NAXAL / MAOISTS threats and movements

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NAXAL / MAOISTS threats and movements​

Naxalite or Naxalvadis (name from the village of Naxalbari in the Indian state of West Bengal where the movement originated), are a group of far-left radical communists, supportive of Maoist political sentiment and ideology. Their origin can be traced to the split in 1967 of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), leading to formation of Communist Party of India (Marxist- Leninist). Initially the movement had its centre in West Bengal. In recent years, they have spread into less developed areas of rural central and eastern India, such as Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh through the activities of underground groups like the Communist Party of India (Maoist).They lead the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency. As of 2009, Naxalites are active across approximately 220 districts in twenty states of India accounting for about 40 percent of India's geographical area, They are especially concentrated in an area known as the "Red corridor", where they control 92,000 square kilometers. According to India's intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, 20,000 armed cadre Naxalites were operating apart from 50,000 regular cadres working in their various mass organizations and millions of sympathisers, and their growing influence prompted Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to declare them as the most serious internal threat to India's national security. The Naxalites are opposed by virtually all mainstream Indian political groups. In February 2009, Central government announced its plans for simultaneous, co-ordinated counter-operations in all Left-wing extremism-hit states—Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal, to plug all possible escape routes of Naxalites.

India is divided in many ways: by caste, religion, language, and region. But recently it has become to look as though the most visible divide in the days ahead will be marked by the Maoists movement, which according to media reports, has spread to nearly 40% of the country's geographical area and is a major political force in poor tribal states such as Chhattisgarh, Jharkand and Orissa.

The insurgency is gaining momentum to the dismay of the India, who is riding on the high waters of the economy, and analysts say, the Indian government is concerned over the possible spillover of Maoist problem in contagious states like UP, Bihar, Uttaranchal and Assam.

In practice, the 40-year-old insurgency is thought to have a presence in as many as half of India's 28 states and to make the matter worse, the movement also benefits some support in rural villages, making curbing its activities difficult for the Indian government.

“Naxalites control 92,000 square kilometers of the country, and the "red corridor" runs along some of India's poorest parts and through areas inhabited mainly by tribal peoples,” according to the media sources.

The death from violent movement is estimated to be around 6000 in last 20 years.

Violence has peaked in India from Maoist or Naxalite separatist.

From the Ministry of Home Affairs it has been stated that:

1996: 156 deaths
1997: 428 deaths
1998: 270 deaths
1999: 363 deaths
2000: 50 deaths
2001: 100+ deaths
2002: 140 deaths
2003: 451 deaths
2004: 500+ deaths
2005: 700+ deaths
2006: 750 deaths
2007: 650 deaths
2008: 794 deaths
2009: 1134 deaths

According to BBC, More than 6,000 people have died during the rebels' 20-year fight

Naxals are getting more sophisticated now.
The detail information may be traced from several sources.

1. Naxalite Movement

2. Global Politician - Rising Maoists Insurgency in India

3. Naxal problem

More updates will follow.
Fighter

 

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India's red rebels pose 'biggest threat'​

By IPS correspondents

KOLKATA - They emerge stealthily from the jungles, ambush police posts, kill government supporters, kidnap officials, trigger landmines and disappear back into the forest with looted weapons as Indian police suffer like sitting ducks.

The Maoists killed 24 policemen in eastern India's West Bengal state last Monday. This was followed by another deadly attack that killed 11 villagers in the neighboring state of Bihar. This exposes the inability of the Indian police to fight the Maoists rebels, who have armed themselves to the teeth and who are fully trained in guerilla warfare.

"The attack by the Communist Party of India [CPI-Maoist] on a camp of the Eastern Frontier Rifles of West Bengal is another outrageous attempt by the banned organization to overawe the established authority in the state," said Home Minister P Chidambaram.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called the Maoist rebels - said to number about 22,000 and mostly residing in the jungles and tribal areas of eastern India with their ideological patrons in cities - the country's biggest internal threat.

India's Home Ministry officials in New Delhi were peeved at the lack of preparedness by the police force in West Bengal's Silda camp as the rebels massacred them on Monday.

The police camp, ironically, was set up as part of an ongoing offensive against the rebels in the area. The operation was launched in June last year after the Maoists overran an area called "Lalgarh" in West Bengal and drove out police forces from there. The police took control of the area and since then the operation has continued.

"There has been a massive loss of life. Besides, more than 40 weapons were reported to have been looted," admitted Chidambaram.

West Bengal's communist government admitted to loopholes in security that led to the massacre, one of the most audacious in recent times.

"There was a breach of security. There was a lack of alertness on the part of our policemen," conceded West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. A top police official and the state's home secretary even bickered over intelligence input about the attack.

While West Bengal's top cop Bhupinder Singh said police had no inkling of an impending attack, Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen said a gathering of the rebels was known, though not the specific target. "We will continue our operation against them. We are reviewing our strategy," said Singh.

A top Maoist leader who identified himself as Kishenji called local TV stations in Kolkata shortly after the West Bengal massacre to claim responsibility.

"This is our 'Operation Peace Hunt'. It is our retaliation against the 'Operation Green Hunt' of the government," he said, referring to an ongoing offensive in the jungles by Delhi's forces against the rebels. "We will continue to bleed them until the offensive against us is withdrawn."

Defense analysts have flayed the government for failing to tackle the Maoist challenge. Ajay Sahni of the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management says the West Bengal police force is too weak to fight the Maoists.

"Unless the forces are retrained, combating the rebels is impossible. The Maoists must not be able to move from one Indian state to another after a strike in one. They have to be trapped inside," said Sahni.

"There should be sufficiency of force and resources. If the forces are dispersed, it is vulnerable. The forces must reach a saturation point at a place," he said. "There should be quick reinforcement too. The Maoists mine these areas and often attack forces on the edges of the main deployment areas."

According to economists and social commentators, the menace can be tackled partly by force and largely by development in the backward areas where the rebels gain ground owing to grinding poverty and hunger.

"The threat is real and growing. We need a cold-turkey policy now, and all eastern states must come together to counter the rebels," said Abhirup Sarkar, an economist with the Indian Statistical Institute. "But development is the only real answer to solve the problem at its root."

He expressed concern that the threat would largely affect industrialization in rural India. A steel plant touted as one of the biggest in India is due to be built in an area barely 60 kilometers from the scene of the Maoists' latest attack.

