Naxals killed 18 policemen

[Spring Onion]

18 policemen killed in shootout with Naxals
AGENCIES 8 October 2009, 06:50pm IST
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GADCHIROLI (Maharashtra): In a brazen attack, Naxals on Thursday ambushed a police patrol party mercilessly gunning down eighteen policemen here, a
day after Union Home Minister P Chidambaram gave a stern warning to the left-wing extremists to abjure violence or face action.

The policemen including a sub-inspector on patrol duty walked into an ambush set up by about 150-200 Naxals under the Laheri police station of the district, bordering Chhattisgarh, and were shot dead in an encounter that lasted over three hours.

The bloodbath comes two days after a Jharkhand police intelligence officer was beheaded by the Maoists in Ranchi district of the state.

The Gadchiroli attack took place a few hours before the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the national capital discussed the growing Naxal threat in various parts of the country and measures required to counter it.

A police party of nearly 40 personnel were conducting search operations in the district following intelligence inputs that Naxalites had assembled in the area.

The police party while returning suddenly came under heavy fire and retaliated, District Collector Atul Patne told PTI over phone.

Sub Inspector C S Deshmukh along with 17 jawans were killed in the encounter, Patne said.

Patne said the Left-wing extremists used sophisticated weapons on the police party which was completely outnumbered.

"As many as two platoons of BSF (50 personnel) and additional police force was rushed to the spot and they could manage to save the rest of the policemen caught in the heavy fire," he said.

The naxal attack came five days ahead of assembly elections in Maharashtra.

The killings took place two km from Lahiri police post in Bhamragad tehsil of the district.

In February, 15 policemen were killed in Naxal attacks and in May, 16 police personnel, including five women, lost their lives in another Naxal strike in the district.

Taking stock of the situation, the Centre rushed additional paramilitary forces to the area, Home Secretary G K Pillai said.

Inspector General of Police, Nagpur Surendra Kumar said combing operation were underway but said the terrain was very difficult.

"We could send some relief parties there and they have secured the area," District Superintendent of Police S Jaya Kumar said adding efforts were being made to airlift the injured.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Home Minister Jayant Patil expressed outrage at the incident, saying the killings will strengthen the resolve of the state government in tackling the Naxal menace.

Earlier, Maoists had set ablaze a gram panchayat office in Gadchiroli district.

The incident comes two days after the beheading of Jharkhand police officer Francis Induwar. Home Minister P Chidambaram had yesterday said the security forces will engage the Maoists till they abjure violence and the air force will take steps to protect itself from any Naxal attacks.

"As long as the CPI-Maoists believe in an armed liberation struggle, we have no option but to ask our security forces to engage them, we will arrest them, we will apprehend them," Chidambaram had said in Mumbai

Naxals gun down 18 policemen, one police informer beheaded - India - The Times of India

 

[TopCat]

Why this thing is going on for ever in India? Does India have any plan to deal with them or change the political system of Delhi and bring those Maoist to power. How about Nepalese Maoist? Is Indians Maoist same as Nepalese and can be brought under regular political system?

 

[Spring Onion]

Why this thing is going on for ever in India? Does India have any plan to deal with them or change the political system of Delhi and bring those Maoist to power. How about Nepalese Maoist? Is Indians Maoist same as Nepalese and can be brought under regular political system?

There are some news that India might use airforce against the Moists.


Lets see

No i think Nepali moists are not same as Indian ones.

 

[BATMAN]

Why this thing is going on for ever in India? Does India have any plan to deal with them or change the political system of Delhi and bring those Maoist to power. How about Nepalese Maoist? Is Indians Maoist same as Nepalese and can be brought under regular political system?

What are their demands?
Are they low cast people?
Why not bomb the **** out of them?

 

[TopCat]

I hope they will not find any Muslim or NE people in Maoist. LOL

 

[Renegade]

There are some news that India might use airforce against the Moists.

The Air Force is already active against the Maoists, but only in a support role. They perform reconaissance and help in evacuation of casualties as most of the terrain under which the Maoists operate is dense forest areas.

The Air Force had asked the GoI permission to fire back if under attack, after flight engineer Sergeant Mustafa Ali was killed in firing by the Maoists.

Looks like they will get the permission to fire back in self-defence.

 

[BATMAN]

If Pakistan army can help Srilankans than it should be no shame to use Pakistan's experience.
I hope indains will never compalin about CBM after such a cordial support!

 

[Renegade]

What are their demands?

The Maoists are themselves confused on that.

Are they low cast people?

They represent all religions and groups. Most of them are anti-shocial elements who joined the movement to escape the law.

Why not bomb the **** out of them?

Difficult, considering they mostly hide in dense forest and rarely venture out.

 

[Renegade]

If Pakistan army can help Srilankans than it should be no shame to use Pakistan's experience.
I hope indains will never compalin about CBM after such a cordial support!

The Maoists are not like the LTTE. At the most you can call them group of dacoits who mostly hide in dense forests.

Well thanks for the offer but that wont be necessary, the Indian Army has gained enough experience in Jammu & Kashmir.

The Maoists are not a big enough threat to involve the Army, they are being countered by the local Police and central Paramilitary forces.

 

[graphican]

I was just going through Wikipedia about Naxalites and found they exist in more or less 40% of Indian Territory. If that is the case, India doesn't need to look at Pakistan or China for the threat, it has enough of enemies within itself.

 

[rajeev]

I was just going through Wikipedia about Naxalites and found they exist in more or less 40% of Indian Territory. If that is the case, India doesn't need to look at Pakistan or China for the threat, it has enough of enemies within itself.

Maoists's official stated goal is to create communist country like China of 1950.

