Those Killed in the Corporate war are Just Helpless Scapegoats in the US Periphery of the World on Fire!
Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time - THREE HUNDRED Thirty Three
Palash Biswas
http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/
Thirteen years after 58 dalits were massacred in Laxmanpur-Bathe village of Jehanabad, a Patna court on Wednesday sentenced 16 persons to death and awarded life sentence to 10 convicts. Sixteen people, however, were acquitted.
The additional district and session judge (I) convicted 26 people treating it as rarest of rare case. Most of the accused owed allegiance to now almost-defunct upper caste private army Ranbir Sena.
Prosecution lawyer CK Sinha said: "As Laxmanpur-Bathe was one of the biggest carnage, the court took strong view of killing of dalits in brutal manner and sentenced 16 people to death treating it as rarest of rare case". Several convicts were sent to Beur jail. Bail of some of convicts were cancelled with immediate effect.
Charges were framed against 44 men of the upper caste militia Ranvir Sena on 23 December 2008 on charges of killing 58 people, including 27 women and 10 children on 1 December 1997.
Meanwhile,IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik on Wednesday said he was not in favour of use of air power in anti-Naxal operations, a day after the worst ever Maoist attack in which 76 CRPF personnel were killed in Chattisgarh.
As a stunned Government took stock of the situation and mulled various strategies, Naik said the IAF will be ready to join the operations against the Naxals if a decision is taken in this regard.He said the Military is trained for lethal operations to inflict maximum lethality. "The military--Air Force, Army and Navy--are not trained for limited lethality. The weapons that we have are meant for the enemy across the border."
"Therefore, I am not in favour of use of Air Force in situations like the Naxal problem," the air chief said.
Naik said it is the prerogative of the State when the naxal situation reaches that level to involve the Armed Forces.
Cautioning against any 'knee-jerk' reactions to yesterday's 'savage' attack by the Maoists, Home Minister P Chidambaram today said the government may have to 'revisit' the mandate on use of Air Force in the offensive against Naxalites.
Maintaining that a "war" has been thrust on government, he told a press conference here that "at this moment we must remain calm and hold our nerves" in our campaign to rid India of the grave threat of Maoists and to save democracy.
Following is the chronology of major recent Naxal attacks in the country.
July 16, 2008: 21 policemen killed when a police van was blown up in a landmine blast in Malkangiri district of Orissa.
June 29: Maoists attack a boat on Balimela reservoir in Orissa carrying four anti-Naxalite police officials and 60 Greyhound commandos, killing 38 troops.
Oct 8, 2009: 17 policemen killed when Maoists ambushed them at Laheri police station in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.
Sep 30: Naxalites set ablaze Gram Panchayat offices at Korchi and Belgaon in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.
Sep 26: Naxals kill BJP MP from Balaghat Baliram Kashyap's sons at Pairaguda village in Jagdalpur (Chhattisgarh).
Sep 4: Naxals kill four villagers in a forest in Aaded village in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district.
India Says No Quick Results in Anti-Maoist Offensive!
Photo: AP
An Indian government soldier places a wreath on the coffin of a colleague killed in Tuesday's Maoist attack, at the airport in Lucknow, India, 07 Apr 2010
Fight to the finish,only way to tackle Maoists:Chhattisgarh Locals
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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said the government reviewed from time to time various options to fight Maoists, including the use of air power.After Maoist rebels mounted their deadliest attack on Indian security forces, authorities are cautioning against expecting quick results in a government offensive to stem the rebellion. The ambush, which killed 75 paramilitary troops, has raised questions about the effectiveness of the anti-Maoist operation.
After attending a ceremony to honor paramilitary troops killed by Maoist rebels in Chattisgarh state, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said instant success is not possible in the offensive to root out the guerrillas.
"We are paying a price for the neglect of the last 10-12 years," he said. "This will be a long drawn out struggle. It will take two to three years. But we must hold our nerve, we must remain on course."
Tuesday's attack in Chattisgarh's Dantewada district is the deadliest since the Maoist rebels began their armed insurgency, some 30 years ago.
Officials have described the ambush as a multi-stage operation in which the rebels first attacked a patrol and then triggered blasts and sprayed gunfire on the reinforcements which went in. The rebels then seized their weapons and disappeared into the forests. A few soldiers who survived said they were completely outnumbered by the rebels.
Home Minister Chidambaram has vowed that the "state" will fight back.
"It is the Naxalites who described the state as the enemy, and the conflict as a war," he said. "If this is a war, and I wish to say that we have never used that word, it is a war that has been thrust upon the state by those who do not have the legitimate right to carry weapons."
The deadly strike has brought the government under pressure to scale up the anti Maoist offensive, which started six months ago, and redraw its strategy to tackle the rebellion. Newspapers carried headlines "Nation under Siege" and "It's War."
India will push ahead with an offensive against Maoist rebels despite the death of 76 government troops in an ambush by insurgents in the east, the country's top security official said Wednesday.
The ambush in a dense forest Tuesday was the deadliest single attack on government fighters in the 43-year-old insurgency. It stunned Indians, highlighted the growing threat posed by the Maoists and showed that the rebels appeared uncowed by a government offensive aimed at crushing them.
Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram flew to the area Wednesday and laid a wreath near the coffins of the slain security forces.
He insisted the government would not back down.
"I think we should, while we grieve the dead, hold our nerve and continue to do what we are doing — namely to rid India of the gravest threat to internal security, which is the Naxalite threat," he said, referring to the Maoists by their nickname. "This is a long, drawn-out struggle. It will take two to three years, perhaps more."
The rebels, who have tapped into the rural poor's growing anger at being left out of the country's economic gains, are now present in 20 of the country's 28 states. About 2,000 people — including police, militants and civilians — have been killed over the past few years.
Last year, the government announced its "Operation Green Hunt" offensive aimed at flushing the militants out of their forest hide-outs. Both the insurgents and government forces have been accused of using violence and intimidation against local villagers to coerce their cooperation.
The government has said it is willing to talk with the rebels if they give up violence, but the rebels say there should be no preconditions for negotiations.
Chidambaram took a harder line Wednesday.
"To our offer of talks, they have replied by savage and brutal acts of violence. To talk of talks now would be to mock the supreme sacrifice made by the (slain troops)," he said.
Part of the difficulty with the offensive is that it is being carried out by various state police agencies and national paramilitary forces loosely coordinated by the central government. Critics have said the troops are poorly trained and underequipped and are essentially canon fodder for rebels fighting on their home turf in the jungles.
"We can't expect instant success," Chidambaram said. "We are paying the price for the neglect of the last 10 to 12 years."
More than 500 Maoists launched the attack early Tuesday morning on a group of soldiers who set out from a temporary base in Chhattisgarh state's Dantewada forests, said G.K. Pillai, the federal home secretary. More soldiers were killed when they stepped on land mines the Maoists planted throughout the ambush zone, he said.
Two separate groups of reinforcements rushed to the area to help but came under fire as well, Chidambaram said. The casualties came from bombs, grenades, bullets and land mines, he said.
The rebels, who rarely speak to the media, did not issue a statement on the attack.
Named after Naxalbari, the village in West Bengal state where their movement was born in 1967, the Naxalites have an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 fighters.
While many are poorly armed — often going into battle with handmade weapons forged from plumbing pipes — they regularly launch bloody attacks on government forces. In February, they killed at least 24 police officers in West Bengal state in an attack on a police camp.
The government dismisses the Naxalites' claim to speak for the country's poor, arguing they do little but wreak havoc in some of India's most impoverished regions.
The opposition has called on authorities to deploy the army to fight the rebels who have bases in remote and forested areas in several states.
However, the home minister has ruled out deploying the military against the insurgents, but says the government might consider using the air force for some operations.
At the moment police and paramilitary troops are fighting the Maoists, but analysts say they are ill equipped, poorly trained and too small in number to tackle the rebels.
As a result, many analysts remain skeptical of progress, pointing out that the Maoists are well entrenched across vast, remote areas in eastern and central states where there is virtually no government presence.
"The reality is the government does not in fact have the capacity to dominate the spaces they will have to dominate if they are to deal with the Maoists effectively in any enduring sense," said Ajay Sahni, who heads the Institute of Conflict Studies in New Delhi.
The guerrillas have stepped up attacks targeting security forces in response to the government offensive.
The Maoists, who say they are fighting for the rights of the poor, are winning most of their support from underdeveloped areas in the country, where millions still struggle in poverty despite the country's economic progress.
Maoists want frenzy
Fury and anguish would be natural reactions to the latest, and biggest, act of Maoist depredation, in which several hundred of them ambushed a
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Operation Green Hunt has not produced enough violence against ordinary tribal people so far, but still has got the Maoists on the run. This does not suit the Maoists. They claim that Green Hunt is nothing short of the Indian state's war against its own people. The only way to prove that is to get the state to launch a massive assault that does not distinguish between Maoists and tribal people.
The cold-blooded massacre of 80-odd policemen is transparently an attempt to provoke brutal reprisal. The blood they spill of ordinary policemen as talisman of their revolutionary earnestness, and the blood they hope would inundate the jungles of central India as the state mows down entire villages in retaliation, as proof of the need for such revolution — thus runs Maoist logic.