Lack of coordinated political action also hampers the fight against the Maoists, said analysts. During a recent meeting of chief ministers of four eastern states - West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa - convened by Chidambaram in Kolkata, only two were present.

While the Maoist movement began in the late 1960s in a northern town of West Bengal state called Naxalbari (they named themselves Naxals after the town) and then subsided in the 1970s, today the gangs of rebels now known as Maoists function under an outfit called the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

CPI (Maoist) was formed following the merger of the Maoist Communist Center of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War (also known as the People's War Group) in September 2004, inheriting the "annihilation of class enemies" ideology and use of extreme violence as a means to secure organizational goals.

The Maoists have sympathizers in the big cities of India. According to Kabir Sumon, an intellectual, singer and songwriter and now a member of parliament, military offensives are not going to stop the violence.

Maintaining that the villagers live in grinding poverty and plight, he said the Indian government, which is shored up by his Trinamool Congress party, should stop the offensive to bring the rebels to the table for talks. "I would request the prime minister, the home minister and my party chief to stop the offensive," said Sumon.

But the government remains firm in its stand on the operation against the rebels. "We can talk only after they shun violence," said Chidambaram. "I would like to hear the voices of condemnation of those who have erroneously extended intellectual and material support to the CPI (Maoist)."

"It is only if the whole country rejects the preposterous theses of the CPI (Maoist) and condemns the so-called 'armed liberation struggle' that we can put an end to the menace of Naxalism and bring development and progress to the people in the conflict zones."

(Inter Press Service)

Asia Times Online :: South Asia news, business and economy from India and Pakistan

 

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9 police jawans killed by Naxal blast in Orissa​

TNN, Apr 5, 2010, 02.24am IST


KORAPUT/BHUBANESWAR: Giving a bloody nose to the security forces engaged in flushing out Maoists in Orissa under `Operation Green Hunt', the red rebels on Sunday triggered a landmine explosion killing at least nine jawans and seriously injuring eight others in Koraput district. Two other jawans were missing till the reports last came in.

All the jawans belong to the elite anti-Maoist special operation group (SOG) of Orissa police. The bus they were in is believed to have been blown several metres high in the air following the blast. Around 40 SOG personnel in two other buses are safe.

The attack took place around 10am near Mantri Ambo, roughly 60 km from Koraput, in Boipariguda area bordering the Maoist-stronghold of Malkangiri. The SOG jawans in three buses were on patrol duty between Boipariguda and Govindpally (in Malkangiri) when the mine went off. All the injured are in Visakhapatnam hospital in Andhra Pradesh.

"The SOG team was on a road opening mission. The explosion was very powerful. At least nine jawans died on the spot. Their bodies have been recovered. After autopsy, the martyred jawans will be given a guard of honour and their bodies sent to their homes,'' said DIG (South-western Range) Sanjeeb Panda.

Senior cops, taken aback by the Maoist offensive, said the security personnel had violated standard operating procedures which led to their getting caught in the massive blast. "SOG jawans were repeatedly told to send road clearing parties on foot, ahead of the vehicles. But the 19 SOG men in the bus did not follow the rule and exposed themselves,'' said a top police officer involved in anti-Maoist operations.

"Unlike in the past, when explosives were planted under culverts, the Red rebels succeeded in placing the explosives under the road. Unfortunately, the bus stopped on the spot where explosives were placed. Two jawans had got down to inspect the surroundings when the blast occurred,'' the cop added.

The blast brought back memories of June 18, 2009, when nine security personnel were killed in a Maoist offensive at Narayapatna in Koraput. The explosion was so strong that the bodies were blown to bits and lay strewn all over the place. The mangled remains of the bus and a huge crater were all that remained at the site.

The violence is believed to have been carried out by the newly-formed Machkund dalam of Andhra-Orissa Border Special Zonal Committee of the outlawed CPI (Maoist), whose writ runs in the area. Police said jawans who reached the spot after the blast saw one Maoist run into the nearby forest and fire at the cops. "Extra forces have been rushed to the spot and we are on a massive hunt for the culprits,'' said SP (Koraput) Anup Sahoo.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik condemned the "cowardice'' of the Maoists and said, "Our security forces are making a tremendous effort to fight these unlawful forces.'' He announced Rs 18 lakh ex-gratia including Rs 8 lakh insurance benefit for each family of the deceased, job to a family member and receipt of the jawan's salary till he was to retire.

The Deceased

Hikimi Hembrum, Hemant Nayak, Subrat Samal, Umakant Nayak, Bijendra Nath Rout, Partho Ranjan Behera, Ashok Behera, Jagat Ram Kudai and Sanjay Pradhan

Injured

Prabhu Kalyan Acharya (sub-inspector),. Laxmidhar Mohankudo,. Chinmoyee Kumar Sahu, L K Digal, P K Das, Anant Kumar Pangi, J Oram and Raghuram Reddy (driver).

Missing

Chandra Pradhan and B S Sahu




9 police jawans killed by Naxal blast in Orissa - India - The Times of India

 

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Profile: India's Maoist rebels ​

The government has launched a major offensive against the rebels
India's bloody Maoist insurgency began in the remote forests of the state of West Bengal in the late 1960s.

Decades later Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described it as India's "greatest internal security challenge".

Maoists are also known as "Naxalites" because of the violent left-wing uprising in 1967, which began in the West Bengal village of Naxalbari.

Although this was eventually quashed by police, over the years India's Maoists have regrouped and asserted control over vast swathes of land in central and eastern India, establishing a so-called "red corridor".

This spans the states of Jharkand, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh and also reaches into Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka.

The Maoists and affiliated groups are thought to control more than one third of India's 600-odd districts.

And more than 6,000 people have died in the rebels' long fight for communist rule in these states.

Maoist aims

The Maoists' military leader is Koteshwar Rao, otherwise known as Kishenji.

Thousands of rebels are said to swell his guerrilla ranks - estimates vary from 10,000 to 20,000 armed fighters. They are said to get most of their weapons by raiding police bases.

Analysts say the longevity of the Maoist rebellion is partly due to the local support they receive.

The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of indigenous tribespeople and the rural poor who they say have been neglected by governments for decades.

Maoists claim to represent local concerns over land ownership and equitable distribution of resources.

