Big blow for Maoists in Bihar-Jharkhand bastion

[dee]

Even more than the body count, Wednesday’s heavy battle between members of the CPI (Maoist) and its offshoot the Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC) in Jharkhand's Chatra district is a battle for the turf and comes as a heavy blow for the Maoists in the Bihar-Jharkhand belt, once a declared Maoist bastion.

“The fight between the two groups has resulted in the killing of senior Maoist leaders like Lalesh Yadav and Praful. It is also a sign of the deep incursion of the TPC into the Gaya-Palamu area,” said a senior government official, while admitting that it is yet too early to negate Maoist influence in the area which still has leaders like Sandeep in their ranks and who operates with impunity in the area.

While latest reports say at least 17 Maoists have been killed, about 22 surrendered to the TPC, and who will in all probability be released after strict warnings by the TPC not to rejoin the CPI (Maoist). A sizeable quantity of weapons including 15 SLRs have also been taken away by the TPC which is not known to indulge in ruthless acts but is known to be carrying on extortion with gusto.

The CPI (M) was at the peak of its power in the area in 2008-08 after which it has suffered serious reverses in Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar and large parts of Orissa. About half of the 35-40 members who comprise the Central Committee, the supreme Maoist political body, have either been eliminated or have been put behind bars.

The TPC is a breakaway faction of the erstwhile Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), which combined with the Peoples War Group (PWG) in 2004 to form the CPI (M). It is believed that among other ideological issues that led to the MCC-TPC split IN 2002, the dominance of Yadavs led to the formation of the TPC by non-Yadavs chiefly the Mahtos, Ghanjus, Bhokta, Oraon and Kherwars among others. There are also rumours that TPC was started by Nirmala Chatterjee, wife of front ranking Maoist leader Sagar Chatterjee, who was gunned down in Aurangabad in 1992.




Big blow for Maoists in Bihar-Jharkhand bastion - Hindustan Times

 

[janon]

I don't know why the media is not paying enough attention to this incident. This is huge - the people killed are the top ranking leaders of the outfit in those regions. "State secretary", "Zonal commander" and so on. The naxal menace in India is one of those movements where eliminating a few top ideologeus and commanders can effectively eradicate an entire area of their activity. This incident has decapitated the leadership of that zone.

Maoists lose top leaders in group war - The Times of India

RANCHI/NEW DELHI: At least ten Maoists including some senior leaders of the CPI (Maoist) were killed in a pitched gun battle with rival faction, TritiyaPrastuti Committee (TPC), in Jharkhand on Thursday. This is one of the rare instances when Maoists have lost several of their top leaders in an internecine fight that has dealt a body blow to the banned outfit.

Among the 10 dead, security forces have identified three top leaders -Lalesh Yadav alias Prashant, state secretary (Madhya zone, Bihar Regional Committee) and closest aide of Latehar encounter leader Arvindji, Dharmendra Yadav alias Veeru, member of sub-zonal committee of Eastern Palamu zone and Jai Kumar Yadav, a 'platoon commander'. Prafulla, a sub-zonal committee member, is also suspected to be among the dead. But several bodies are still to be identified. Self-styled TPC area commander Ajayji, however, said that 15 Maoists had been killed and another 10 taken hostage, but police declined to confirm the claim.

"The gun battle has eliminated the top Maoist leaders from the Madhya zone and we expect restoration of the peace in the region," Jharkhand DGP Rajiv Kumar said. The killings give opportunity to the security forces to lay siege to naxal-infested areas in Bihar where the Maoists now remain cornered in Jamui and Gaya districts. "They were running the show in Bihar. This is the time for the state to conduct operations in the areas and bring administration to the people. Maoists will not be able to rise again if that happens," said an official from the security establishment.

The fierce firefight in the Lakarbandha forests in Chatra lasted over 12 hours after which police recovered one AK-47, two .303 rifles, three .315 rifles and a huge quantity of ammunition from the site. Jharkhand Police spokesperson Richard Lakra said that the gun battle began at around 2PM on Wednesday and continued till 2AM on Thursday. "On receiving information, police teams and jawans of CRPF's CoBRA contingent ventured into the forests and spotted the bodies as the day broke," he said.

Sources said the Maoist group was caught unawares by the sudden attack by a large number of armed TPC activists while they were holding a meeting in the Lakarbandha forests, about 100 km from Ranchi. Lalesh's group was preparing to move to Chatra to rescue Maoist leader Sandeep, who separated from Arvindji's group in Jharkhand, and bring him to Bihar. Security forces had recently cornered Arvindji in Gumla district, but he managed to give them a slip.