This logic must be defeated, firmly and resolutely, to win the war against Maoism. For that, restraint and logic must temper and guide the force that is used to respond to the latest outrage. War, lest we forget, is continuation of politics by other means. Politics must remain in command, and resist shrill calls to now let loose the army against the Maoists. We need more intelligently aggressive policing, using tactics, tools and procedures that show respect for the lives of the policemen sent out to battle the Maoists.
Chanakya famously taught young Chandragupta Maurya that it was not enough to cut off an offending plant — you must destroy its roots. The roots of Maoism lie in the deficit of democracy and development in large parts of rural, particularly tribal, India.
Instead of addressing this, the political class drags its feet on forging a sensible policy to make stakeholders out of land-losers, and on implementing the pathbreaking laws on forest rights, employment guarantee and the right to information, all powerful tools in the war against Maoism. The ruling coalition and the Opposition both abdicate responsibility, when they fail to mobilise the people to fulfil the promise of democracy enshrined in the Constitution. To the Maoists' glee.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Maoists-want-frenzy/articleshow/5768805.cms
42 सीआरपीएफ जवानों के शव लखनऊ लाए गएखास खबर - 3 घंटे पहले लखनऊ। छत्तीसगढ़ में मंगलवार के नक्सली हमले में शहीद हुए केंद्रीय रिजर्व पुलिस बल (सीआरपीएफ) के 76 जवानों में से 42 के शव बुधवार को लखनऊ लाए जा रहे हैं। वायु सेना के विशेष विमान द्वारा उत्तर प्रदेश से ताल्लुक रखने वाले जवानों के शवों को लखनऊ लाने का सिलसिला जारी है। अमौसी हवाई अड्डे के पास एक पंडाल लगाया गया है जहां लोग इनके अंतिम दर्शन कर श्रद्धांजलि दे रहे हैं। इससे पहले इन शहीदों को सलामी दी गई। शहीदों के शवों को उनके गृह ... शहीदों को ''आखिरी सलाम''प्रातःकाल - 31 मिनट पहले जगदलपुर, ७ अप्रैल। छत्तीसगढ़ के दंतेवाड़ा में अब तक के सबसे बड़े नक्सली हमले में कल शहीद हुए 76 सुरक्षाकर्मियों के ताबूतों के पास गृहमंत्री पी. चिदम्बरम के पहुंचते ही पहले से ही शोक में डूबा माहौल और भी गमगीन हो गया। माओवादियों के खिलाफ देश की लड़ाई में अपने प्राण न्यौछावर करने वाले सीआरपीएफ के जवानों को गृहमंत्री के मौके पर पहुंचने के फौरन बाद शोक के बिगुल के जरिए ''आखिरी सलाम'' किया गया। 64 वर्षीय चिदम्बरम आज शोक में डूबे ... नक्सलियों के खिलाफ हवाई हमले की नीति पर विचार संभव: चिदंबरमआज तक - 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6 घंटे पहले जगदलपुर (छत्तीसगढ़ ) : केंद्रीय गृहमंत्री पी चिदंबरम तथा छत्तीसगढ के मुख्यमंत्री डॉ रमन सिंह ने राज्य के दंतेवाड़ा जिले के चिंतलनाद में नक्सली मुठभेड़ में कल शहीद हुये सुरक्षा बल के जवानों को आज यहां श्रद्वांजलि दी. केंद्रीय रिजर्व पुलिस बल (सीआरपीएफ़) और स्थानीय पुलिस बल के 76 जवान इस मुठभेड़ में शहीद हो गये थे. उनके शव बस्तर जिले के मुख्यालय जगदलपुर में लाये गये. आज यहां पुलिस लाइन मैदान में इन शहीदों को श्रद्धांजलि और अंतिम ...  नक्सलियों के खिलाफ कोई ग्रीनहंट नहीं : चिदंबरमदेशबन्धु - 2 घंटे पहले जगदलपुर। नक्सली हमले में शहीदों को श्रद्धांजलि देने छत्तीसगढ़ के जगदलपुर पहुंचे केंद्रीय गृह मंत्री पी. चिदंबरम ने बुधवार को संयम की अपील करते हुए कहा कि नक्सलियों के खिलाफ कोई ऑपरेशन ग्रीन हंट नहीं चल रहा है साथ ही उन्होंने सेना के उपयोग की संभावना से इंकार किया। चिदंबरम ने पत्रकारों से कहा कि कोई ऑपरेशन ग्रीन हंट नहीं चल रहा है, जैसा कि चारों तरफ इसकी चर्चा है। बहरहाल नक्सलियों के खिलाफ 'लड़ाई' को सफल होने में दो से ... दिल्ली पहुंचा शहीदों का शवदेशबन्धु - 1 घंटा पहले नई दिल्ली। छत्तीसगढ़ में बस्तर क्षेत्र के दंतेवाड़ा जिले में मंगलवार को हुए अब तक के सबसे बड़े नक्सली हमले में शहीद हुए केंद्रीय रिजर्व पुलिस बल (सीआरपीएफ) के जवानों का शव बुधवार शाम दिल्ली लाया गया। भारतीय वायुसेना का विमान जवानों का शव लेकर शाम 5.15 बजे दिल्ली के पालम हवाई अड्डे पर पहुंचा। यद्यपि अभी इस बात की सूचना नहीं मिल पाई है कि विमान में कितने जवानों का शव लाया गया। लेकिन सूत्रों के मुताबिक 25 जवानों के शव हो सकते ...  युद्ध नियम नजरअंदाज के कारण हुआ दंतेव़ाडा संहारखास खबर - 6 घंटे पहले रायपुर। छत्तीसगढ़ दंतेव़ाडा जिले में मंगलवार को नक्सलियों के हाथों हुए केंद्रीय रिजर्व पुलिस बल (सीआरपीएफ) जवानों के संहार के पीछे उनका युद्ध नियमों की उपेक्षा करना था। यह कहना है आतंक निरोधी एक अधिकारी का। उन्होंने कहा कि बस्तर क्षेत्र के दंतेव़ाडा जिले में घटी इस खौफनाक घटना को रोका जा सकता था, बशर्ते इन जवानों ने युद्ध मैनुअल के 48 कानून-कायदों का पालन किया होता। नक्सलियों के खिलाफ अभियान के दौरान इन नियमों का पालन ...  28 शहीदों के शव लखनऊ लाए गएदेशबन्धु - 2 घंटे पहले लखनऊ। छत्तीसगढ़ में बस्तर क्षेत्र के दंतेवाड़ा जिले में मंगलवार को हुए अब तक के सबसे बड़े नक्सली हमले में शहीद हुए केंद्रीय रिजर्व पुलिस बल (सीआरपीएफ) के 76 जवानों में से 42 उत्तर प्रदेश के हैं। इन शहीदों के शव बुधवार को लखनऊ लाए जा रहे हैं। उत्तर प्रदेश के रहने वाले जवानों के शवों को वायुसेना के विशेष विमान से लखनऊ लाए जाने का सिलसिला जारी है। अब तक 28 जवानों के पार्थिव शरीर यहां लाए जा चुके हैं। लखनऊ के अमौसी हवाई अड्डे के ... शहीदों के शव पटना लाए गएदेशबन्धु - 3 घंटे पहले पटना। छत्तीसगढ़ के दंतेवाड़ा में नक्सली हमले में शहीद केंद्रीय रिजर्व पुलिस बल (सीआरपीएफ) के 76 जवानों में से छह के शव बुधवार को पटना लाए गए। वायुसेना के विशेष विमान से जब शहीदों के शव पटना हवाई अड्डे पर लाए गए तो पूरा माहौल गमगीन हो उठा। पुलिस के एक अधिकारी के मुताबिक इनमें दो निरीक्षक, एक सहायक निरीक्षक, एक हेड कंस्टेबल तथा दो पुलिस के जवान थे। इस मौके पर हवाई अड्डे पर राज्य के पुलिस महानिदेशक नीलमणि सहित लगभग सभी वरिष्ठ ...  चिदंबरम ने शहीद जवानों को श्रद्धांजलि दीयाहू! भारत - 9 घंटे पहले जगदलपुर। छत्तीसगढ़ के दंतेवाड़ा जिले के घने जंगलों में मंगलवार को नक्सली हमले में शहीद हुए केंद्रीय रिजर्व पुलिस बल के 76 जवानों को बुधवार को सुबह दिल्ली से रायपुर पहुंचने के बाद चिदंबरम, राज्यपाल शेखर दत्त और मुख्यमंत्री रमन सिंह के साथ जगदलपुर पहुंचे और शहीदों को श्रद्धांजलि अर्पित की। उन्होंने जवानों के शवों पर पुष्पांजलि अर्पित की। राज्यपाल, मुख्यमंत्री, राज्य पुलिस और अर्धसैनिक बलों के वरिष्ठ अधिकारियों ने भी ...  