Ultimately they say they want to establish a "communist society" by overthrowing India's "semi-colonial, semi-feudal" form of rule through armed struggle.

Major rebel attacks

And over the years the Maoists have managed to launch a series of damaging attacks on Indian security forces.

In 2009, rebels gained virtual control of the Lalgarh district in West Bengal barely 250km (155 miles) from the state capital Calcutta.

For many months, rebels, supported by local villagers, held hundreds of paramilitary forces at bay. The Maoists declared it to be India's first "liberated zone" but Indian security forces finally overwhelmed the rebels.

March 2010 saw one of the deadliest attacks on Indian security forces when rebels ambushed paramilitary troops in the dense jungles of central Chhattisgarh state killing at least 72.

It is thought to be one of the deadliest attacks by the rebels in recent years.

In 2007, also in Chhattisgarh, Maoist rebels killed 55 policemen in an attack on a remote police outpost.

Almost every week Maoist rebels are blamed for minor skirmishes and incidents across India's north-east - common tactics include blowing up railway tracks and attacking police stations.

But the Maoists are now facing India's biggest ever anti-Maoist offensive - Operation Green Hunt.

Nearly 50,000 federal paramilitary troops and tens of thousands of policemen are taking part in the operation across several states.

Rebels have vowed to intensify their attacks unless the government halts its offensive against them.

India's government in turn has pledged to crack down even harder unless rebels renounce violence and enter peace talks.

Analysts say the chances of dialogue or any kind of rapprochement are slim.

BBC News - Profile: India's Maoist rebels

 

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Lone option before govt: Hit back hard​

TNN, Apr 7, 2010, 01.05am IST

NEW DELHI: The Dantewada killings may leave the Centre with no option but to hit back at the Maoists to try and regain the advantage in a battle that is as much political and about morale as it is about waging hard combat in hostile jungles ruled by the red ultras.

Though the government had been gaining a steady upper hand by way of strikes deep in ultra-ruled areas, the devastating nature of Tuesday's attack makes it evident that the Maoists are far from a spent force. There is little scope of drawing them to the negotiating table when they believe security forces can be forced to beat a retreat from areas under their control.

The discussions in government on Tuesday centred on regrouping and, after carefully analysing what had gone wrong in the encounter in the vastness of Dantewada's forests, to press ahead with the offensive to clear Maoist-infested areas in Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal.

There were reports that the national security council that met on Tuesday dwelled on the Maoist attack, but it is understood that its meeting had been called to discuss border infrastructure. The meeting was intended to bring about swifter coordination between the Army, defence ministry, Border Roads Organization, environment ministry and related ministries and agencies.

The challenge before the Centre is as much political as the government has argued that Maoists are aiming at nothing less than overthrow of the democratic government and the very least requirement for any engagement was a ceasefire. Home minister P Chidambaram has said that Maoists should end violence for talks, but he now has his answer. He appraised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the situation.

The government has been making some headway in the political battle as it has set about countering the Maoists' pitch that the ultras were addressing a gap in governance which was in any case exploitative and inadequate. The government has made the case that the Maoists were far from an ideologically committed lot fighting for the poor and had no compunction in killing adversaries -- often the same poor tribals -- in cold blood.

Tuesday's killings could help the government argue its point, but it will also need to demonstrate that it can back its words with a steely resolve to take on the ultras in their backyard and last the course. Articulating government's course of action, home secretary G K Pillai said the Centre's resolve was "further strengthened". Obviously, retreating is not an option.

"All I can say at this moment is that our resolve is firm and in the coming days and months, we will give a much firmer and fitting reply to the murderers (Maoists)," Pillai said.

Expressing shock over the "very high" casualty of CRPF personnel, Chidambaram said something must have gone "drastically wrong" in the joint operation with the state police. "The casualty is very high and I am deeply shocked at the loss of lives... This shows the savage nature of CPI (Maoist) and their brutality and the savagery they are capable of," he said.

Sources in the ministry said Chidambaram instructed paramilitary forces to pull up their socks and display best possible coordination with states to step up operations against the ultras.

At the same time, the government ruled out use of air power in the fight against Maoists. Pillai said, "I don't think we need to use air power at the moment (in the anti-naxal operation). We can manage with what we have. Our strategy is unfolding and we should be able to manage without air power." He, however, made it clear that air power would be used only for evacuation and for mobility of troops.


Lone option before govt: Hit back hard - India - The Times of India

 

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'I saw my mates die one after another'​

Suchandana Gupta, TNN, Apr 7, 2010, 12.40am IST



BHOPAL: "We were totally outnumbered. And they had far too much ammunition. How could just 80 of us fight more than 1,000 of them? It's unfair to even expect us to fight back when there was no way to do so. We got no time and no opportunity to retaliate. I saw my mates drop one after another before my eyes," said CRPF jawan Pramod Kumar (39), who witnessed 75 of his battalion colleagues massacred on Tuesday morning. He is one of the fortunate seven who got out of the ambush alive.

"Another company was sent to rescue us. But by the time they arrived, there was nobody left to be saved."

Pramod Kumar, who took a bullet in the shoulder, was contacted by TOI through intermediaries in the Dantewada hospital. He was airlifted from the forests in a chopper along with six others, some of whom are critical. Lying in his bed in the Jagdalpur Medical College, he said: "I played dead. We were lying on the road in our uniforms soaked in blood. Most jawans were dead and some of us were holding our breaths and pretending to be dead. The Naxals came down to check if any one of us was alive. They kicked the bodies and snatched our AK-47s and AK-56s."

According to Kumar, it was a mistake to have some jawans take the anti-landmine vehicle. "That vehicle was in front. We were walking behind it. Suddenly there was a blast and the vehicle went up in the air. All the jawans inside were killed in an instant. We lost about 15 men in that single explosion. Thereafter, it was mayhem," he recalled.

The landmines must have been laid during the night, the jawan said. The attack took place around 7am when the CRPF was passing through a dense forest surrounded by hills. The Maoists had arrayed themselves in `V' formation and awaiting the CRPF contingent in the thick green foliage. They first triggered the landmines and then began firing indiscriminately running down from the hills from all directions.

“There were a series of blasts. One of the first blew the anti-mine vehicle. They fired and swamped us from left and right. Bullets rained from every side. We screamed to each other and returned fire knowing it was useless but it was the last effort to survive. I could not even help a colleague or hold him as he died. A bullet hit me and I fell. Lying there, I prayed for life," he said.

