Indian government prepares to escalate war against Maoists after train attack
Indian government forces are preparing to escalate their war against Maoist guerillas after a bomb attack on an express sleeper train left 79 passengers dead
The attack on the Calcutta-Mumbai Gyaneshwari Express in West Bengal and the scale of civilian casualties caused shock throughout India where it was denounced as a "terrorist attack on the masses" the Maoists claim to represent.
The change of mood intensified pressure on the Indian government to take decisive action against the insurgents.
That pressure increased further on Saturday as rescue workers highlighted the human tragedies caused by the explosion. The Times of India reported how seven year old twin girls Sharmin and Shirin Alam, had died in each other's arms in their railway sleeper bed where they had been travelling on their first ever holiday. Their teachers said they had been unable to contain their excitement at the prospect of a train trip to Mumbai.
Their parents had also died in the explosion, which derailed 13 carriages and hurled several into the path on an on-coming goods train. More than 200 were injured in the explosion and collision.
The attack follows a series of brutal attacks on India's security forces.
More than 20 troops of the Eastern Frontier Rifles were killed in February, 76 members of the Central Reserve Police Force were killed in an ambush in Chhattisgarh last month, while earlier this month the Maoists killed 44 in a landmine explosion which targeted special police officers.
All these attacks were focused on paramilitary personnel deployed as part of 'Operation Green Hunt,' the government's campaign to flush Maoist insurgents from their jungle strongholds.
Ministers however have been paralysed by indecision over their response.
Some fear overwhelming force and the use of air power could backfire and increase Maoist popularity among the rural poor and tribals in India's eastern states. The government's home minister P Chidambaram has offered their leaders a ceasefire to allow talks to go ahead, but the Maoists rejected his offer.
The Maoist or 'Naxalite' rebellion began in 1967 in support of a peasant uprising over land reform in Naxalbari, West Bengal. It has now spread to Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand, and Madhya Pradesh and they are regarded a powerful force in one-third of India's 624 districts and India's greatest internal security challenge, according to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
More recently the Maoists have won new support from poor lower caste farm labourers and tribals displaced by government-backed mining operations and new steel and aluminium plants.
India's home minister met army chiefs on Friday to agree a new approach, while the chief minister of West Bengal Budhadeb Bhattarcharjee declared an all-out war against the insurgents and vowed they would be defeated.
"The Maoists have done this. The operation against them will be intensified and all-out efforts will be made to free the state and country from this danger," he said.
Former Indian intelligence officer, security analyst B Raman, said this latest tragedy in which civilians were targeted highlighted a new Maoists' strategy which called for a new government response.
"They have become indifferent fears of public aversion to their acts are no longer a restraining factor on their activities. When the jihadis developed a similar indifference some years ago, we were faced with an increase in their attacks on soft targets. We could face a similar increase in Maoist attacks on soft targets in rural areas and small towns," he warned.
He said the government must now target and "neutralise" the Maoist leadership while addressing the genuine grievances of the rural poor and tribals they represent.
Indian government prepares to escalate war against Maoists after train attack - Telegraph