मनमोहन ने बुलाई सुरक्षा परिषद की आपात बैठकहिन्दुस्तान दैनिक - ०६-०४-२०१० छत्तीसगढ़ के दंतेवाड़ा में मंगलवार की सुबह केन्द्रीय रिजर्व पुलिस बल (सीआरपीएफ) के शिविर पर घात लगाकर बर्बर नक्सली हमले के मद्देनजर प्रधानमंत्री डा. मनमोहन सिंह ने सुरक्षा स्थिति का जायजा लेने तथा नक्सल हिंसा से निबटने के लिए रणनीति की समीक्षा करने के वास्ते अपने आवास पर राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा परिषद की एक आपात बैठक बुलाई। उच्च पदस्थ सूत्रों के अनुसार बैठक में वित्तमंत्री प्रणव मुखर्जी, गृह मंत्री पी. चिदंबरम, रक्षा मंत्री ... नक्सली हमले में सीआरपीएफ उप-कमांडेंट, सहायक कमांडेंट शहीदहिन्दुस्तान दैनिक - ०६-०४-२०१० छत्तीसगढ़ के दंतेवाड़ा में आपरेशन ग्रीन हंट के दौरान माओवादियों के हमले में शहीद हुए 73 सुरक्षाकर्मियों में सीआरपीएफ के उप कमांडेंट सत्यवान सिंह यादव और सहायक कमांडेंट बी़एल़ मीणा भी शामिल हैं। सीआरपीएफ के प्रवक्ता ने यहां कहा कि नक्सलियों द्वारा घात लगाकर किये गये हमले में सीआरपीएफ के सात जवानों की पहचान हैड कांस्टेबल राज बहादुर, कांस्टेबलों बी़ मालकर, बलजीत, रमेश, आदित्य, प्रमोद और अरविंद के तौर पर की गयी है। ... भाजपा ने शहीद जवानों को दी श्रद्धांजलिदैनिक भास्कर - 19 घंटे पहले जिला भाजपा कार्यालय में शहर भाजपा द्वारा मंगलवार को पार्टी का स्थापना दिवस मनाया गया। इस अवसर पर पार्टी के प्रेरणा स्त्रोत पं. दीनदयाल उपाध्याय और डा. श्यामाप्रसाद मुखर्जी के चित्रों पर माल्यार्पण कर उन्हें याद किया गया। कार्यक्रम में सांसद सरोज पांडेय भी उपस्थित थी। कार्यक्रम के दौरान सीआईएसएफ पर नक्सली हमले की घटना की जानकारी मिलने पर दो मिनट का मौन रखकर शहीद जवानों को श्रद्धांजलि दी गई। नक्सलियों की कायराना हरकत ... नक्सली हमला कायरता की पराकाष्ठा : रमन सिंहहिन्दुस्तान दैनिक - ०६-०४-२०१० छत्तीसगढ़ के बस्तर क्षेत्र में मंगलवार को हुए नक्सली हमले को राज्य के मुख्यमंत्री रमन सिंह ने कायरता की पराकाष्ठा करार देते हुए कहा कि इस घटना से भारतीय कम्युनिस्ट पार्टी (माओवादी) का चेहरा बेनकाब हो गया है। उन्होंने कहा, ''हम नक्सल विरोधी अभियान जारी रखेंगे। हम हेलीकॉप्टर की मदद से घटना स्थल पर घिरे जवानों को राहत पहुंचाने का काम कर रहे हैं।'' उन्होंने कहा कि इस हमले में 40 से 50 जवानों के मारे जाने की आशंका है। ... नक्सलियों का कहर, 73 जवान शहीदयाहू! जागरण - 17 घंटे पहले रायपुर (छत्तीसगढ़)/कोलकाता। नक्सलियों के खिलाफ केंद्र सरकार के रणनीतिक कौशल पर नक्सली भारी पड़ रहे हैं। इधर, हमारे राजनेता एक-दूसरे को अपनी जिम्मेदारी समझने की नसीहतें दे रहे हैं और उधर, नक्सली हमले पर हमला करते जा रहे हैं। मंगलवार को अब तक का सबसे बड़ा हमला करते हुए सैकड़ों की संख्या में आए नक्सलियों ने सीआरपीएफ के 73 जवानों को मौत के घाट उतार डाला। पिछले चार दिन में हुई तीसरी नक्सली कार्रवाई के बाद गृह मंत्रालय ने कहा है कि ... सुरक्षाबलों पर नक्सली हमले में 75 जवान शहीदBusiness standard Hindi - 22 घंटे पहले सुरक्षाबलों पर अब तक के सबसे घातक हमले में मंगलवार को नक्सलवादियों ने छत्तीसगढ़ के दंतेवाड़ा जिले के घने जंगलों में घात लगाकर 75 जवानों की हत्या कर दी और 8 अन्य को घायल कर दिया। नक्सलियों के गढ़ माने जाने वाले दंतेवाड़ा जिले के मुकराना के घने जंगलों में सुबह 6 से 7 बजे के बीच नक्सलियों के खिलाफ चलाए जा रहे ऑपरेशन ग्रीन हंट के तहत केंद्रीय रिजर्व पुलिस बल (सीआरपीएफ) की 62वीं बटालियन के 80 जवान और राज्य पुलिस का संयुक्त बल जब सेना की ... नक्सलियों के हमले में 73 से ज्यादा जवान शहीदखास खबर - ०६-०४-२०१० रायपुर। छत्तीसगढ़ के दंतेव़ाडा जिले में मुकरना के घने जंगलों में घात लगाकर बैठे नक्सलियों ने अब तक के सबसे ब़डे हमले में केंद्रीय रिजर्व पुलिस बल के 73 जवानों को मार डाला। इसके अलावा 150 जवान लापता बताए जा रहे हैं। हमले में घायल जवानों को लाने के लिए हेलिकॉप्टर भेजे गए हैं। बारूदी सुरंग निरोधक वाहन में सवार सीआरपीएफ के जवानों पर हमला उस समय हुआ जब वे दंतेव़ाडा के सुकमा में देतेमेलता की ओर लौट रहे थे। ...  छत्तीसगढ : नक्सलियों का ब़डा हमला, 70 से ज्यादा जवान शहीदखास खबर - ०६-०४-२०१० रायपुर। छत्तीसगढ़ के दंतेव़ाडा जिले में नक्सलियों के खिलाफ ग्रीनहंट ऑपरेशन चला रहे सुरक्षाबलों के एक गश्तीदल पर एक हजार से ज्यादा नक्सलियों ने एक साथ हमला कर दिया। जिले में छह अलग-अलग स्थानों पर नक्सलियों के साथ हुई सुरक्षाबलों की ब़डी मुठभे़ड में कम से कम 70 जवान शहीद हो गए और कई घायल हुए हैं। सरकार हेलिकॉप्टरों की मदद ले रही है और मुठभे़ड जारी है। नक्सलियों के खिलाफ अभियान शुरू होने के बाद यह सबसे ब़डा हमला बताया जा ... नक्सलियों के खिलाफ सेना का इस्तेमाल नहीं : चिदंबरमनवभारत टाइम्स - 8 घंटे पहले जगदलपुर।। केंद्रीय गृह मंत्री पी. चिंदबरम ने कहा है कि छत्तीसगढ़ के दंतेवाड़ा में मंगलवार के नक्सली हमले के बावजूद नक्सलियों के खिलाफ सेना का इस्तेमाल नहीं किया जाएगा। इस हमले में 76 जवान शहीद हो गए थे। शहीद सुरक्षाकर्मियों को श्रद्धांजलि देने जगदलपुर पहुंचे चिदंबरम ने बुधवार को संवादाताओं से कहा, 'ज्यादातर जवानों की मौत आईईडी विस्फोट की वजह से हुई। कुछ जवानों की मौत गोलियां लगने से हुई। इस बर्बर हमले में 76 जवान शहीद ... छत्तीसगढ़ : कांकेर में 11 नक्सली पक़डने का दावाखास खबर - 9 घंटे पहले छत्तीसगढ। छत्तीसगढ़ पुलिस ने बुधवार को कांकेर के जंगलों से 11 नक्सलियों को पक़डने का दावा किया है। छत्तीसगढ़ के दंतेव़ाडा जिले में मंगलवार को घात लगाकर किए गए नक्सलियों के हमले में सुरक्षाबलों के 76 जवान शहीद हो गए थे। इस हमले में शहीद जवानों के शवों को आज दोपहर 12 बजे विमान के जरिए दिल्ली, लखनऊ और पटना भेजा जा रहा है। 29 शव दिल्ली, 28 लखनऊ और 6 शव पटना के लिए रवाना किए जाएंगे। इस बीच आज जगदलपुर में शहीद जवानों के लिए ...  घायल जवानों ने लगाए छत्तीसगढ़ पुलिस पर आरोपआज तक - 8 घंटे पहले छत्तीसगढ़ के दंतेवाड़ा में नक्सली हमले की चपेट में आने के बावजूद ज़िंदा बच गए जवानों ने छत्तीसगढ़ पुलिस पर गंभीर आरोप लगाए हैं. उनका कहना है कि वो 7 घंटे तक नक्सलियो से लड़ते रहे लेकिन मदद के लिए छत्तीसगढ़ पुलिस के जवान नहीं पहुंचे. इतना ही नहीं, गश्त पर जाते वक़्त पुलिस ने इन्हें जंगल के भीतरी रास्तों का नक्शा भी नहीं सौंपा था. लिहाजा जंगल के तमाम रास्ते इन जवानों के लिए भूल-भुलैया साबित हुए और सीआरपीएफ का एक पूरा दस्ता ... आंध्र से आए नक्सलियों ने हमले को अंजाम दियानवभारत टाइम्स - ०६-०४-२०१० नई दिल्ली।। आंध्र प्रदेश से आई नक्सलियों की मिलिट्री कंपनी ने देश में अब तक के सबसे घातक नक्सली हमले को अंजाम दिया। उन्होंने पूरी तरह व्यूह रचना करके सीआरपीएफ के जवानों को उनके कैंप से बाहर निकाला। उन्हें थकाया और फिर घात लगाकर मार डाला। छत्तीसगढ़ से मिली जानकारी के मुताबिक, सीआरपीएफ की कंपनी का कैंप चिंतलनार में था। नक्सली पहले कैंप पर हमला करना चाहते थे, लेकिन सीआरपीएफ की ताकत को देखते हुए उन्होंने ऐसा नहीं किया। ... छत्तीसगढ़ में नक्सली हमला, 75 जवान शहीदनवभारत टाइम्स - ०६-०४-२०१० रायपुर।। नक्सलियों ने सुरक्षा बलों पर अब तक का सबसे बड़ा हमला किया है। छत्तीसगढ़ के दंतेवाड़ा में मुकराना के घने जंगलों में नक्सलियों ने केंद्रीय रिजर्व पुलिस बल (सीआरपीएफ) के गश्ती दल पर हमला करके 75 सुरक्षाकर्मियों को मार दिया। मरने वालों में 74 सीआरपीएफ के थे और एक जिला पुलिस का हेड कॉन्स्टेबल था। कुछ सुरक्षाकर्मियों को बचा लिया गया है। पुलिस के अनुसार, इस घटना के बाद दंतेवाड़ा में जवानों ने व्यापक खोजबीन अभियान शुरू ...  