Kumar explained that CRPF's 62 Battalion, which numbered 120, was split into two groups on Tuesday morning. It was the one with 80 men going towards Dornapal which was attacked. The division of CRPF forces was another mistake, he said. ``During an ambush, Naxals come in large numbers, never less than 500. We fall victims because we are outnumbered and are caught by surprise," he said.


'I saw my mates die one after another' - India - The Times of India

 

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Time to fight back, and win hearts? ​

Amid Calls To Go All-Out, Govt Senses Guns Not Only Solution

TIMES NEWS NETWORK



New Delhi: The thinking behind the strategy does not seem to lack reasoning. Regaining territorial control of Maoist areas must go hand in hand with a genuine restoration of civilian administration that ensures that a population trapped between two sets of guns gets access to something like governance.

The job has just become much tougher for the government as it faces opposition BJP’s exhortations to go all-out against the red menace but also calls that bravado and guns are not the solution to a problem that is as much social and economic as it has to do with law and order. The scale of the tragedy apart, it is a sobering moment for the Centre.

As home minister P Chidambaram’s skills in keeping a tight focus on the tough and hard-headed task of fighting a determined foe on the ground, by way of dedicated counter-intelligence, must be matched with a need to ensure the fight remains just. Mindful of the “development” propaganda of the Maoists and their sympathizers, he has stressed restoration of civil administration.

In order not to come across as militaristic, he has repeatedly offered talks but now the government will also be under pressure to deliver results. This at a time when the threat of jihadi terrorism has hardly receded and anti-India groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba use Pakistan as a safe haven to plan and launch attacks against India. A two-front war looks inevitable — in a manner rather different than what the armed forces consider.

Internal security may well be back on the political agenda just as the government was trying to place a greater focus on its social and economic planning. As far as Maoists are concerned, they have served warnings aplenty. They have taken out an armed camp in the middle of a town in West Bengal, greeted the home minister’s visit to Lalgarh with a blast and targeted police encampments in Jharkhand and Bihar.

The Centre’s task becomes more challenging as all Naxal-affected states are not pulling along equally. While headway has been made in terms of getting the states talking to each other and sharing intelligence and modernizing their police forces, some are not doing enough. With polls due later this year, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is reluctant to engage in any major offensive. Jharkhand CM Shibu Soren has always been slippery on Maoists and West Bengal CM Buddadeb Bhattacharjee is squabbling with the Centre.

It is only off late that Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik has joined the anti-Naxal operations and begun to get after the ultras in his state. The wide spread of the red insurgency and the united manner in which the CPI (Maoists) function makes them a formidable foe. They have the ability to coordinate action across several fronts and are also adept at fighting mind games. Though their credibility has taken a hit lately, Maoists do enjoy the support of sections of the intelligentsia.

No Stopping Red Rampage

• Apr 6, 2010 | Guerrillas trigger multiple blasts, fire at CRPF team in Chintalnar village in Dantewada. 73 CRPF men & a state police officer dead
• Apr 4 | Maoist landmine blows up police bus in Koraput, Orissa. 10 Special Operations Group men dead, 16 injured
• March 23 | Maoists blast railway track in Bihar’s Gaya district, derailing Bhubaneswar-Delhi Rajdhani
• Feb 15 | 100 Maoists storm police camp in Silda, West Bengal. Around 24 cops killed, Naxals loot huge cache of arms
• Oct 8, 2009 | 17 policemen killed in ambush by Maoists at Laheri PS Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra
• July 27 | Six CRPF men killed in landmine blast at Dantewada
• July 12 | 30 security personnel killed in 3 attacks in Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh
• June 23 | Motorcycle-borne Maoists open fire in Lakhisarai district court premises in Bihar to free four of their men
• June 10 | Nine security personnel, including CRPF troopers, ambushed by Maoists during routine patrol in Saranda jungles in Jharkhand
• May 22 | Maoists kill 16 cops in Gadchiroli jungles
• April 22 | Maoists hijack train with at least 300 passengers in Jharkhand, divert it to Latehar
• April 13 | Around 10 cops killed in Koraput as Maoists hit state-run bauxite mine

 

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LONG MARCH ​

THE SPRING THUNDER PERIOD (1967-77)

• 1967 Armed uprising led by Charu Mazumdar (pic) in Naxalbari, north Bengal; crushed in 52 days
• 1969 Seven ultra-Left groups from Bengal & Andhra unite to form CPI (ML). Sporadic clashes in countryside
• 1972 Charu arrested and dies in police custody; CPI (ML) splintering begins
• 1972-77 Three-way war between Naxalites, CPI(M) and Congress backed by police; hundreds killed, thousands flee Bengal

THE MASS LINE PERIOD (1977-92)

• 1977 Indira Gandhi’s (pic) Emergency ends; Naxals, divided into 40-odd groups; begin regrouping
• 1980 People’s War Group led by K Seetharamaiah formed in Andhra Pradesh
• 1981 Meeting of various groups fails to bury differences
• 1982 Indian People’s Front (IPF), a cover for Vinod Mishra-led CPI (ML) Liberation, founded. Based in Bihar
• 1982-92 IPF contests elections, holds rallies; increasingly under attack from other Naxalite sections; Wins Arrah Lok Sabha seat in 1989
• 1992 CPI (ML) Liberation decides to start functioning openly; IPF to be disbanded

THE BLACK CHAPTER PERIOD (1992-2002)

• 1995 Mishra’s (pic) party CPI (ML) Liberation is recognized by EC
• 1992-98 Caste-based violent conflict (Mandal effect) between Liberation and MCC and PWG, also landlord militias; dozens killed
• 1995 Increasing militarisation of PWG
• 1998-2002 Shoot-at-sight war between MCC and PWG; 400 killed in Bihar

THE MAOIST PERIOD (2002-PRESENT)

• 2004 PWG and MCC merge after two years of talks; CPI (Maoist) formed
• 2005-08 Spectacular attacks like the Jehanabad jail break (2005), Rani Bodli police post attack (2007), Dantewada jail break (2007); killing of MP Sunil Mahato and Nayagarh attack
• 2009 Maoists call for a boycott of the general elections

 

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No time for war​

Samar Halarnkar, Hindustan Times
Email Author
April 07, 2010
First Published: 23:11 IST(7/4/2010)
Last Updated: 23:20 IST(7/4/2010)

First, a disclaimer: I have a deep, emotional connection with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), which lost 76 troopers in the forests of Dantewada on Tuesday.

