exacerbated the problem. The aim was to create a force of special police officers to “drain the swamp”, forcing Naxal-friendly villagers out of the jungle and cutting the supply line to the Naxals. It just led to a new round of slaughter.
Balkanizing Cracks in “India” are turning into huge chasams. The budding Naxalite insurrection shows humongous cavities in Indian Union. Why is the press silent about the rebellion in 100 districts of India?–this constitutes about 40% of the country. The swathe of land from Nepal all the way down to Andhara Pradesh is in rebel control. The seven sisters in the Norheast are almost totally out of control of the center which does not seriously challenge the writ of the local leaders. As is Assaam and Bihar. 250 million Dalits do not feel “Indian”. The 150 million Muslims have been so mistreated that they are in abject generational penury. It will take more than 3 centuries to pull the poverty stricken out of destitute living. The media focuses on “Incredible India”, a figment of the imagination of the West.
The Naxalites have a force of approximately 15,000 cadres spread across 160 districts in the states of Orissa, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnatakaand West Bengal. They operate primarily in the lawless, dense forested areas of India’s interior, with some estimates saying Naxalites control approximately 10.03 million hectares (about 25 million acres) of forests nationwide. They also have an active campaign to recruit students and other youths to help spread their left-wing extremism into India’s towns and cities. The Maoist movement in Bharat started in 1967.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbXecDNPNzM&feature=player_embedded
From its origins in a 1967 uprising against landlords in the village of Naxalbari, West Bengal, the Maoist insurgency has become the greatest threat to the world’s largest democracy.
The rebels play on the frustrations of India’s vast underclass, in particular those of the tribal people left behind by the minority who are growing rich by exploiting the country’s natural resources and cheap labour.
Estimates put Naxalite numbers at about 20,000, although it is to be assumed they enjoy wider support among villagers. Last Updated: 26 July 2009 9:59 PM. Source: The Scotsman, Location: Edinburgh. Published Date: 27 July 2009, By Gethin Chamberlain in Chhattisgarh
India is behaving a like a pumped up balloon Michelin mascot; pumped by the Americans who need crutches to needle China; pumped up by the British who cannot fight the good war in Afghanistan and expect India to clean up the mess that they have made. The Maoists are affecting the economic activity in more than 200 districts in Bharat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKnRjV7boK0&feature=player_embedded
according to data compiled by the Union home ministry, the Naxalite strikes on economic targets have progressively grown from 71 in 2006 to 80 in 2007, 109 in 2008 and 56 in the first half of 2009. Among these, communication towers were the most targeted this year, having seen 26 attacks between January 1 and June 30. Railways came second with 15 extremist strikes so far this year on its infrastructure and properties across Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal.
Economic targets (10) in the first six months of this year included the NMDC mines, Gramin Sadak Nirman Yojana works, Essar Pipelines in Chhattisgarh; Essar Piplelines again in Orissa and Solar plates in Bihar. This is higher than the total five extremismrelated incidents against economic targets in whole of 2008 and eight in 2007.
However, it was in 2006 that economic activity in Left wing extremism-hit states saw its worst year with 23 private and public sector units — including uranium mines in Bihar, NMDC (attacked 11 times) Essar Pipelines (Chhattisgarh and Orissa), a steel plant in Jharkhand and BRO works in Maharashtra, getting hit. Economic Times.http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Economy/Public-pvt-sectors-bear-brunt-of-Naxalite-attacks/articleshow/4828092.cms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVafzd-Zw54&feature=player_embedded
The Naxalite insurrection in decades old. The Maoist movement in Nepal gives encouragement to the Naxalites.
The Naxalite movement owing to its rightful cause and wide spread support has become very significant surpassing in scale and magnitude of freedom movements in Indian Held Kashmir (IHK) and northeastern states of India. Out of 630 districts the Indian government has declared 220 districts as the Maoist affected areas. As per government announced figures more than 200 security personnel have been killed during the past six months, however, there is no official mention of collateral damage, civilian causalities and or losses suffered by Maoists guerillas. The fact of the matter is that India is fighting a bloody war against Naxalite freedom fighters.