नक्सली हमले में 73 जवान शहीद, 150 लापतादैनिक भास्कर - ०६-०४-२०१० रायपुर. छत्तीसगढ़ के दंतेवाड़ा जिले में नक्सलियों के भीषण हमले में 73 जवानों के मारे जाने की खबर है। जवान सीआरपीएफ कैंपों में राशन पहुंचाने जा रहे थे। नक्सलियों ने छह अलग-अलग जगहों पर घात लगाकर हमला किया। फिलहाल 1000 से भी अधिक नक्सली जवानों को घने जंगल में घेरे हुए हैं। छत्तीसगढ़ में दंतेवाड़ा इलाके की भौगोलिक स्थिति जानने के लिए क्लिक करें... * यहां है दंतेवाड़ा दंतेवाड़ा भास्कर संवाददाता के अनुसार, मुठभेड़ चिंतननार के ... कांकेर से 12 नक्सलियों को गिरफ्तार किया गयाएनडीटीवी खबर - 10 घंटे पहले दंतेवाड़ा हमले के बाद छत्तीसगढ़ के नक्सल प्रभावित इलाकों में नक्सलियों की तलाश तेज़ हो गई है। सुरक्षा बलों ने कांकेर जिले में 12 नक्सलियों को गिरफ्तार किया है। ये बीएसएफ और पुलिस का ज्वाइंट ऑपरेशन था। कांकेर दंतेवाड़ा से थोड़ा दूर है और नक्सल प्रभावित बस्तर जिले से सटा हुआ है। बुधवार के नक्सली हमले के विरोध में दंतेवाड़ा, बस्तर और बीजापुर जिले में स्थानीय लोगों ने बंद का ऐलान किया है। इसे अब तक का सबसे बड़ा नक्सली हमला माना ... जवानों की शहादत व्यर्थ नहीं जाएगी: रमन सिंहखास खबर - ०६-०४-२०१० रायपुर। छत्तीसगढ के मुख्यमंत्री रमन सिंह ने दंतेवाडा जिले में आज हुए नक्सली हमले की निंदा करते हुए कहा कि जवानों की यह शहादत व्यर्थ नहीं जाएगी। अधिकारिक सूत्रों ने बताया कि छत्तीसगढ के मुख्यमंत्री रमन सिंह ने राज्य के दक्षिण बस्तर दंतेवाडा जिले में आज चिन्तलनार और ताडमेटला गांव के करीब सुरक्षा जवानों पर नक्सली हमले की तीव्र निंदा करते हुए कहा कि यह एक दुखद घटना तो है ही साथ ही यह नक्सली हिंसा की पराकाष्ठा भी है। ...  सबसे बड़ा नक्सली हमला, 73 जवान शहीदयाहू! भारत - 22 घंटे पहले रायपुर। छत्तीसगढ़ के दंतेवाड़ा जिले में मंगलवार को नक्सलियों द्वारा घात लगाकर किए गए हमले में सीआरपीएफ के 73 जवान शहीद हो गए, जबकि आठ घायल हैं। शहीद होने वालों में एक उप कमांडर और एक सहायक कमांडर शामिल है। नक्सलियों द्वारा देश में किया गया यह अबतक का सबसे बड़ा हमला है। केंद्रीय गृहमंत्री पी. चिदंबरम ने इस हमले पर दुख प्रकट करते हुए नक्सलियों के कृत्य की कड़ी निंदा की है। पुलिस प्रवक्ता एवं महानिदेशक आर के विज ने बताया कि ... 'जवानों ने युद्ध नियमों को नजरअंदाज किया'एनडीटीवी खबर - 20 घंटे पहले छत्तीसगढ़ के दंतेवाड़ा जिले में मंगलवार को नक्सलियों के हाथों क्रूरता के साथ मारे गए केंद्रीय रिजर्व पुलिस बल (केरिपु) के जवानों के बारे में ऐसा लगता है कि वे स्वेच्छया मौत के मुंह में जाने के लिए ही उस इलाके में कदम रखे थे क्योंकि नक्सलियों के इस गढ़ में अभियान पर निकले इन जवानों ने युद्ध के सभी कानून-कायदों को ताक पर रख दिया था। आतंक निरोधी एक अधिकारी ने मंगलवार को कहा कि बस्तर क्षेत्र के दंतेवाड़ा जिले में घटी इस ...  छत्तीसगढ़ नक्सली नरसंहार , केंद्र सरकार को करारा झटकाखास खबर - 12 घंटे पहले रायपुर/नई दिल्ली। देश में नक्सलवाद के खिलाफ शुरू केंद्र सरकार के अभियान को मंगलवार को उस समय करारा झटका लगा, जब नक्सलियों ने छत्तीसगढ़ के बस्तर क्षेत्र में एक खौफनाक नरसंहार को अंजाम दिया जिसमें केंद्रीय रिजर्व पुलिस बल (केरिपु) के कम से कम 76 जवान शहीद हो गए। नक्सलियों ने यह खूनी खेल ऎसे समय में खेला है, जब दो दिनों पहले ही केंद्रीय गृह मंत्री पी.चिदंबरम ने नक्सलियों को "कायर" करार दिया था। इस हमले के बाद प्रधानमंत्री ... |
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Military Option Would Invoke INSURRECTION Ultimate, Mr. Cidmabaram! AS The government came under heavy pressure to mobilise more police and devise a better plan to fight rebel Maoists by involving the military on Wednesday, a day after the insurgents killed 76 police in a deadly attack.
The ambush by 1,000 Maoist fighters in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday exposed intelligence failure and lack of planning by the police who were trapped by the rebels in the forests of Bastar, officials and experts said.
Those Killed in the Corporate war are Just Helpless Scapegoats in the US Periphery of the World on Fire! What if Central and state government leaders on Wednesday paid their last respects to the 76 CRPF personnel killed in the deadliest Naxal attack on security forces on Tuesday in jungles of Dantewada district! This is a Global Phenomenon to fed the killer Money machine with our Flesh, Blood and bones to defend the market dominating communities!
I was amazed to see the FRENZY created by Electronic as well as Print media followed by the Ambush. Panels Mushroomed immediately on national TV network to plead for Military Option with Zero Intolerance and so called Maoist sympathisers like Sujat Bhadra and Govindan Kutti respectively as well as ironically from Marxist Bengal and kerala ended up just pleading thus far as the Maoists are REVOLUTIONARIES which Provided RSS Think tanks to pit India against Aboriginal Bharat in the worst Civil War in the best interest of MNCs and India Incs. Any Civil Mass Causality provided air Force and army pressed in service, would further worsen the already devastated situation in absence of India republican democracy in the Excluded Landscape as well as Humanscape. It would simply make the task a Cake walk for the Maoists to mobilise aboriginal Bharat against Indian state Power captured by Zionist Brahaminical Hegemony!
Obama to meet Manmohan, Gilani on N-summit US President Barack Obama will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani Premier Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit here, the White House said on Tuesday.This would be the first meeting between Obama and Dr Singh after the November 24 White House State Dinner in Washington.However, diplomatic sources ruled out any bilateral meeting between Singh and Gilani on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington next week, which would be attended by leaders from more than 40 countries.On the other hand,China and India have agreed to set up a top level hotline during a Beijing visit by Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna, who also discussed terrorism and regional security with his Chinese counterpart.