My father retired from the CRPF. I’ve lived in their rough camps. I made friends with soldiers from every corner of India, from Kashmiris to Malayalees to Manipuris. I pored over self-loading rifles and 9mm carbines. I felt their silent pain when a soldier fell in some corner of India, the body shipped home to, usually, an uncomprehending family in rural or small-town India.

This is the great irony of the growing Maoist attacks on security forces. The men they kill — and get killed by — are not unlike themselves, living and dying in that ill-visited twilight zone between Third World Destitute India and First World Emerging India. Second World India is a violent place, inhabited by people with guns but without real power; locked in feuds over resources, influence and power.

These feuds simmer across India, largely ignored as a few commas in eternal India, boiling over into our lives only when the attacks are so brazen as to make it to breaking-new tickers; when the attacks are so bloody as to make us shift uneasily nervously and wonder: Can they reach us?

Well, that is their plan.

The Maoist strategy, as I wrote last month, is deadlier than jihadi terrorism. The plan is not to terrorise but capture India, starting with a takeover of the countryside and isolating the cities. The Intelligence Bureau (IB), the domestic intelligence agency, has struggled to track Maoist penetration of labour unions and colleges. The IB believes such an infiltration is underway, the precursor to the Maoist dream of ruling India.

Hours after Tuesday’s attack, a friend from Pakistan said: “The Naxals are beginning to sound like India’s version of the Taliban!”

Should we declare war against the Maoists as Pakistan has against the Taliban? Should we call in the army, send in tanks to Lalgarh and helicopter gunships to Dantewada?

As lofty as the Maoist ambition is, as brutal as their growing attacks are, this would be a grave mistake.

First, despite what we think, the scale and intensity of Naxal attacks do not match the Taliban’s ceaseless offensive. Air force strikes, US drones and the Pakistani army have reduced the frequency and ferocity of attacks, but the Taliban’s bloody strikes continue. I do not have the precise numbers, but the Taliban claim more lives in a month than the Maoists do in a year.

Second, however abhorrent I find Arundhati Roy’s description of the Maoists as “Gandhians with guns”, and however deep my anger at them, the fact is their rebellion emerged because of the horrific inequities and injustices that prevail in second- and third-world India. In Dantewada — the site of Tuesday’s massacre, in the heart of the so-called Maoist “liberated zone” — no more than 30 per cent of the people are literate, less than half the national rate. India’s tribals are dispossessed and discriminated against, and unless their lot improves, the security forces will be occupying armies, the Maoists, liberators. India could indeed use a scorched-earth policy and do what the Sri Lankans did to the Tamil Tigers — if we want to conquer our poorest people.

Third, the Maoist insurgency is based not religion but on an ideology of violent revolution first propounded by, obviously, Mao Tse Tung, as a revolutionary peasant struggle against the State and exploiting classes. In a religious, rapidly urbanising nation, a Maoist class struggle, however violent, will always struggle to find sympathisers in cities. The Taliban can strike metropolitan areas because they have support there.

Maoist areas of influence now spread across nine Indian states and, theoretically, a third of the nation’s area. Yet, it is an insurgency that grows because of our ineptness at spreading economic development and not making the urgent course corrections that the surge against the Maoists needs.

It is easy now to talk of war, but the Maoists have already made that declaration. We didn’t notice, and so never prepared. It is important now to nuance armed responses, review our failing battle plans, training and processes — and bring into our national discussion the injustices being inflicted on the tribal areas.

That is the war India needs.

Consider the CRPF. With 208 battalions (that’s more than 15,000 men and women), the CRPF is one of the world’s largest paramilitary forces. As the name suggests, it’s supposed to be a federal reserve, to be called up when needed.

A third of the CRPF’s battalions are supposed to be in stand-down mode, training and recuperating. With India in a state of continuous ferment, there is no reserve left. The unofficial acronym for the force is ‘Chalte Raho Pyaare’. Keep moving my friend, a reference to the unceasing movement of its battalions from one trouble spot to another.

Most Indian police and security forces are overstretched.

These forces need reform, modern counter-insurgency tactics and equipment. It is inconceivable that 1,000 or more Maoists could take an Indian security unit completely by surprise. They need not helicopter gunships but drones. It’s obvious that intelligence agencies have little or no penetration of battlefield Naxal formations. How difficult is to have drones sweep areas before and during troop movements? As for tactics, the CRPF units violated a cardinal rule of such operations: never return the same way you went.

As Home Minister P. Chidambaram said, something has gone “seriously wrong”. Let’s find out what that is before talking of war.

No time for war- Hindustan Times

 

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Govt may have to use air power against Naxals: Chidambaram​

NEW DELHI/JAGDALPUR: A day after Maoists massacred 76 security personnel in a bloody ambush, home minister P Chidambaram paid homage to the dead and said there was need to "stay calm and hold nerves" in taking on ultras who he said saw the state as an "enemy" and the conflict, a "war".

In a significant departure, Chidambaram said while the government had refrained from using air power against Maoists, the situation could change. "At present there is no mandate to use the air force or any aircraft. But, if necessary, we will have to revisit the mandate to make some changes."

The use of air power, which in the context of Maoists means choppers, has been limited to rescue and reinforcement missions. Perhaps mindful of the negative connotations over possible use of air force in offensive operations, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, chose his words carefully when asked about Chidambaram's statement.

"I think policy has to be reviewed practically from time to time, learning from experience. (But) we are too close to the event to take a view that existing policy needs to be modified," he told reporters on the sidelines of the Padma award function at Rashtrapati Bhawan on Wednesday. The PM pointed out that "all these options are kept open and continuously reviewed... As of now, we have not taken any view in this direction."

The statements indicate that the Maoist strike has certainly set the government thinking about how to regain the initiative. Using air power may not be on the cards, given the risk of collateral damage and the air force's reluctance. Also, using armed forces against citizens will be read as admission of failure. But government seems to be girding up for more clashes with Naxalites.