The Naxalite-Maoists, as they call themselves, are the liberators, redeemers and saviors representing the down trodden workers and landless / poor farmers who have been entangled into vicious circle of poverty, misery and wretchedness. The Indian social order and state culture treats them contemptuously without any regard for human dignity and self esteem. Hence their patience withered away and they turned against the repressive system of government, draconian legislation, evasive political practices and mischievous manifestation of elected representatives, feudal pundits and bureaucrats. They frequently challenge the writ of the government and disrupt the communication system.
Being the spokesmen of poor farmers and neglected tribes, the Naxalites enjoy the popular support of the masses they represent. They command the hearts and souls of the people and have started a legitimate freedom movement against Indian rule. Their main support bases are in West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. They have the will and the capacity to fight and defeat the Indian Security Forces. Since they enjoy considerable influence in five Indian states therefore their potential to crush Indian Security Forces appears to be a viable assessment and a crystal-clear possibility. So far they have put up the toughest resistance to the Security Forces marking their signatures by frequently challenging and making the state administration ineffective.The New Nation. Dr. M. Anwar
The spreading insurgency has caught the Central government by surprise.
The wooden stockade of the police base in the heart of Chhattisgarh’s Maoist-infested Dantewada district is ringed by rolls of razor wire, but the gate is wide open and the watchtower unmanned. The men inside the wire lounge around in various states of undress. It is the middle of the afternoon, but they reek of drink.
This is the front line of India’s undeclared civil war, the boundary between the forces of the state and the vast swathes of the country which are now in the hands of a Maoist Naxalite insurgency which has claimed the lives of at least 3,300 people in the past five years.
Outside the base, one of the young constables is complaining bitterly about their lot. Prabhata Suman Kujar wears a T-shirt with the words “Live in New York” on the front. He is unsteady on his feet and keeps asking for wine. “We want more money. We struggle to get by,” he grumbles. He has not seen his wife or their six-month-old son for weeks. “She begged me not to come to Dantewada,” he says.
Kujar’s wife has good reason to worry. This base was attacked by Naxals three years ago; the following year the Naxals left three barrels of the local Mahua spirit outside another base in Bijapur and waited for the police inside to take the bait before massacring 55 of them.Published Date: 27 July 2009. By Gethin Chamberlain in Chhattisgarh
This time around, the Bharatis cannot blame the Pakistanis for their internal troubles. No inputs to suggest Naxalites-ISI links: Govt
NEW DELHI: In the dock for its inability to control Naxal violence, which has spread its tentacles to 13 states, the government sought to lay responsibility on state governments for their lack of will in addressing the problem. The Centre also denied that it had information related to the links between Pakistan’s ISI and Naxal movement.
“There are no inputs to suggest that the Naxals have established links with the ISI,” Sriprakash Jaiswal, minister of state for home, said in Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Times of India
The increase in the militancy in Bharat has long term implications for the region and the world.
Rahul Sharma’s house in Dantewada is protected by armed men and razor wire. Sharma is superintendent of police for the district, one of the worst hotbeds of Naxalism in a state in which more than half the territory is classified by police as “extremely Maoist affected”.
“These are our people – we want them to join the mainstream. The Naxals have to be beaten by force but the ideology of Naxalism has to have a political solution.”
An attempt to exploit local rivalries by creating a rival militia, the Salwa Judum, only exacerbated the problem. The aim was to create a force of special police officers to “drain the swamp”, forcing Naxal-friendly villagers out of the jungle and cutting the supply line to the Naxals. It just led to a new round of slaughter.
Salwa Judum members find shelter in camps next to the police bases. In the camp on the edge of Bhairamdarh, there are gun towers looking out over the open countryside to the forests.
Laxman Bhogami, 20, shoulders a vintage .303 rifle. He shares it with four other men. They have 75 rounds between them.
“We go into the forest and fight. Once we went into the forest and there was a meeting of Naxals and we surrounded them and shot them from all sides.
“Sometimes we have to go into the villages. I think we should make friends with the people and get intelligence from them.”