India's home minister said Wednesday he had no intention of deploying the army in the wake of a Maoist massacre of 76 police, but that
"There is no proposal to use the army," P. Chidamabram told reporters in Jagdalpur in the central state of Chhattisgarh where he attended a sombre memorial ceremony for those killed in Tuesday's jungle ambush.
The death toll from the attack was the highest inflicted by the Maoist rebels in their decades-long struggle against India's regional and central governments.
Amid opposition calls for a "fight to the finish," Chidambaram cautioned against any "knee-jerk reaction" and said his government still believed that state police backed by federal paramilitary forces were sufficient to counter the Maoist threat.
"This will be a long, drawn-out struggle. It will take two to three years but we must hold our nerve and remain on course," he said.
"At present there is no mandate to use the air force or any aircraft, but if necessary we will have to revisit the mandate and make some changes," he added.
The government has repeatedly rejected suggestions that the Maoists can only be defeated militarily.
"If this is war, and I wish to say that we have never used that word, it is a war that has been thrust upon the state," Chidambaram said.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram reached this Chhattisgarh town Wednesday to attend a 'martyrs' ceremony' for the 76 security personnel massacred by guerrillas in the worst attack since the Maoist rebellion began 43 years ago.
State Governor Shekhar Dutta and Chief Minister Raman Singh were also at Jagdalpur, the district headquarters of Bastar district, for the grim function to remember the dead troopers.
Hundreds of Maoists trapped over 80 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel on a hilly stretch in Dantewada district Tuesday afternoon and went on a killing spree using pressure bombs and automatic weapons. In no time, at least 74 CRPF men and a Chhattisgarh police officer lay dead in the inhospitable area in the heart of the country where the rebels have run a de facto state for decades, enlisting the support of a large number of impoverished tribals.
According to a home ministry spokesperson in New Delhi, Chidambaram will also review the security situation in the state before returning to the national capital in the evening.
'Something has gone very wrong...They seem to have walked into a trap set by the Naxalites. This shows the savage nature of the CPI-Maoist, the brutality and savagery they are capable of,' he had said Tuesday.
The Maoists triggered blasts and fired from all directions.
A few survivors said they played dead to escape being shot as the rebels kicked wounded policemen and seized their weapons.
The attack in remote central India coincided with a visit to India by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, underscoring that while India plays a growing role on the global economic stage, much of the country is immersed in poverty and insurgency.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said on Wednesday that the Congress party-led government must involve the military in the offensive against the rebels.
The main BJP spokesman, Prakash Javdekar, said "the government must now go to war against the rebels by involving the military."
"There is urgent need for more coordination between the military, security forces and other state agencies, which is missing now," he added.
Failure to tackle the Maoist insurgency quickly could hurt the Congress party's prospects in eight state elections -- including polls in Maoist-hit West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand -- lined up over the next two years, some experts said.
"Security and Maoists will be major issues during elections and it could get worse if they continue to target central forces," said Pratap Bhanu Mehta, head of the Centre for Policy Research.
Communities in accordance with Rothschild`s plan with surgical Precision!
The CPI(M) on Wednesday said the brutal Maoist attack in Dantewada, in which 76 security personnel were killed, is a reminder that no state government can single-handedly tackle Naxal violence and called for a coordinated action by the Centre and the States.
"Given the fact that the Maoists are conducting their major armed operations in seven states, it becomes the responsibility of the Central government to ensure a coordinated response and for providing adequate assistance through the Central police forces," it said, while condemning yesterday's attack.
"Regrettably, the Union Home Minister has been prone to throw the responsibility on to the State governments and to blame them for the consequences of the Maoist depredations.
Such an approach should be given up and proper coordination between the Centre and the states concerned should be established," the party's Polit Bureau said in a statement.
The party also sought to blame the government on its socio-economic policies which, it claimed, were resulting in the tribals being ousted from their abode due to mining.
It noted that the Maoists were concentrating their activities where the tribal people live in the forest and hilly areas.
"It is in these areas of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh inhabited by the adivasis that large tracts of land are being handed over to foreign and Indian companies for mining operations.
"Instead of adopting measures for the socio-economic development of such regions, the policies of the Central government are harming the interests of the tribal people," it said.
The party said the displacement of tribals and the loss of their livelihood and habitats were a direct result of the policy of the Centre to "indiscriminately throw open all these areas for mining operations, legal and illegal. This must be stopped immediately."
The Left party said it was "equally important" to expose Maoists for their disruptive activities and their methods of terrorising and intimidating the people.
"The tribal people whom they claim to be fighting for are the worst victims of such tactics. The Maoists have to be fought politically by mobilising the people against them," the party said.
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Thousands of policemen on Wednesday combed the hostile jungle terrain in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region to track down Maoists responsible for Tuesday's massacre of 76 security men but failed to make any headway, officials said.
"The forces are doing their best in jungles. Those who orchestrated ambush Tuesday, in which we lost 76 colleagues, are hiding somewhere close to Chhattisgarh-Andhra Pradesh. We are determined to stamp them out," S.R. Kalluri, deputy inspector general (DIG) of police posted in Dantewada, told IANS.
At least 75 Central Reserve Police Force troopers and a Chhattisgarh policeman were massacred by Left-wing rebels in the dense forests of Dantewada Tuesday. The attack is the deadliest by the Maoists in over four-decade-old insurgency.
Kalluri said the police personnel engaged in anti-Maoist operations in Dantewada district are highly upset over the killings and will retaliate in more "aggressive and appropriate manner".
Dantewada Superintendent of Police Amresh Mishra said, "We are not scared of anything, we have capability to hit back any moment. But we don't like to share everything with media on what's going on in jungles now. But it's sure the killers will have to pay a heavy price."
Officials at the state police headquarters here, who were earlier claiming that "Maoists are running for cover from one forest to another", are now tight-lipped.
A police intelligence wing official said, "It's a big jolt to the entire police department. The Tuesday attack has pushed us on backfoot. But it's a temporary situation, we will overcome them and come harder on their (Maoists) bases."
The incident has also shocked the state's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party which was claiming that Chhattisgarh is the lone state that has begun effectively countering Maoists challenges.
"The state has lost total control in Bastar. Chhattisgarh is the fit case now for president's rule, otherwise situation will further deteriorate," Chhattisgarh state Congress general secretary Ramesh Varlyani told IANS.
There is no 'Operation Green Hunt': Chidambaram
RAIPUR: Home Minister P. Chidambaram Wednesday insisted that there was no "Operation Green Hunt" against Maoists -- as has been widely
"There is no Operation Green Hunt," Chidambaram told reporters here.
Chhattisgarh police officials say they had coined the term for one successful drive against the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) in the state.
But former Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) director general A.S. Gill told IANS it was wrong to call the current campaign against the Maoists by the same name.
"It is a media creation and continues till date," Gill said.
Chidambaram's clarification came a day after Maoist guerrillas massacred 76 security personnel in Chhattisgarh Tuesday in the worst attack since the Maoist movement erupted over four decades ago.
Armed forces not trained to combat Maoists: Air chief
GANDHINAGAR: Indian Air Force chief Air Marshal P V Naik Wednesday said he did not favour using armed forces in operations against
"All the armed forces - air force, army and the navy - are trained for lethal operations. We are not trained for limited lethality. Use of the air force in such situations like Naxals... I am not in favour. But it is a state prerogative," Naik said during the inauguration of Commenders Conference here.
"At present we must leave it to paramilitary forces as they have trained manpower and intelligence," he added, a day after the massacre of 76 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Chhattisgarh Tuesday.
Nitish Kumar condemns Dantewada attack
Daily News & Analysis - 7 hours ago... Kumar today expressed sorrow over the killing of 76 CRPF and Chhatisgarh Police personnel in the deadliest Naxal attack in Dantewada district yesterday. ...'I saw my mates die one after another' - Times of India
all 4 news articles »
Dantewada deaths challenge to Delhi's anti-Maoist surge
The Hindu - Praveen Swami - 23 hours ago
Much of the Battalion's energies were spent on securing the single, ramshackle road that linked their outposts in the southern fringes of Dantewada, ...Dantewada attack: top Maoist leader suspected - India Today
Katakam Sudarshan, Maoists from Andhra, can be the mind behind ... - Daily Latest News (blog)
Portrait of 'mastermind' - Calcutta Telegraph
NDTV.com
all 5 news articles »Dantewada massacre horrific: PM
Times of India - 19 hours agoNEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday termed the Dantewada massacre as `horrific' while expressing his shock and grief over the killing of a ...