Chidambaram indicated as much when he said there did not seem much scope for talks with Maoists. "To our call for talks after giving up violence, Naxalites have answered by a savage and brutal act of violence, " he said, adding that "To talk of talk now would be to mock the supreme sacrifice made by 76 jawans."

At the same time, in what would be a bid to deflect charges of being militaristic, the home minister said, "Nevertheless, as I said, we must remain calm, we must hold our nerves. If a militant group abjures violence, it gives up violence, we will consider talks."

But while the time for any "offer" for talks is clearly over, questions over what went so badly wrong in the Dantewada operation that led to the decimation of the CRPF contingent remain unanswered. "As I said yesterday, something went wrong. Only an inquiry will establish what went wrong," he said, pointing out that a probe would establish whether or not 1,000 Maoists were involved in the attack.

He did, however, make it amply clear that the operation was a joint exercise of the state police and CRPF coordinated at senior levels and overseen by the Dantewada SP and the commandant of the battalion. The statement would make it clear that it was not a "solo" operation by CRPF in an unchartered area.

While the CRPF was on an "area domination" mission to reclaim territory and challenge the Maoists, circumstances of the attack are still not clear. The presence of just one local cop in the contingent and risks in using the only available route to return to the village of Chintalnar are being investigated. Two parties which rushed to rescue the strike force also came under heavy fire.

Chidambaram, however, said there was no proposal to deploy Army and maintained that a "war" has been thrust on the government. "If this is war, and I wish to say that we have never used that word, it is a war that has been thrust upon the state by those who do not have a legitimate right to carry weapons or to kill."

He stressed that the state had a constitutional and legal duty to protect citizens and pointed to the Naxal goal to overthrow established authority of the government through an armed liberation struggle. He said the operation by the security forces was not intelligence-based but was for area domination in order to understand and familiarize themselves with the terrain.

 

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Maoist attack stiffens India's resolve ​

By Siddharth Srivastava

NEW DELHI - In the deadliest leftist attack in India, Maoist rebels on Tuesday killed 75 police personnel in the central state of Chhattisgarh, in the process making a mockery of New Delhi's recent claims that its strong-arm tactics against Maoist strongholds across north and eastern India were paying dividends.
A government paramilitary force - mostly from the Central Reserve Protection Force - was involved in flushing-out operations when it was attacked in the thick forests of Dantewada district by about 500 armed rebels.

Interior Minister P Chidambaram, who is spearheading "Operation Green Hunt" against the rebels, said, "Something has gone drastically wrong. They seemed to have walked into a trap set by

http://img269.imageshack.us/i/maoistsbig.gif/

the Naxalites [Maoists]. Every soldier on the patrol was either killed or wounded."

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the incident "horrific" while Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai said on Wednesday the rebels "will pay a high price" and be hunted down.

Given this massive reversal, there is little chance now that New Delhi will be able to negotiate any kind of truce with the emboldened Maoists. The Maoists believe in armed struggle to overthrow the state and bring about socio-economic change, especially in the northeastern and central eastern states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.

The stated goal of the Maoists is to overthrow the state by 2050, an ideal that is widely dismissed as rhetoric.

The massive military offensive to eliminate Maoists was launched a few months ago in the forests of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Orissa. About 100,000 troops have been deployed, with another 20,000 more to be sent in the coming weeks.

Orissa has rich mineral deposits, including 70% of all of India's bauxite reserves (the sixth-largest deposit in the world), 90% of India's chrome ore and nickel and 24% of its coal. But tribals and Maoists inhabit much of this mineral-rich land. Mining companies - Indian and multinational - have been lining up to extract this wealth. But tribal agitations and Maoist violence have been blocking their ambitions.

Today, 40% of the top 50 mineral-rich districts in India are affected by Naxalite violence, with repeated attacks on any symbol of authority, both private and public, including mining sites. Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh are the worst-affected states.

About 10,000 people, including police, rebels and civilians, have been killed over the past two decades in Maoist-related unrest. In February, at least 25 policemen were killed in West Bengal when Maoists attacked a camp. In March 2007, the Maoists were blamed for an attack that killed 55 policemen, also in Chhattisgarh.

Home Secretary Pillai said New Delhi's resolve had now been further strengthened and that "retreating is not an option", although he ruled out using air power (armored helicopters) against the Maoists.

The latest attack will, however, call into question New Delhi’s approach of using sheer force against the Maoists, whom New Delhi calls "the biggest threat to India’s internal security" - even more so than disputed Kashmir, where for decades India and Pakistan have squared off, at times even briefly going to war.

The latest security action against the Maoists followed an official assessment last year that the Naxalites were "bent on violence and mayhem against the state and the people" and called for the government to "squarely meet" the threat.

New Delhi argues that the Maoists are not ideologically inspired to fight for the poor and kill foes in cold blood.

India has sought advice from United States counter-insurgency personnel who have been involved in fighting the Taliban and jihadis in Afghanistan and Pakistan's tribal areas.

The regular defense forces have been used only for logistical support as the government has ruled out their direct involvement in taking on the leftists. This could now change.

Critics of the government's approach say that a more political and humane policy is needed in handling the rebels and that there should be more focus on economic and social development of the deprived population. Chidambaram has been castigated for his inflexible and hardline views.

The government has also been criticized for equating Maoists with terrorists. It is pointed out that the rebels attack mostly symbols of state power (property and personnel) and not soft targets or civilians, as is the case with jihadis in Indian-administered Kashmir.

In June last year, New Delhi labeled the Naxalite group, the Communist Party of India (Maoist), or CPI (M), a terrorist organization, putting it in the same league as other banned outfits such as Pakistan's Lashkar-e-Toiba - accused of carrying out the massive Mumbai attack in November 2008 - and the now-decimated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka.

The spread of the Maoist insurgency is so vast across swathes of India's mineral-rich states that it is most improbable that it could be defeated by force alone. The might of the US military and its allies have not been able to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan after nine years. As in that country, the Maoists have strong grassroots support.

The Naxalites are also known to be seeking alliances with secessionists groups, especially northeast insurgents in Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram, in a bid to expand their influence and gain a pan-Indian presence.

They have already established links with leftists in Nepal and LTTE fighters - now that their battle is over - are involved in training the Maoists. Maoist rebels in Nepal overthrew the world’s last Hindu monarchy and negotiated their way into government within a decade.