He fidgets awkwardly. “I don’t know what the future is, they are increasing in numbers.”The Scottsman. Published Date: 27 July 2009 By Gethin Chamberlain in Chhattisgarh
The foreign press in “India” is ignoring the spready of fundamentalism in Bharat at its own peril. We reproduce an article published in the Times of India a conservative Bharati newspaper that usually does not publish reports about problems in the Indian Union. Mr. Mohan discusses the issues faced by the Union.
Indian insurgency map. Naxal map: The real failed state is “India”. Indian 2010: Cracks in “India” map.India cut down to size.Indian insurrection: Naxalte insurgency.
NEW DELHI: If the Centre has its action plan ready to deal with Maoists, the Red ultras have a counter-plan in place which talks about expanding
their “guerrilla war to new areas” to “disperse the enemy force (security personnel) over a sufficiently wider area”.
When chief ministers of Naxal-affected states and their police chiefs meet here sometime this month, they will have the “counter-plan” as a big challenge before them while devising their strategy of “coordinated action” against Red terror.
Taking note of what home ministry has planned to counter them, the politburo of CPI (Maoist) an umbrella organisation of naxal outfits in the country in its last meeting on June 12 came out with a detailed plan, asking its armed wing, People Liberation of Guerrilla Army (PLGA), to carry out “tactical counter-offensives” keeping in mind strengths and weaknesses of government forces.
India map insurrection: The read swathe of land from Nepal to Andhara Pradesh shows the Naxalite insurrection
A copy of the naxals’ plan was seized by security agencies during operations in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa. It explains how the ultras are fanning out to different states to deviate police and paramilitary forces from Abhujmaad an area comprising nearly 4,000 sq km of dense forest in Chhattisgarh considered to be the Maoists’ safest base.
Though the politburo considered government forces to be “superior”, it noted that that it would be difficult for the Centre to send enough forces required by each state in near future as raising of central forces would take time.
“Keeping this in mind, we have to further aggravate the situation and create more difficulties for the enemy (security) forces by expanding our guerrilla war to new areas on the one hand and intensify the mass resistance in existing areas so as to disperse the enemy forces over a sufficiently wider area,” the Maoists’ politburo said.
Naxalite insurgency spreading like wildfire. Hindustan’s Maoist insurgency map. There are secessionist movements in almost every state in “India” encompasisng more than 200 districts
Realising that any mistake on their part would be utilised by government forces to isolate them, the politburo has issued certain dos and don’ts for its cadre. It asked them to take extra precautions not to take reckless actions, not to cause damage to people’s property or cause inconvenience to civilians. It also asked the cadre to promptly apologise for their mistakes and assure people that such mistakes would not be repeated.
Referring to their code of conduct, a senior home ministry official said the naxalites had adopted this strategy as they did not want to antagonise sympathetic local populations which provide them much needed support/shelter during operations. The ultras want to target only state security forces without causing inconvenience to civilians, he added.
Sensing the urgency of stepping up its armed struggle, CPI (Maoist) expressed the need to recruit new members, train cadre, build new leadership, enthuse them with daring counter-offensives, mobilise them into militant mass struggles and also “take up wide propaganda exposing state terror” with the help of their sympathisers and civil society.
Though the 14-page politburo note has not disclosed the Maoists’ operational details, it clearly indicates how it has been building up cadres in new areas to take on security forces.
Addressing their sympathisers and trying to motivate cadres, the politburo also pointed to various movements outside India. It referred to Iraq and Afghanistan where it said locals had been fighting “reactionaries led by US imperialists”. Times of India. ishwa.mohan@timesgroup.com. Maoists plan to take ‘guerrilla war’ to new areas. Vishwa Mohan, TNN 3 August 2009, 02:06am IST
The Naxals are fighting for their rights, the right to live and the right to survive.