High alert along Orissa-Chhattisgarh border
Times of India - 10 hours agoSeventy-six Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers were killed Tuesday when hundreds of Maoists trapped them on a hilly stretch in Dantewada district. ...No medical evacuation plan for paramilitary forces - The Hindu
Maoists using tribal shield - TodayNews.in
all 29 news articles »Congress asks govt to take steps to 'wipe out' Naxal menace
Daily News & Analysis - 2 hours agoIt termed yesterday's Dantewada Naxal attack, in which 76 security ... Pointing out at the Dantewada incident, she said, "At this point of time this ...Alert in states; Bengal top cop sounds warning - NDTV.com
DGP to rattled ranks: Brace for the worst - Times of India
Chhattisgarh Govt may rethink anti-Naxal strategy - Press Trust of India
India Today - Times of India
all 9 news articles »
Bodies of 24 CRPF troopers brought to Delhi
Hindustan Times - 2 hours agoAt least 75 CRPF soldiers and a Chhattisgarh policeman were massacred by left wing rebels in the dense forests of Dantewada Tuesday. ...Bodies of slain CRPF jawans flown into the national capital - Daily News & Analysis
Bodies of six CRPF personnel to be brought to Patna - Press Trust of India
Coffins of 24 CRPF personnel land in Delhi, senior officials pay ... - Little About (blog)
Thaindian.com
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France condemns Dantewada attack
Press Trust of India - 46 minutes agoNaxals struck in a big way in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh yesterday, killing 75 CRPF personnel and one head constable of the state police deputed ...Police atrocities stoking Maoist ire? - Mid-Day
Violence in the name of rights is wrong: NHRC - Thaindian.com
all 14 news articles »SPs for own intelligence network than IB or SB
Times of India - 43 minutes agoRANCHI: Post Dantewada and Silda massacres, superintendents of police of ... The officers said if one has to avoid a repeat of Dantewada or Silda in ...
Home ministry slept for four years on Naxal menace: Jaitley
Daily News & Analysis - 1 hour agoPTI New Delhi: Following the Naxalite attack in Dantewada which claimed the lives of 76 police and paramilitary personnel, Arun Jaitley, leader of the ...The buck stops with Chidambaram, says Jaitley - Express Buzz
In anti-Maoism fight, buck stops with Chidambaram: Jaitley - Sify
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Govt likely to consider SAIL share sale tomorrow
The government is likely to take a decision tomorrow on taking forward the share sale proposal of state-run steel maker SAIL which may
"The follow-on public offer (FPO) proposal of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is on the Cabinet agenda for the tomorrow's meet," a source in the know of the development said.
SAIL's share sale is proposed to take place through a two-phased follow-on-public offer (FPO), which will see the government selling 10 per cent of its equity in the firm and the company raising fresh equity in the same proportion.
The source, however, said the government can also sell its 10 per cent stake in the firm in one-tranche. The government holds a little over 85 per cent equity in SAIL.
Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh, last week, had said that the proposal was to be discussed last Thursday in the Cabinet but could not be taken up due to his absence.
"The FPO proposal could be taken up on April 8," Singh had said.
The government expects to launch the first phase of FPO in 2010-11 and the next in 2011-12, depending on market conditions. The proposed share sale could be part of the Centre's efforts to raise Rs 40,000 crore through disinvestment in 2010-11.
Steel Secretary Atul Chaturvedi had earlier said that the FPO could mop up a total of Rs 16,000 crore -- the government getting Rs 8,000 crore and the company raising the same amount.
However, the final amount would depend on the issue price of the FPO.
Dantewada massacre: The post-mortem
| NDTV Correspondent, Wednesday April 7, 2010, Jagdalpur, Chhatisgarh |
 |
"We deeply mourn the loss of 76 lives, and we salute the brave jawans who laid down their lives in the defense of freedom, liberty and democracy. It's the Naxalites who have described the state as their enemy and the conflict as the war. It is a war that has been thrust upon the state by those who do not have legitimate right to carry weapons or to kill," he said in Jagdalpur on Wednesday after paying tribute to the brave jawans killed in the massacre.
His day began with explanations - why did trained and armed jawans die so helplessly?
"Five platoons of the 62nd Battalion of the CRPF had established a base camp at Chintalnag, in Dantewada district. A decision was taken that the security forces will undertake an area domination and operations exercise, including night halts, in the area. It's a joint decision taken by IG Bastar, DIG Dantewada, and DIG CRPF. It was an 81-strong party, accompanied by one Head Constable of the civil police. They had two night halts. On the 6th morning about 5:50 am, they came under heavy firing," the Home Minister said.
But was it an intelligence and strategy failure, or did they walk into an improvised trap?
"This was a familiarisation exercise to understand the terrain. It wasn't an intelligence-based operation. Something has gone wrong," he added.
Sources tell NDTV that many things went wrong:
Local police know the terrain better, but the CRPF took just one policeman along.
On Tuesday, the government said it was a Chhattisgarh Police-CRPF joint operation. Today, Chidambaram clarified it was a joint decision. The local police were informed about the operation on March 29, but were certainly not a part of it.
The CRPF men were on an area domination operation to assert their presence in the terrain and here they made a vital mistake: Instead of taking different routes to go in and return, the jawans came back the same way and got hit.
Sources also sources say the jawans appear to have bunched up in one area against standard operating procedures, which made them an easy target for Naxals who anyway had vantage point on a hillock.
Meanwhile, the Opposition is slamming the government.
"There should be coordination at all levels, between the state and the Centre. There was a lack of that. Intelligence was also poor. The Home Minister slept for four years, thinking it was some socio-economic problem. Only now the Home Ministry is feeling the crisis," Arun Jaitley, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said.
The government insists there is no change in their stand.
"I don't think there should be a knee-jerk reaction. It's long-drawn struggle. It will take two-three years, perhaps more. We must remain calm," Home Minister P Chidambaram said.
Chintalnag has become a low point for the Indian government and it is facing political humiliation over the unprecedented manpower loss at the battlefront. But while battling the Maoists, experts say, one must understand that there would be casualties on both sides, and India will have to come to terms with it.
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PM to discuss steps to tame prices with CMs tomorrow
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet the core group of chief ministers on Wednesday to discuss steps to tame rising prices, amid fears of inflation crossing the double-digit mark.
TRS submits reports to Srikrishna committee
'84 riots: Court reserves order against Tytler
"NATION UNDER SIEGE"
India's newspapers carried big front page stories on the massacre in Bastar, with headlines saying the "Nation under siege" and "It's war".
"As the one-sided battle in Chhattisgarh has shown all too glaringly, a military solution in tandem with state forces cannot be shelved," the Hindustan Times newspaper said in an editorial.
Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said the government might consider using the air force for some operations but the police will continue to fight the insurgency.
"If this is a war, the state will fight back," he said, during a trip to Chhattisgarh on Wednesday.
Officials said they were redrawing their strategy and mobilising more troops against the rebels.
"More troops will go and troops will be reinforced and we will take the battle to the Maoist camps," U.K. Bansal, India's Internal Security chief, told Reuters.
Tuesday's attack has not affected mining operations in several of the mineral-rich states in central and east India, but mining officials said they were rattled by the killings.
The government has struggled to transport coal to power and steel companies due to regular attacks on railway lines by the Maoists, who started their insurgency in 1967.
Frequent strikes have hit production and shipment at firms such as India's largest miner of iron ore, NMDC Ltd and state-run National Aluminium Co Ltd.
The estimated 20,000 Maoist combatants operate across a "red corridor" stretching from the Nepal border to West Bengal and through central India into Andhra Pradesh.
With the massacre of 75 policemen in a jungle ambush, India's Maoists have shown they remain a potent national security threat despite a major four-month offensive to curb their operations.
Tuesday's attack in a densely forested area of Chhattisgarh state was the deadliest to date and is likely to embarrass the government, which since late last year has been pursuing a concerted effort to flush the rebels out.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram said he was shocked by the high casualty toll.
 |
The ambush again showcased the Maoists' ability to strike in strength and then melt back into their jungle hideouts before security reinforcements arrive.
The insurgency, which started as a peasant uprising in 1967, has spread to 20 of India's 29 states and has been identified by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the number one threat to domestic security.
Little is known about the movement's shadowy leadership based in the central state of Chhattisgarh, or its cadre strength, which is variously estimated at between 10,000 and 20,000.
Since 2007, they have assassinated a federal MP, engineered a mass prison break for 300 of their jailed fighters, sunk a boat carrying elite commandos and held entire trains hostage.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said Tuesday's attack was an assault on India's democracy and urged the government to launch an "all-out offensive" against the leftist rebels.
"There is no scope for discussion or debate any more. First we have to hit them hard. This must be a fight to the finish," said BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
The Maoist influence is greatest in impoverished, remote areas, fuelling the argument that growing social disparities thrown up by India's economic growth have been a major factor behind the rebels' expansion.
"These are areas inhabited by tribals and the poorest of the poor, who have been bypassed by the economic boom," said author and economist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta.
"It's a perfect breeding ground for left-wing extremism."
Ajai Sahani, executive director of the New Delhi-based Institute of Conflict Management, agreed that the failure to deliver good governance, security and basic services had played into the rebels' hands.
"The Maoists are not really strong. It is the state which is weak and has failed to deliver," he told AFP.
The rebels insist they are fighting for the rights of the poor in India's hinterland.
The most common work in the forests of Chhattisgarh is subsistence farming and the gathering and selling of leaves for Indian "beedi" cigarettes - a job that brings in a meagre 35 cents a day.
Until now, the government has resisted enlisting the military's help in fighting the Maoists, relying instead on paramilitary forces.
