The Maoists have been spreading their footprint across the nation, particularly over the past year, unnoticed or ignored by the UPA which has largely engrossed with firefighting one scam or the other. As a result, Assam has been declared a Maoist-affected State for the first time; the two successor States of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh are vulnerable; incidents have recurred in Karnataka; and Maoists are trying to establish a foothold in Kerala and other southern States by intermingling with the Indian Mujahideen.
This makes the forthcoming Parliamentary election challenging for the Election Commission, as Maoists remain entrenched in West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, MP, and Chhattisgarh. The UPA in its 10 years in power, despite the blood curdling events in Gadchiroli (Maharashtra), Dantewada and Darbha Valley (Chhattisgarh), to mention only the most horrific, has failed to fashion a robust response to this menace.
Central intelligence agencies have long been alive to the problem of Maoists joining hands with the Indian Mujahideen. Yasin Bhatkal, arrested in Nepal on August 28, 2013, told the National Investigative Agency (NIA) that in Nepal he had made contact with a top Indian Maoist leader known by the alias ‘Manjar’. This was before the terror attack in Bodhgaya in July, where NIA sleuths noted similarities in the modus operandi of the blast with that of Maoists, though Bhatkal denied any hand in Bodhgaya blasts. The Union Home Ministry and NIA believe that the Maoists are helping the IM in procuring explosives for their terror activities in return for arms and ammunition.
In October last year, intelligence agencies alerted the Centre that Maoists were trying to enter Kerala. An incident of firing on forest officials in Nilambur forest in Malappuram district in late November has been attributed to the suspected Maoists, though no one was hurt in the attack. The same month, Maoists suddenly emerged in Karnataka and set fire to the car of a gram panchayat member in Kuthlur village adjoining Kudremukh National Park, South Kannada district (November 9, 2013).
Sources say that this is part of a larger plan to spread out in the south, as armed cadres have been spotted in the Western Ghats and the tri-junction of Tamil Nadu-Kerala-Karnataka. Armed groups of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) have also been seen in the districts of Malappuram, Waynad and Kannur in Kerala and Mysore, Kodagu, Udupi, Chikmagalur and Shimoga in Karnataka. In adjacent areas of Tamil Nadu, the activities of their front organisations have increased sharply in Erode district.
Regarding Andhra Pradesh, it is pertinent that the Justice Srikrishna Commission had warned that giving full statehood to Telangana along with Hyderabad could give a fillip to the Maoists as the authorities would initially be soft towards them on account of their contribution towards an independent state. Moreover the bifurcated police force would make a robust response difficult and Maoists would use the lull to spread into the districts of Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal, Khammam, parts of Nizamabad and Medak in north Telangana and Mehboobnagar and Nalgonda in south Telangana. The Commission had pointed out that when Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh were created, Maoist violence increased there. Indeed, in November 2013, there was an encounter between Maoists and the CRPF and district police at Khammam.
As the countdown to the Lok Sabha elections begins, with the first phase of polling on April 10, it may be instructive to take a look at some of the reported incidents of Maoist violence and gauge the extent of their burgeoning confidence in the Indian State’s inability to respond. On January 20, 2014, suspected Maoists fired at an MI-17 Indian Air Force helicopter carrying CRPF Inspector General HS Sidhu while it was landing at Chintagufa in south Chhattisgarh; fortunately no one was injured. At least six instances of Maoists firing at choppers operating between Sukma and Dantewada districts have been reported in recent times.
Previously in January 2013, Maoists had fired 19 bullets at an IAF helicopter in the same area while it was descending near Chhattisgarh Police’s Timilwada camp. This is the controversial incident in which the chopper crashed and the IAF personnel abandoned the Chhattisgarh Police wireless operator Yamlal Sahu after the crash landing.
The Maoists have resurfaced in West Bengal for the first time since the death of politburo member Kishenji in November 2011, issuing an ‘open letter’ urging the people to join them in overthrowing the Indian State through armed struggle. The letter was released in Burdwan district just two days before Republic Day. It startled the authorities as most of the leadership is in jail; West Bengal secretary Asim Mandal alias Akash has gone underground since the death of Kishenji, and most other members had become inactive.
The letter is significant because Burdwan is a major industrial belt (Asansol-Durgapur-Kulti) and houses the Durgapur Steel Plant, Indian Iron and Steel Company, Alloy Steel Plant, Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, DVC, Durgapur Projects Ltd, Philips Carbon Black, several sponge iron plants, rolling mills and coal mines, employing lakhs of workers.
Moreover, the banned Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) has renewed its call for the secession of six districts of north Bengal and four of lower Assam, including Burdwan and Malda. The Maoists support the Kamtapur movement. Maoist posters have also been noticed in parts of the Ayodhya hills region in Purulia district, and movement of leaders has been reported in West Midnapore district of Jangalmahal region.
Lately, on January 27, the Maoists triggered seven landmines in Dolkata area of Giridih district, Jharkhand, injuring 12 security personnel who were on a search operation to trace four persons abducted by Maoists near the Parasnath foothills. The security personnel belonged to a joint squad of the State Polices’ Jaguar team and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
On February 9, two CRPF officials were killed and 12 injured after the Maoists triggered a landmine blast in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh, where they had virtually wiped out the entire State leadership of the Congress party last year. The attack took place when a joint squad of the CRPF, its specialised unit Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA) and the district police personnel were engaged in an anti-Maoist operation in the region.
Chhattisgarh remains a Maoist hotbed. On February 23, a joint squad of CoBRA, the Special Task Force and the district police faced fierce gunfire while combing Abhujmad region, during which they managed to gun down a Maoist in the Narayanpur district forests. The Maoists retaliated soon after, killing six policemen, including an SHO, in an ambush in Dantewada on February 28. A few days later, on March 4, a joint contingent of Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Border Security Force (BSF) and local police team seized a huge cache of Rs 29 lakh in cash from a Maoist dump in Rajnandgaon district, along with ammunition and electronic gadgets from two Maoist camps in Sitagaon and Aundhi police station area. It is obvious that this money was to be used to disrupt the forthcoming general election. Police said that the money was extorted from locals.
In Maharashtra, police had better luck and killed seven Maoists in a fierce encounter on the Gondia-Gadchiroli border on February 18, after getting a tip that the Maoists were hiding in the Betkathi jungle area. Odisha police also shot dead two suspected Maoist commanders in the Koraput jungles on March 4, though the remaining members of the camp managed to escape.
It goes without saying that the forthcoming elections are going to be a challenge to the security forces and the Election Commission as the Maoists are clearly escalating their activities and extending their footprint across the country. The areas where vigilance needs to be intensified include:
Assam (where election is to be held on April 7, 12, 24);
Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (April 10, 17, 24);
Kerala (April 10);
Karnataka (April 17);
Tamil Nadu (April 24);
Andhra Pradesh (April 30, May 7);
Odisha (April 10, 17);
Bihar (April 10, 17, 24, 30, May 7, 12);
Jharkhand (April 10, 17, 24)
West Bengal (April 17, 24, 30, May 7, 12).
The Maoists have killed more than 8,100 civilians and policemen since 2001. Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde claims that Maoist extremism has declined sharply and has been at its lowest in 2013 as compared to the last 10 years; 394 persons were killed in 1,129 Naxal attacks in 2013 as compared to 566 persons killed in 2004 and 1,005 killed in 2010. But noticing the trend over the last few months, complacency can be a grave mistake.
Niticentral.com, 6 March 2014
http://www.niticentral.com/2014/03/06/maoist-belt-will-pose-special-challenge-for-ec-196467.html