On 16th June 2009 approximately 300 to 400 Maoist guerillas entered Lal Garh and captured the town including the City Police Station. They also removed all signs and symbols of state authority and openly challenged the writ of the government. They blew up a railway building and damaged three mobile phone towers in Orissa (Koraput district) and cut off 125 villages from rest of the state. Trouble in Karnataka also marked Maoists upheaval blended with inner commotion, rage and cataclysmic activities. In West Bengal the Maoists made an effort to disrupt the supply line of the Security Forces involved in the Lal Garh operation by detonating a landmine at Chara village.
During the “bandh call” (strike), life was hit in Maoist populated areas of Lal Garh, Binpur, Pirakata and Jhargram in Midnapore districts, and areas of Bankura and Purulia. In Bihar the Maoists attacked a police escort at Lakhisarai court and freed their two colleagues including area commander Babulal Besra, blew up a mobile tower at Barachatti village of Gaya district. They also exploded an art and culture building at Madanpur in Aurangabad.
The Central Government has launched a massive repressive operation against the Maoists in Lal Garh using over 1000 Security Personnel. The operation is reportedly still going on as BSF and Polices claims to have retaken the town of Lal Garh.
Independent reporters state that Maoists still control 90% of the area of district. Indian Security Forces are required to undertake series of operations in five different Maoists affected states. Will they be able to eliminate the Maoist opposition without shedding enormous blood and massive killing, is a big question. Surely another human tragedy and mass exodus is becoming imminent in India.Dr. M. Anwar. The New Nation
In another report the Times of India reported that there is no evidence of any foreign involvement in the spread of the Maoist insurgency.
Parliamentarians expressed concern over the lack of cohesive action on the part of the Centre. Congress MP Naveen Jindal said 13 states were affected, 200 security personnel were killed and nearly 1,500 incidents took place every year, and the Centre needed to reconsider a way to tackle the problem.
CPM’s Mohammed Saleem pointed out that 80% incidents had taken place in the states of Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and West Bengal.
Replying to the queries, Jaiswal said the Centre was taking steps to check the Naxal menace, which had emerged as a threat to national security.
The government will raise 10 Commando Battalions for Resolute Action (COBRA) in the CRPF as a specialised anti-Naxal force, Jaiswal said. In a written reply to another question, Jaiswal said the government was further strengthening and streamlining the mechanisms for intelligence gathering and sharing with a view to make them more effective and result-oriented.
Steps were also being taken for modernisation and upgrading of state police forces and their intelligence branches and providing modern weaponry, equipment and training to them, he added.
As many as 217 security personnel and 441 civilians were killed in Naxal violence and action against them till November 30. Over 1,435 incidents of Naxal violence were reported this year till November 30, Jaiswal said, adding that 1,536 Naxalites were arrested in the same period. Times of India. Maoists shifting bases from Chhattisgarh to Orissa
The militancy is spreading through the Indian Union
Dr. Anwar sheds light on the issues which is not covered by CNN, Fox, BBC and other American news channels.
The state government has banned the Communist Party of India (CPI) terming it a terrorist organization. The ban came in the backdrop of violent incidents in Lal Garh and the ongoing operation by Police and Security Forces to reclaim the area. Political differences, especially those between the CPI (M) government in West Bengal and the Congress at the Center, have affected the operation against the Maoists. The CPI (M) and its other leftist allies have opposed the ban imposed by Union Home Ministry on CPI (M), stating that the ban would serve little purpose and that the extremists should be handled politically.
The ban on CPI (M) is not a new thing as the three extreme left outfits: Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), People’s War Group and Maoist Coordination Centre that merged to form the CPI (M) are already banned along with their front organizations. The CPI (M) also now stands banned for all practical purposes.
Indian spin masters are busy to give a new twist to Maoists movement by coining links with Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) – a figment of imagination and a white lie. The aim is to preinvigorate propaganda against Pakistan and cover own administrative mismanagement.