At the end of last year, the government launched Operation Green Hunt - a large-scale, coordinated offensive involving six states worst affected by Maoist violence.
But the rebels' superior knowledge of local conditions and topography has thwarted efforts to take them on in large numbers.
"The Maoists are like water. The minute you try to pressurise them, they spread all over," said Longe Kume, a senior police officer in Jagdalpur, a region of Chhattisgarh dotted with rebel training camps.
Rahul Bedi, a defence analyst with Jane's Information Group, said the paramilitary forces were "under-equipped and under-trained" and argued that the government needed to re-think its strategy.
"It is a man-intensive war. India needs more people and sophisticated weapons to fight it," Bedi said.
K.P.S. Gill, the former police chief of Punjab state credited with stamping out a Sikh nationalist insurgency in the 1990s, said Operation Green Hunt had been flawed from its inception.
"Somebody has picked up the strategy from some book and forced it on the paramilitary forces," Gill said.
"They are violating the basic principles of anti-insurgency operations by travelling in large numbers and in vehicles," said Gill, who noted that victims of Tuesday's ambush had been sent on a four-day patrol in an area they barely knew.
"They were sitting ducks," he said.
Indo US Nuclear Cooperation
Besides a host of bilateral and regional issues, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that the civil nuclear cooperation between the two countries is expected to figure between Obama and Singh when they meet in Washington next week.
"As part of the Nuclear Security Summit, the (US) President is currently planning to host a number of bilateral meetings. Those include President Sargsian of Armenia, President Hu Jintao of China, Chancellor Merkel of Germany, Prime Minister Singh, King Abdullah II of Jordan; Prime Minister Najib of Malaysia, Prime Minister of Pakistan, President Zuma of South Africa and President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan," Gibbs told reporters.
The United Nations, the IAEA, and the European Union will also be represented at the meeting.
People die of acute malnourishment in Allahabad's Ganne village
In what can be referred as a bitter truth, the conditions of the villagers of Ganne village of Allahabad district of Uttar Pradesh have been found to be very poor.The Supreme Court's special team,that recently visited the place,has confirmed the reports of malnourishment in the village,where people have no employment and no source of income.
The committee has,as a result,called for an urgent need of providing means of livelihood to the villagers.
ANI
Shoaib divorces Ayesha
Shoaib Malik signed the divorce papers late last night and admitted he married Ayesha Siddiqui.
Negotiators hammered out an honourable solution which is accepted by both the parites. Imran Qadri community leader addressed the press and cleared the air.
Abid Rasool Khan, general secretary, Andhra Pradesh Congress and important member of the Muslim community said Ayesha will get a maintenance of Rs 5000 for just 3 months. He said many Muslim leaders were involved in working out the compromise.
Ayesha's mother Farisa Siddiqui said, "We are happy and Ayesha is relieved that justice has been done. We wanted a divorce and no compensation which he agreed to."
Asked if the cases against Shoaib, who is slated to marry tennis star Sania Mirza here on April 15, would be withdrawn after the latest development, Shams Babar, a friend of the Siddiqui family, told the media, "Yes, of course."
Violence in India Not to Deter Investors
By PRASENJIT BHATTACHARYA
NEW DELHI -- Investments in steel and mining projects in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh is unlikely to be affected because of Tuesday's massacre of 76 paramilitary troops by ultra-leftist guerillas, a senior government official said Wednesday.
View Full Image
Policemen look at the bodies of their colleagues, who were killed in a Maoist attack, in Sukma forest of Dantewada district in the eastern Indian state of Chhattisgarh April 6, 2010.
"The incident occurred in a remote part of the state, where not much investments are planned," R.S. Vishwakarma, Chhattisgarh's mining secretary, told Dow Jones Newswires over the phone from the state's capital, Raipur. "I don't think this incident will deter investors."
Tuesday's incident, where the Maoist rebels waylaid and shot down the troops in a densely forested area called Dantewada, is the bloodiest so far in the country's decades-old leftist insurgency movement.
Maoist violence has been most severe in three of the country's most mineral-rich states--Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh--where companies including ArcelorMittal and Tata Steel Ltd. are making investments.
The rebels have been able to get support from local tribals, who are agitated about losing their land and livelihood due to industrial projects. ArcelorMittal isn't able to complete land acquisition for a steel plant in Orissa even five years after announcing the project due to protests from locals.
Mr. Vishwakarma said the two major projects in the vicinity of the attack are the Bailadila iron ore mines, operated by state-run NMDC Ltd., and a proposed steel plant by the diversified Essar group.
"The NMDC mines are operating normally, while the Essar project is still in the land-acquisition process," he said.
S. Venkatesan, NMDC's director for production, said Wednesday is the weekly off day at Bailadila. "We expect work to resume normally on Thursday."
Meanwhile, rights activists have alleged that mining and metals projects in the state are resulting in the displacement of locals, fueling public anger and support for the guerillas.
Mr. Vishwakarma denied the allegations. "The Maoists are suddenly active since the police and the administration are now enforcing the rule of law in these areas, where the (insurgents) earlier had complete freedom to extort money from the locals. Investments have nothing to do with this."
"These regions are so poor. If there's no economic activity, how will development take place," he added.
Mr. Vishwakarma said acquisition of land for factories and mining in the state is mostly taking place in forested areas, which aren't inhabited by humans.
"Anyway the acquisition process is progressing slowly for most projects as clearances from several (state and federal) authorities are needed," he said. "So, no one has been displaced due to a new project in recent months."
Write to Prasenjit Bhattacharya at prasenjit.bhattacharya@dowjones.com
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Chinese hackers hit vital institutions, Indian embassies
NEW DELHI: On a day when external affairs minister SM Krishna exhorted a packed audience at the China Institute of International Studies in The hackers managed to exfiltrate sensitive information regarding Indian missile programs, diplomatic communiqués and the country's internal assessment on the Maoist threat in its eastern states, says the report by the Information Warfare Monitor and Shadowserver Foundation. Prominent companies like Tata, DLF, industry body FICCI, and even The Times of India — ET's sister publication — were targeted. "The government is sleeping, it doesn't realise that it is being repeatedly slapped around by the Chinese," said Brahma Chellaney, a professor of strategic studies at the Centre for Policy Research. Most of these breaches occurred during the eight-month period of the investigation dubbed Shadows in the Cloud. This was revealed by the Canadian group that first uncovered the existence of a global espionage network GhostNet in 2009. Breaches and exfiltration of documents and even constant snooping through cyber networks that happened in the past could potentially be more damaging.
Sitanshu Kar, a spokesperson for the defence ministry, refused to comment on the report saying various government agencies were studying it. Information Warfare Monitor is a joint activity of the Munk School of Global Affairs at The University of Toronto and the SecDev group, a consultancy. Shadowserver Foundation is a volunteer group of Internet security professionals. A checklist of the entities that have been breached and the documents that have been exfiltrated by the rogue network is alarming. These include India's embassies in the US, Kabul and Moscow, its consulate in Dubai, high commission in Nigeria and the National Security Council Secretariat. Hackers managed to crack computers of several offices of the Military Engineering Services and military educational institutions plus defence think-tanks and publications. The report said Chinese hackers looked through computers at the Air Force Station at New Delhi's Race Course Road, just a few metres from the official residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. They accessed encrypted diplomatic communication  Detailed personal information regarding a member of the Directorate General of Military Intelligence was accessed. Computers of journalists and academics working on Jammu and Kashmir were compromised, the report said, without giving further details. Also found in the possession of the rogue network were details of Project Shakti, a command and control system for artillery of the Indian Army. |
Technology
Duration: 04:56
Posted: 31 Mar, 2010, 2153 hrs IST
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Chinese-hackers-hit-vital-institutions-Indian-embassies/articleshow/5768622.cms
| | "I think, the policy has to be reviewed from time to time in the light of experience. But we are too close to the event to take a view that the existing policy needs to be modified," he told reporters in New Delhi. more by Manmohan Singh - 1 hour ago - Hindustan Times (27 occurrences) |
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Timeline of articles
Yet to decide on using air power against Maoists: PM 1 hour ago - Hindustan Times | |
Naxal attack a challenge to democratic system: Congress 20 hours ago - The Hindu | |
Major Maoists\' attack trail in the past year Apr 6, 2010 - IBNLive.com | |
Where will the buck stop now, Mr Chidambaram? Apr 6, 2010 - MSN India | |
Maoist attack moves BJP to stand by & support govt Apr 6, 2010 - Oneindia | |
Three killed as Maoists ambush CRPF team Apr 5, 2010 - Economic Times |
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Where will the buck stop now, Mr Chidambaram?
After more than 70 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers were killed in one of the most deadly attacks by Maoists in the thickly forested area of Chhattisgarh's violence-hit Bastar region on Tuesday, Home Minister P Chidambaram is understandably ` deeply shocked'. "Something has gone very wrong," he told reporters soon after the attack.
After more than 75 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers were killed in one of the most deadly attacks by Maoists in the thickly forested area of Chhattisgarh's violence-hit Bastar region on Tuesday, Home Minister P Chidambaram is understandably ` deeply shocked'. "Something has gone very wrong," he told reporters soon after the attack.
