Baibars_1260
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Thank you for the detailed response. What i meant in my comment was to know about any change in their tactics and presence of modern firearms, if any, in last 3 years. The news reported that most of casualties occurred because maoists had machine gun.
The Naxalites do have a limited number of light machine guns. These would be very, very few, and possibly obsolete Vickers Berthiers, chambered for 7.62 X 51 mm ammunition. The CRPF ( Central Reserve Police Force ) and DRP ( District Reserve Police ) use "hand me down " weapons when fighting Naxalites. In Kashmir you can see the CRPF and RR ( Rashtriya Rifles ) use Uk.Vs 59 ( clone of type PK ) and FN Minimi machine guns. We see Indian paramilitary forces using these weapons in Nagaland, Mizoram, Assam, Manipur but seldom in the Hindi "cow" belt.
Even if the Naxalites capture machine-guns, their shortage of ammunition means they can barely use these in more than one or two engagements. Additionally they would need extra barrels as these quickly heat and wear out during sustained fire.
We don't have all the details of the last engagement, but ten years back the Naxalites inflicted much heavier casualties ( 76 + killed ) by attacking the security forces base camp itself. In that engagement the casualties was due to gunfire and arrow bombs not machine-guns.
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