Indian intelligence agencies have already been tasked to implicate LeT for providing training to the Maoists. Actually Indians are convinced that Maoists movement is totally home grown having the potential to defeat Indian Security Forces for its just cause. Media and human rights organizations must project human rights violations committed by Indian Security Forces against Maoists movement. Maoists’ predicament deserves world attention and suitable media projection. India must stop her obstinacy and allow freedom to the Naxalite – Maoists. Dr. M. Anwar. The New Nation. http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2009/08/01/news0588.htm
India cut down to size. The Naxal insurgency shows huge cavaties in Bharat
The Naxal militants are attacking the economic life of Bharat. Here is a report from the Economic Times.
The Naxalites have not spared power plants either, with Andhra Pradesh bearing most of the attacks. While two power plants in Maharashtra have seen Maoist attacks so far this year, one was targeted in 2008, three in 2007 and four in 2006. Even poles and transmission lines have been destroyed/disrupted thrice in Chhattisgarh in 2009, a good 24 times in 2008 (of which 23 alone were in Chhattisgarh), 10 times in 2007 and five times in 2006. Chhattisgarh has accounted for all but one attack on power infrastructure since 2006.
Mines, which are abound in the Naxal-infested areas of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa, have also been attacked over the years, though no attack has been reported yet in 2009. The last year saw six incidents of Naxal violence targeted at mines, the same as in 2007 and up from lone attack in 2006.
Railways are a favoured target, given its vast network and infrastructure and the practical difficulties involved in protecting the same. Railway properties have seen 15 attacks until June 30 this year, as against 27 in 2008, 47 in 2007 and 33 in 2006.
While Bihar saw the highest number of attacks on railway infrastructure in 2006 (12) and 2008 (11), Chhattisgarh was the worst hit (18) followed by Jharkhand (15) in 2007. This year, however, railway properties in Orissa seem to be the favoured target of Naxals, having been hit five times so far.
The year 2008 logged 46 strikes on communication infrastructure while the first six months of 2009 have already seen 26 such attacks. Sources in the security establishment say that this is mainly on account of the vulnerability of the towers due to their location in remote areas, making their protection difficult. Insiders, however, blame the failure of telecom companies to pay extortion money to the Naxalites for the frequent attacks on their towers.
Essar Groups properties in Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Orissa have been consistently targeted over the last three years, with Essar Steel in Bihar having seen an attack each in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Essar Pipelines have been hit by the Maoists twice in Chhattisgarh and four times in Orissa in the first half of 2009, as against three and one attacks in Chhattisgarh in 2008 and 2007, respectively. Economic Times. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Economy/Public-pvt-sectors-bear-brunt-of-Naxalite-attacks/articleshow/4828092.cms
The fire of the Naxal insurgency engulfs 40% of the territory of the Indian Union
This rare report published in the Scottsman discusses the Maoists in Bharat.
Earlier this month, 36 police were killed in a series of attacks on one day in Chhattisgarh. Nearly 500 people have died in Naxal attacks this year alone.
With the Indian army insisting that it will not get involved, the job of taking on the Naxals has fallen to the police. But their failure to learn from their own mistakes has left them fighting a losing battle.
In an attempt to cut their mounting losses in the “red corridor” of Naxal territory from West Bengal to Maharashtra, the police have started sending men to jungle warfare training.
About time too, says Brigadier Basant Kumar Ponwar, the man running the training camp.
“Fighting the Naxals is like driving a car: if you don’t follow the rules you have an accident,” he says.
The latest massacre came about because the police failed to follow basic drills, he says. Though they knew full well that the Naxals like to stage a small attack to lure a bigger force into an ambush, they still rushed in.
Ponwar has taken 300 acres of jungle and hillside and turned it into a simulacrum of the battlefield where he puts police officers through six-week courses.
“If al-Qaeda can train their people to carry out suicide bombings, why can’t we train our people to be fearless in the face of death?” he demands. “Fight the guerrilla like a guerrilla. That’s my motto.”
Outside, his students are going through their paces, dropping down ropes and yelling “Commando!”. Elsewhere, men are being taught to fire their weapons from horseback and another group is learning how to catch a cobra, skin it and eat it. Ponwar says they do not keep any anti-venom in the camp.
“They have to understand that they must follow their lessons. There are no runners-up prizes in this fight: if you don’t win, you go back in a wooden box.”The Scottsman
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