They are based in poorest regions in the India like northern Andhra Pradesh, most of Chattisgarh, some Bihar, south UP and some West Bengal. When you claim 40%, it is exaggerated because they attack and go away and attack at some other place. So, if you claim all those regions are Moaists then it is wrong because there are other people who live there who dont want them there.

Now regarding removing them - it a difficult issue. They are very decentralized and one party does not know other group. In their mind, they are up for revolution and consider Mao as their guide for success. India hoped that it will go away on its own. But apparently, they are not seeing any direct benefits of the economic growth and may be feel like defranchised (?)

It will take time to solve. Those respective states- especially Chattisgarh and Bihar have poor state leaders and hence their state's economic growth is traggic.

 

[Spring Onion]

An extract from Jane's



Red storm rising - India's intractable Maoist insurgency
20 May 2008


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India's Maoist movement is expanding its operations as its People's War develops along ideological and pragmatic lines. Dr P V Ramana looks at the rise of the rebellion and the country's poorly co-ordinated counter-insurgency strategies.

While discussion of the threat posed to India by radical Islamist violence tends to dominate security assessments, the country's Maoist insurgency has been steadily expanding its areas of influence and building up its military capability. This expansion has been so great that in 2007 Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described the Maoists as the "single biggest internal security challenge facing India".

The proscribed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) was founded on 21 September 2004, following the merging of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War, also known as the People's War Group, and the Maoist Communist Centre of India - two of India's most prominent insurgent groups.

The CPI-Maoist is the largest group of a wider communist insurgent movement, known as Naxalites after the village of Naxalbari in West Bengal, the site of a revolutionary rural uprising in 1967. The CPI-Maoist has a presence in 185 districts in 17 out of India's 28 states, exerting varying degrees of influence in these areas. Chhattisgarh is currently the state worst affected by the insurgency, particularly its southern Bastar region, which was referred to as a "war zone" in July 2007 by state police chief Vishwaranjan. Other states affected by Maoist violence are Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and Maharashtra. Andhra Pradesh - where the insurgents are currently on the retreat - has been affected for the longest period of time - since 1964, when radical elements of the political Communist Party of India (Marxist) waged a rebellion called the Srikakulam armed struggle.

Prior to the forging of the CPI-Maoist in 2004, the Naxalites' four-decade campaign of violence had been confined largely to rural India, with their support base comprising landless labourers and marginalised tribal and lower-caste people. However, since the formation of the CPI-Maoist, and in particular since 2006, there have been two major shifts in the Maoists' operational strategy, increasing the security risks posed by the insurgency: targeting infrastructure; and the expansion of its geographical focus to include urban areas.

Red storm rising - India's intractable Maoist insurgency - Jane's Country Risk News

 

[gubbi]

I was just going through Wikipedia about Naxalites and found they exist in more or less 40% of Indian Territory. If that is the case, India doesn't need to look at Pakistan or China for the threat, it has enough of enemies within itself.

Of course, but what you failed to read was that its a class struggle, supported by one mainstream political party (of idiots who consider themselves intelligent!).
They are not demanding a separate independent nation, but apparently more power to the poor. In the process they manage to brainwash the poor farmers into picking up arms against the state machinery. Big mistake!
To add fuel to the fire, many people who might be considered the intellectual class, support the ideology. No problem in supporting any ideology - constitutional right - but the problem arises when these intellectuals support armed 'revolution' the likes of which made Che an icon! Another big mistake.
In a democracy you have proper channels to have your grievances addressed properly, though I agree it takes time. But has sparking an armed revolution achieved any fruits in a population generally content with their lives? Recollect Che in Bolivia? Nah! When the majority of the population supports the govt, an armed rebellion will be definitely put down, its only a matter of time.
Politicians are wary of giving police more power or personnel to tackle this problem, especially in the state of Bengal (Communist party in power there) where the Maoist cadres are looked upon as votebanks.
So basically it is a law and order problem, but a huge one at that.

Surprisingly India does not employ IAF for CAS in its COIN operations, why should it do so here? I am all for it though, but using military power to tackle what is basically a policing problem is over kill and the repercussions would be messy - read more support to those naxals.

 

[deckingraj]

Hi All

This is my first post in the forum so kindly bear with me if i am not upto the jargon.

When you claim 40%, it is exaggerated because they attack and go away and attack at some other place

Well i agree that they don't control 40% of India but going by the news coming out these days one have to agree(though with lot of pain) that they are striking at will and if we don't put a lid on this growing menace sooner than later we are asking for LOT of trouble. I found an interesting article on rediff "Why we have no answer to Naxal menace"(not sure how much respected source is this here) talking about the menace and why it is so difficult to control them. Though me being not a full member cant post the link here .

Anyways if whatever the article is saying is believed to be true then for sure GOI is going to have hard time fighting with an invisible enemy who is getting lethal and barbaric day by day.

 

[gogbot]

Naxal days are numbered, the Current government has made it abundantly clear that the Naxals are the greatest threat faced by India in the near future.
After years of Living in Ignorance the center has ordered all state governments to eradicate any Naxals in their territory.

India tried to bring them into politics, but that did not stop the armed movement. so now their political party which never had more than a handful of seats less than 5 was disbanded.

The Naxals are fighting a hopeless battle With less and less support from public. and Now that The Center is focused on eradicating them. They are fighting a like a trapped animals. Desperate.

If they escalate further then IAF will start bombing runs on suspected hide outs.
IF they dont then Police and Paramilitary forces will eradicate them.

India can be Naxal free in 10 years if all goes according to plan. India is a big nation with too many places to hide and too many unsecure borders for them to escape.