India's stellar economic growth over the past decade has given rise to a consumer class of 50-100 million people, but more than 800 million people have been left behind, the majority of whom live on less than US$2 a day. These impoverished people, especially farmers, landless laborers and tribal minorities in remote areas, are the prime recruits of the Maoists.

As the bodies mount, there might be some in the corridors of power who question whether the use of an iron fist addresses these socio-economic problems that fuel the insurgency.

Siddharth Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist. He can be reached at sidsri@yahoo.com.

(Copyright 2010 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LD08Df02.html

 

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CAUGHT IN CROSSFIRE

Villagers torn between Naxals, cops ​

Keshav Pradhan | TNN



Polampali (Dantewada):‘‘Aar kothai jabo? Ki khai bachbo?’’ Amol Mistry murmurs in the East Bengal twang as his eyes anxiously follow a helicopter hovering in the sky. Sometimes, the chopper flies very close to a tree standing near his home at Dronapal, 75 km south of Dantewada. ‘‘Something is not right,’’ he warns.

Amal was barely nine years old when he arrived in the Bastar region along with his family from the Sundarbans in 1979. ‘‘I could never go back to school after we came here. I cannot forget the way Bengal Police burnt houses and beat up people to chase away refugees from Marichjhapi,’’ he recalls. ‘‘We cannot grow enough food for our family of 20 because the plot the government has given us is almost barren. Moreover, we cannot move around freely looking for jobs. Both police and the Maoists harass us,’’

The Maoists’ ongoing ‘‘people’s war’’ has not only transformed the life of Amol but that of the entire region. Eighteen km away from Dronapal, 15-year-old Hiram Gond tightly grips his Insas rifle as he carefully scans the vast expanse of barren land under a scorching sun. He is one of the ‘special police officers’ hired by the government.

‘‘We need to keep a watch on our enemies who are invisible. On Wednesday night, they fired at us for about an hour. We also fired back,’’ says Kichchenanda Moriya, the patel (chief) of Palampali. ‘‘The Maoists extort money, torture and kill people. They want to take away others’ land and property,’’ he alleges. At the far end of a watchtower, Podia Muda stands at ease like a trained soldier. He’s a former Maoist. He left the party after they killed his elder brother, Moriya says. Like most Gond tribals, the young fighter is illiterate and cannot tell his age. Did he have any arms training? ‘‘Oh, I can use all kinds of rifles, explode grenades and make bombs. I even killed a policeman in an ambush. We used to have classes where we were taught about Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao and the Great Cultural Revolution,’’ he answers.

A number of houses between Dronapal and Palanpali have been either damaged or set ablaze during fights between Maoists and the nowdisbanded Salwa Judums. ‘‘Look, what the Salwa Judum boys have done to my home,’’ says Padamdeva Moriya, a sarpanch, pointing to his charred house. ‘‘They called me a Maoist simply because I went to Andhra Pradesh for treatment. I was suffering from acute pain in the stomach,’’ he claims. Police, he adds, arrested and beat him up.

 

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TOUGH TASK AHEAD

Rebels following Mao’s manual word for word ​

Keshav Pradhan | TNN



Sukma (Dantewada): A day after the worst-ever massacre of security forces, this blood-soaked zone looked eerie. The sun shone bright on the undulating hills. The sky was clear. And out of the blue, came the shock of thunder — Spring Thunder that has shaken the Indian state.

Dantewada is all but a ‘liberated zone’ now, a textbook capture of territory by Maoists following Mao Zedong’s war manual word for word. It’s at the heart of the rebels’ Operation Shock and Awe, aimed at shaking the very foundation of the government they intend to overthrow.

‘‘It’s necessary to bring about a brief reign of terror in every rural area... To right a wrong it is necessary to exceed the proper limit,’’ Mao Zedong had said on the occasion of the Hunan peasant uprising in 1927 that eventually paved the way for the Long March. Over eight decades later, a band of insurgents carrying his name have unleashed the bloodiest reign of terror India has ever seen.

All this while, the government was saying a lot about cornering the Maoists. With six politburo members behind bars, the administration thought it had the upper hand in the battle. Home minister P Chidambaram felt confident of ‘‘wiping off the Maoist movement in two-three years’’.

The rebels turned to Mao. The Chinese revolutionary had listed three steps in a people’s war: strategic defence, strategic balance and strategic offence. The Maoists offered talks as strategic defence. Kishanji even gave out his cellphone number to Chidambaram. Then, in a deliberately brutal manner, the insurgents unleashed their strategic offence — the Silda and Dantewada massacres.

Both operations aimed at achieving their military and psychological objectives: the administration was unsettled and the rebel ranks got a morale boost. Silda was horrific. Dantewada barbaric. What next?

The roads that led to the attack site, 100-odd km from Dantewada town, were lifeless. At some places, tribal children had rolled logs to block roads. In Nakulnar, halfway between Dantewada and Sukma, a bunch of tribal kids aggressively demanded money for a ‘puja’. One of them dangled from his fingers a bird he had just killed. A little distance off, a forest guard warned us to be careful and not travel after sunset.

There were no policemen anywhere. Every few kilometres, a couple of grimfaced CRPF men would be seen behind sand-bagged sentry posts and rows of concertina wires. No one stepped on to the road.

 

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‘No one to blame for ambush, part of fighting a war’ ​

Soumittra S Bose | TNN



Jagdalpur: Though it was a tactical error costing 76 CRPF men their lives in a Naxal ambush in the Tarmetola forests on Tuesday, Chhattisgarh director general of police Vishwa Ranjan said no single person has been held responsible for it.

‘‘We have not rebuked any officer or jawan,’’ he told TOI on Thursday. With a series of major setbacks, including loss of lives of senior officers, the cops seem to have started taking the ongoing tussle with the rebels as a matter of routine. However, there are many voices that echo emptiness rather than a resolve.

The DGP, who visited the site of the encounter with senior CRPF officials on Thursday, said that confidence of the force would not be affected despite the huge loss. ‘‘The morale gets affected when blame is pinned on somebody,’’ he said. ‘‘But we have not allowed that to happen.’’