A March 25 encounter in Dumaria area of Gaya between a CoBRA contingent and Maoists is believed to have set the stage for Thursday's bloody internecine clash. There were no casualties in the hour-long exchange of fire that day. "The encounter, however, set the Maoists back in terms of ammunition and morale and going into a rescue operation in Jharkhand they were at a disadvantage," said an intelligence official.

Sources said, the group had some injured people and it was while arranging for their medical help that the information of their arrival in Chatra got leaked to TPC- a splinter group that separated from CPI (Maoists) alleging that it was Yadav-dominated and discriminated against tribals (to which TPC cadres belong) in the party.

Maoists have routinely accused the police of supporting TPC which had identified CPI (Maoist) as its 'main enemy' after the break-up. According to police records more than 100 ultras have been killed in the Maoist-TPC turf war in the past three years alone. Of the 57 extremists killed in 2010, 38 died in internecine conflict while 40 of the 69 killed in 2011 and 22 of the 33 deaths in 2012 were due to inter-group clashes. Maoists had given a call for unilateral ceasefire for three months last year, urging the splinter group to join ranks. The TPC operates in Palamau, Latehar, Garhwa and parts of Hazaribagh districts.

 

[jha]

Media is giving this a miss because this has been going on for some time now. Its all returning to the 90's naxalism when different groups used to target each other. Security establishment has to make sure that this rift continues and in coming 5-6 years, we will have considerably weak Maoists.

This strategy has been pioneered in Bihar-Jharkhand ( Bihar in particular ). Sadly WB and Chhatisgarh have too many corrupt politicians to let something like this succeed.

 

[anant_s]

if the report of rift amongst various factions of maoists is true, this perhaps is the best oppurtunity for the government to eliminate this menace.

 

[Nisha]

Media is giving this a miss because this has been going on for some time now. Its all returning to the 90's naxalism when different groups used to target each other. Security establishment has to make sure that this rift continues and in coming 5-6 years, we will have considerably weak Maoists.

This strategy has been pioneered in Bihar-Jharkhand ( Bihar in particular ). Sadly WB and Chhatisgarh have too many corrupt politicians to let something like this succeed.

Corruption is the root of these problems.

 

[indian_foxhound]

Corruption is the root of these problems.

Second one is illiteracy

 

[Nisha]

Second one is illiteracy

Yeah but when the govt didn't invest more resouces and standardize the edcuational system better, it led to more illiteracy and problems.

 

[indian_foxhound]

Yeah but when the govt didn't invest more resouces and standardize the edcuational system better, it led to more illiteracy and problems.

Well my thinking is if the literacy rate will in up in those area Maoists will understand themself and will leave this kinda activity but then government needs to support them...

 

[jha]

if the report of rift amongst various factions of maoists is true, this perhaps is the best oppurtunity for the government to eliminate this menace.

Rift has always been there because Naxalism is not even remotely similar to Maoism. The major issue is political will.

Corruption is the root of these problems.

Naxalism is the product of abject poverty, Lack of investment in infrastructure as well as human resource development and above all the highly corrupt, and inefficient leadership with no vision at all.

Well my thinking is if the literacy rate will in up in those area Maoists will understand themself and will leave this kinda activity but then government needs to support them...

Most of the naxal leaders are highly qualified and very capable orators. Their speeches are very motivating. However they will go to any level to stop cadre from getting educated. They need illiterate foot soldiers.

 

[Thirdfront]

I always wonder how rival factions detect each other but our "highly equipped and trained" forces can not intercept either of the groups.

 

[Ayush]

I always wonder how rival factions detect each other but our "highly equipped and trained" forces can not intercept either of the groups.

Perhaps due to lack of local support.
Welcome to PDF.

 

[Mike_Brando]

Media is giving this a miss because this has been going on for some time now. Its all returning to the 90's naxalism when different groups used to target each other. Security establishment has to make sure that this rift continues and in coming 5-6 years, we will have considerably weak Maoists.

This strategy has been pioneered in Bihar-Jharkhand ( Bihar in particular ). Sadly WB and Chhatisgarh have too many corrupt politicians to let something like this succeed.

mate WB is one of the few states which has been totally successful in eradicating the maoist problem once and for all from the state thanks to the gutsy decisions of C.M. Mamata Banerjee.today no more than 2-3 squads of maoists are left in the entire "Jangalmahal" area of WB who spend most of their time hiding inside the dense jungles in the WB-Jharkhand border to avoid being detected by the Joint Forces and are not capable to commit any major violence.
actually the death of kishenji[no.2 in the CPI(Maoist)] and the surrender and capture of senior leaders in WB has left the maoists without a leadership in the state and now its only a matter of time before they become totally extinct in Bengal!and all the credit here goes to our C.M. Mamata didi for crushing this anti-national movement in Bengal!

