Maoist rebels
March 27, 2012
Maoist rebels set off a landmine blast on Tuesday and opened fire on an unsuspecting special operations team in one of the major Maoist bastions in the region.
"Around noon, the CRPF convey was moving for area domination and to conduct an operation ... This is tragic and I am on my way to the attack spot," said Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force, K Vijay Kumar.
"Combing operations have begun," he added.
The attack by the left-wing guerillas was reminiscent of the many ambushes on soldiers and policemen the group has staged in the past. However, Tuesday's attack has been the deadliest strike by the rebels this year.
The assault also comes close on the heels of another incident in which rebels abducted two Italian nationals and a legislator in the eastern state of Orissa. One of the two Italians, Claudio Colangelo, was subsequently released on Monday, March 26.
Intelligence reports from New Delhi had alerted Maoist-affected states, including Maharashtra, to a sudden spurt in violence. The reports suggested that Maoists, often referred to as Naxalites, could resort to not only opportunistic attacks on security forces, but also to destruction of economic infrastructure, railway property in particular.
Security forces singled out
Though thousands of people have been killed in the bloody Maoist insurgency across vast swathes of central and eastern India, security forces in particular have been singled out by the rebels.
The most ambitious and deadliest attack by far occurred in April 2010 when Maoist rebels killed at least 75 Indian soldiers in a series of attacks on security convoys in the central state of Chhattisgarh, the epicenter of Maoist violence.
"They operate from thick, dense forests which are strict no-go areas for the security forces. After conducting their attacks, it almost seems as if they melt away. They know the topography of the area so well," terrorism expert Ajay Sahni told Deutsche Welle.
According to the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, the Maoists presence is felt in nearly a third of India's 630 districts. The rebels say they are fighting for the indigenous communities in these areas whom they claim are routinely exploited by private corporations and the political class.
"The campaign against the Maoists will take 10 years at least. The threat has to be tackled politically at the grassroots (level) and should not be allowed to convert itself into an armed movement," said former Home Secretary G.K. Pillai.
No easy solution
The rebels, of which there are expected to be 10,000 to 15,000 hard-core cadres, have increased their number of high-profile attacks since June 2009 when the government slapped a formal ban on them and officially labeled them a terrorist group.
Though the Indian government has offered to conduct peace talks with the Maoists on condition that the rebels stop their attacks, the Maoists have in turn warned the government to stop the offensive against them first.
Two years ago, a massive military offensive to eliminate the Maoists was launched in the rebel strongholds of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal. Codenamed "Operation Green Hunt," the operation involved nearly 20,000 specially trained personnel drawn from Indian paramilitary and state police forces.
Unabated violence last year accounted for the deaths of more than 500 people, including 120 security personnel, in over 1,500 attacks carried out by the guerillas.
Author: Murali Krishnan
Editor: Sarah Berning