Indicating that the confidence has not been dented, Ranjan said: ‘‘Our men fought bravely for two hours. There are several manoeuvres and counter- manoeuvres. In a battlefield, casualties are bound to happen. Here, the mistake we made was not to come to grips with the situation quickly.’’ A chat with a constable from
the Kukanar (in Dantewada tehsil) police station, confirmed Ranjan’s words. ‘‘Violence perpetrated by the Maoists are regular features in the state. This was (referring to the recent casualties) something big, but such occurrences of different scale keep happening,’’ said the constable. ‘‘The grassroots fighters have to face the brunt because they are present in the field. Police personnel cannot afford to get on the backfoot.’’

 

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THE MAOIST EMPIRE Rs 1,500 cr & counting ​

They have a sizeable war chest and it pays for everything the rebel army needs – weapons, vitamins, food and sometimes, the finer things of life


Rajaram Satapathy, Sanjay Ojha & Caesar Mandal | TNN



Bhubaneswar/Ranchi/Kolkata: A yearly turnover in excess of Rs 1,500 crore. Targets raised by 15% every year, investments here, cutbacks there, acquisitions made, salaries paid, perks for the star performers...That’s the mid-sized corporation called the Maoist empire.

Every paisa of it comes from extortion, drugs, looting, ransom and robbery. In states where the rebels’ writ runs, each sack of potatoes, every truck consignment, every government salary has a price. In Jharkhand, for instance, the going rate is Rs 5 per sack of vegetables and Rs 1 crore per acre of poppy farm.

The annual turnover of the Maoists matches or even exceeds that of companies such as Exide, CESC or Hindustan Motors. According to intelligence agencies, Bihar, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh contribute around 40% of the total revenue. Most of the Maoist takings – Rs 300 crore to Rs 400 crore – comes from mineral-rich Jharkhand. Ten per cent comes from backward Orissa. Bengal, where the Maoists are in consolidationand-expansion mode, isn’t particularly cashrich but is allotted the bulk of the investment portfolio. The rebels extort crores even from Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu where they don’t have much of a hold.

Maoist resources is a tricky subject. Most government and corporate employees are enthusiastic about discussing this but only off the record. “It is risky to talk about this in public,” remarked a senior police officer in Bhubaneswar.

PAY UP, OR ELSE...

A few months ago, the Maoists went on the rampage in Malkangiri district, setting on fire a guest house owned by a multi-national company, as well as a petrol pump, a control room and other property worth lakhs. It raised urgent questions. Why attack a private firm? A police officer offers some pointers: “It is an open secret that business houses make regular payments to Maoists in order to survive. They incur the wrath of extremists only when they stop payments or refuse to increase the quota.”

The extortion network touches every strata of society. Some time ago, Rayagada police arrested engineering college staff en route to meet the Maoists and hand over Rs 13 lakh. The police officer elaborates: “Each organization or individual has a separate quota. So, too, contractors. Those who provide logistical support to the extremists or are listed as their men are charged 6% of the total project cost. Others have to pay 15%. Even bus and truck associations have to pay.”

In Jharkhand, the levy ranges from 5% to 10% on civil contractors and Rs 50 per truck. Bus and truck operators have to pay Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 per month.

In Bengal, the insurgents collect Rs 8 lakh to Rs 10 lakh per month from stone-crushing units, sponge iron factories, contractors, businessmen and even school teachers in Jangalmahal. The Maoists are believed to be extorting money from traders in urban areas outside Jangalmahal. “It is possible that they have forced some big industrialists to pay a regular levy,” says another police officer.

A civil contractor in Singhbhum says that “every contractor has to cough up money when the Maoists demand it. We can only negotiate and hope to bring it down to the base level of 5%.” He adds, “A businessman who tried to be smart was abducted and released only when his family paid a hefty ransom.”

A transporter operating in the coal mines in Jharkhand’s Piparwar area, says, “If we avoid paying the levy, our trucks are set on fire. More than 20 trucks carrying coal and bauxite have been set ablaze this year.”

Jharkhand home secretary J B Tubid admits the Maoists extort huge sums by imposing large levies. “We are doing our best to plug all sources of levy to them.”


FISCAL DISCIPLINE

Ganja cultivation is also a major source of revenue for them. Poppy cultivation flourishes on thousands of acres in the Balimela reservoir area in Orissa’s Malkangiri and some 200 acres in Jharkhand. “The Maoists are opposed to liquor, but encourage ganja cultivation. It is a double benefit for them as they get commissions from its sale and they win over the locals by keeping the police off their illegal crop,” says a police officer.

The rebels have a layered set-up, starting at the central committee and reaching right down to the local guerrilla squad. They don’t operate like street goons. Designated people at every level religiously maintain accounts, totting up income and expenditure. Earnings are mostly used to buy weapons, dry rations and medicines, such as anti-malarial drugs, vitamins and antibiotics. Half the money allocated to or generated in Bengal is spent on firearms, say sources.

The cadres are even paid and salaries can range from Rs 250 to Rs 3,000. Those who operate from home are not paid. The policy is well-defined on who will collect and how much. Grassroots cadres are allowed to spend small amounts; huge collections are handed over to the designated central committee functionary. For instance, Rs 99 lakh looted from a Malkangiri bank in April 2009 was sent to the high command.

PERKS AND FREEBIES

But not everyone in the Maoist ranks believes in the frugal life. A young rebel arrested from a remote village in Ranchi’s Bundu block sported brand new Reebok shoes, an expensive shirt and had a high-end mobile phone. Ranchi SSP Praveen Singh says that Maoist regional commander Kundan Pahan sent the central committee just Rs 1 crore of the Rs 4 crore looted from a bank in May 2008. “He kept the rest to buy arms and ammunition, and indulge in luxuries such as expensive shoes, motorcycles and (living it up) in hotels,” he said. A police officer in Bundu says that every rebel group of 30 members has at least 20 high-end motorcycles.

In Bengal, where the insurgents are spreading their tentacles, there is little scope for luxury, even though the leadership is pumping crores into the network in the state. In 2009, after the arrest of Maoist politburo leader Amitava Bagchi, police seized a sheet listing expenditure of Rs 20 crore for the Bengal unit. In 2007, when police nabbed Somen, secretary of the Bengal chapter, he revealed that expenditure was less than Rs 1 crore in the state. The sudden increase in Bengal’s budget indicates the rebels’ determination to expand in the state. More than 65% of the money allotted to Bengal comes from other state units, mostly Jharkhand and Bihar.

ToI Feed dated 11 April 2010.

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