 

[KS]

I always wonder how rival factions detect each other but our "highly equipped and trained" forces can not intercept either of the groups.

because they know their hideouts, resting spots, signals etc much more than the secf forces since they too were one of the maoists till they split.

 

[fatal_toxic]

Chatra distt in Jharkhand is one of the most badly hit maoist regions in whole of Jharkhand...

I have had first hand experience with the conditions there as my father was posted in the sadar police station as SHO and i used to visit him every now and then during holidays.
the region is so backward tht electricity available only fr 5 -6 hours a day!
During my dad's duration of posting the situation had somewhat cooled down bcoz of the conflicts between these splinter groups such as TPC,JPC(Jharkhand Prastuti Committee),CPI(m),JLT(Jharkhand Liberation Tigers).
But during the period of 200-2007 the sitation was out of control...there used to be no patrolling after 6 pm in the evening and police personnel were afraid to go out becoz they were ill equipped but since the state government has stated mordernization of police forces they have been supplied with night vision goggles(i hav myself tried dem and they rock),bulletproof vests,anti land mines vehicles ,modern arms such as lmg,ak-47 and the x-95 the morale has been boosted up!
the chatra distt has seen the most number of police personnel killed in action with maoists in whole of jharkhand.
Also the region is very hilly and has treacherous terrain with dense forests wich is very difficult to navigate.
but now the sitatuion is improving by the grace of central and state govt's efforts!

actually the Kunda block where the maoists have been gunned down by TPC(but the real story is something else,which u cannot find in national newspapers) was the first block where maoists frm WB arrived fr the very first time in Jharkhand and from there the maoists spread to other parts!
these sorts of killings hav been seen in chatra in the past also when JLT terminated praveen ganjhu of CPI.

also the region has seen most number of encounters with maoists in the jharkhand state with the satbahni river encounter being the longest running encounter in history of maoist operations wich ran for over 2 days!

I hav so much to tell abt this region bt i think i'll make a searate thread with actual fotographs of maoits killed n landmine explosion sites with blast craters wich my dad has in his laptop during his posting tenure.
some photos can be graphic bt still i'll see!

u all shud knw tht some ppl in these parts of india hav neva even seen a school or a police personnel even a mobile fone..so u can wonder how much the region is backwards!

 

[Nisha]

Chatra distt in Jharkhand is one of the most badly hit maoist regions in whole of Jharkhand...

I have had first hand experience with the conditions there as my father was posted in the sadar police station as SHO and i used to visit him every now and then during holidays.
the region is so backward tht electricity available only fr 5 -6 hours a day!
During my dad's duration of posting the situation had somewhat cooled down bcoz of the conflicts between these splinter groups such as TPC,JPC(Jharkhand Prastuti Committee),CPI(m),JLT(Jharkhand Liberation Tigers).
But during the period of 200-2007 the sitation was out of control...there used to be no patrolling after 6 pm in the evening and police personnel were afraid to go out becoz they were ill equipped but since the state government has stated mordernization of police forces they have been supplied with night vision goggles(i hav myself tried dem and they rock),bulletproof vests,anti land mines vehicles ,modern arms such as lmg,ak-47 and the x-95 the morale has been boosted up!
the chatra distt has seen the most number of police personnel killed in action with maoists in whole of jharkhand.
Also the region is very hilly and has treacherous terrain with dense forests wich is very difficult to navigate.
but now the sitatuion is improving by the grace of central and state govt's efforts!

actually the Kunda block where the maoists have been gunned down by TPC(but the real story is something else,which u cannot find in national newspapers) was the first block where maoists frm WB arrived fr the very first time in Jharkhand and from there the maoists spread to other parts!
these sorts of killings hav been seen in chatra in the past also when JLT terminated praveen ganjhu of CPI.

also the region has seen most number of encounters with maoists in the jharkhand state with the satbahni river encounter being the longest running encounter in history of maoist operations wich ran for over 2 days!

I hav so much to tell abt this region bt i think i'll make a searate thread with actual fotographs of maoits killed n landmine explosion sites with blast craters wich my dad has in his laptop during his posting tenure.
some photos can be graphic bt still i'll see!

u all shud knw tht some ppl in these parts of india hav neva even seen a school or a police personnel even a mobile fone..so u can wonder how much the region is backwards!

I think it is really important for you to open such a thread on this topic. We cannot help this situtaiton nless w know all the facts. I also heard of their plight in such regions. Its hard to believe that some middle class ppl who live a decewnt life with access to everything have no clue how millions in India live. The two states mentuioned have extreme corruption and poverty. The CM;s of both states are involved in shady dealings. Time to put them under the scanner but because of this democracy we have, its hard for the central govt to do so without damaging its coalition style politics.