Yes, something has gone awfully gone wrong. Here is a list, Mr Home Minister:
For an attack of such a large scale, the Maoists must have planned for days, if not weeks. What was the intelligence wing of internal security doing in Delhi? Why were the signals not picked up? It is not as if the Maoists had laid the mines overnight.
Reports indicate that the CRPF convoy walked into a trap. Now, this is an old trick of the Maoists. The Naxalites usually send out tip-offs backed by proof of their camps, enticing the security personnel to take a particular route. This was commonly done by the Naxalites in Andhra Pradesh till the Grey Hounds set up to tackle the Naxalite menace found a way out. The Grey Hounds either delayed their trip or invariably took another route. Why was this not done here?
Why did the convoy not have a mine sweeper especially when the Maoists had launched deadly attacks barely 24 hours before?
There were reports that India has highly sensitive `eyes' in the skies that could pick up signatures of unusual moments of people in sensitive areas both in daytime and at night. Were these signals not picked up?
There were reports of India acquiring UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) from Israel to conduct air surveys in sensitive areas. What has happened to this move?
Feeling sated?
A flourishing intellectual cottage industry has grown in India — and across the planet — around the worthy enterprise of measuring and estimating poverty and hunger. Much of the published reams of this debate, to which economists, nutritionists and public planners tirelessly contribute, would appear strangely remote to a person who lives with and battles hunger. She would recognise little in their involved, sophisticated, bitterly contested and often opaque calculus, assumptions, arguments and conclusions. She would not find adequate acknowledgement of the struggles that dispossessed people the world over wage every single day against want and injustice, to feed, clothe and house themselves and the people they love.
The debates would probably seem strangely detached to her from their daily triumphs and defeats, from the profound suffering and powerlessness of watching one's children cry themselves to sleep on a hungry stomach, from the shame of depending on charity, from moral victories and collapse, from the loneliness of migration, from the helplessness of debt bondage, and from love and longing which is so terrible because it is so hopeless.
There are periodic reports of starvation deaths that briefly divert the media from more pressing news such as of the contests of electoral politics that seem unencumbered by concerns for the poor, fashion contests and beauty pageants, cricket, and sensational crimes. The occasional stories of how the other half starves impel a brief flurry of dusty jeep rides for hasty media penetration into the sleepy countryside with intrusive cameras and accusative interrogation.
What typically follows are bitter and angry denials of starvation by the administration; triumphant condemnation by the political opposition; sensational reports of the sale of a child allegedly for a price less than a bottle of packaged mineral water; and fleeting TV images of gaunt and bewildered adult 'victims' cradling skeletal forms of starving babies. And before long the matter is forgotten by all except those who have no option but to continue to live with hunger.
At senior levels of government planning, goal posts are surreptitiously changed to convince the world that India is rapidly vanquishing poverty, justifying even further reduction of the already unconscionably low levels of public investments in food, social security, health care, education, agriculture and housing. Official committees themselves cannot agree on estimates of poverty, which swing wildly from 23 per cent to 40, to 50 to 77 per cent. Economists, nutritionists and planners hotly quarrel about modes of estimating the numbers and levels of hunger and poverty.
Many believe that free markets will ultimately eliminate hunger and want. Solutions that are pressed in governments worldwide to end persisting hunger, usually range from expanding further the reach of international markets and trade, deflationary economic policies cutting back further on public investment for the needs and rights of disadvantaged citizens, and competitive provisioning of public goods like healthcare and education by the private sector. Others promote technical solutions like micro-nutrient fortification, genetic engineering in agriculture or control of populations. But a depleting band of economists and public planners persist in arguing that there is no substitute for large public action, massive State investments in food, agriculture and work, health and education, as well as democratic civic mobilisation for recognition and enforcement of the social and economic rights of disadvantaged people who live with hunger and malnutrition.
Many of these debates are important, but are in constant peril of reducing people living with hunger themselves to statistical ammunition, subjecting both their intense suffering and valiant resistance to the cold economics of costs and benefits. Discussions around poverty and under-nourishment by economists, professionals and planners often portray people living with hunger as helpless, mostly inert, pitiable and passive receptacles of charity and State largesse, and not as active agents with often sturdy spirit and humanity who endure in the most inconceivably difficult circumstances of want and oppression.
It is these debates that lie behind the vastly divergent positions of government and the Congress, and of economists and activists, about what the proposed Food Rights Bill should guarantee to the people of this land. The initial government draft law sought to restrict state responsibility to a truncated Public Distribution System (PDS) for people whom the government estimates to be poor. But others are convinced that the law must create a wide range of obligations for the state to provide food to every child, woman and man who lives with hunger and malnourishment. It is time we asked the opinion of those millions of men, women and children who are forced to sleep hungry every night.
India surges ahead to impatiently claim its long-denied status of a giant economic superpower, with the world's largest vibrant, talented acquisitive consuming middle class, and confident and predatory Indian business leaders stalking the world for new corporate acquisitions and trophies. We are embarrassed by reminders of a much larger population of people with stagnant or falling living standards, millions of whom struggle daily to strive to feed their families and only sometimes fill their bellies. Inequality without outrage and resistance has always scarred and shamed our country. But until recently at least the poor were around us, in our films, in poetry and literature, in the promises of budget speeches and election slogans, in newspaper reports and television screens. Today they have become invisible. They do not matter anymore. I hope that the proposed food security law can begin to change this.
Harsh Mander is Director, Centre for Equity Studies
The views expressed by the author are personal
http://www.hindustantimes.com/special-news-report/editorial-views-on/Feeling-sated/Article1-527480.aspxCode Red in Jharkhand, border sealed
Jharkhand's security machinery was mobilized within minutes of the attack as police headquarters put authorities of all vulnerable districts on heightened vigil, especially the quartet of Gumla, Simdega, Palamu and Garhwa that shares borders with Chhattisgarh — Operation Green Hunt is yet to take off here.
DGP Neyaz Ahmad said, '' The entire machinery is on alert and all security personnel have been asked to follow standard operating procedure (SOP) to avoid any major mishap.'' Under the SOP, vehicles will not be used to move security personnel from one place to another and forces won't take the same route on the same day during an operation.
Officials in the intelligence department said the Chhattisgarh attack was a gun-militia operation , which means the Maoists procure arms through local networks before an ambush and hand them back to escape detection.
An official explained: '' It has been seen in the past that in such attacks, the core group (of attackers) hands over arms to villagers and gets them through local networks during an operation . After operations are over, villagers are asked to surrender the weapons and return home. The core group of around 50 cadre hides the weapons in their den so that they can move around like ordinary people and elude suspicion.''
Security hotlines have also been opened between Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. '' Constant interaction will help avoid a similar incident here even if some of the rebels successfully cross the border,'' said an officer in intelligence department.
SAVAGED CRPF drawn into mine-laid trap | ||
| SHEENA K. IN RAIPUR AND ARCHIS MOHAN IN NEW DELHI | ||
April 6: Maoists apparently used a red herring to draw a CRPF foot patrol into a booby-trapped Chhattisgarh forest this morning and massacred 76 personnel in the rebels' bloodiest attack ever on security forces. Not one from the team of 81 CRPF personnel and a police constable was left standing after over four hours of carnage that exposed an intelligence disaster in the middle of an undeclared cross-country anti-Maoist offensive, Operation Green Hunt. Seventy-four CRPF jawans and the police guide died and the remaining seven were fighting for life in hospital, hours after being tricked into the ambush with a false lead about a rebel camp being held 25km from their base, Chintalnaar. The toll later rose to 76 when reinforcements approached the ambush site in Maoist stronghold Dantewada district — a mine-preventive vehicle got blown up by a mine, killing its CRPF driver. "Something has gone very wrong. They seem to have walked into a camp or a trap," admitted Union home minister P. Chidambaram, the chief advocate of Green Hunt who had visited Maoist hub Lalgarh in Bengal just two days ago and announced a "significant improvement in the situation in Chhattisgarh". Home secretary G.K. Pillai said the CRPF company — well trained in jungle warfare -— had set out for the "Maoist camp" on Sunday morning, venturing into a part of Dantewada that no personnel had entered in several years.
After two days of futile search, they began the return trek but made a cardinal mistake. They took the same dirt track by which they had come despite alternative routes being available, and reached a spot hemmed in by hills on three sides around 6am. On the hilltops, some 1,000 guerrillas were waiting for them in makeshift bunkers — having already fitted the trees and boulders below with "pressure mines" that explode on contact. As bullets and grenades rained from above, the jawans would have found retaliation almost impossible but officials insisted they did fire back. When the jawans tried to take cover behind the trees and boulders, the mines went off. Pillai said at least 50 of the men died after stepping on the improvised mines, made with readily available chemicals such as urea, diesel, potassium and ammonium nitrate, with a piece of bamboo or even a medical syringe used as "touch trigger". So far, 45 per cent of all security force casualties against Maoists have come in landmine blasts, compared with 63 per cent for the US military in Iraq and 53 per cent in Afghanistan. "The ambush was planned not hours or days but weeks in advance," a home ministry official said. Reinforcements arrived around 10.30am, bringing with them an armoured mine-protection vehicle (MPV), built to withstand blasts from up to 20kg of explosives. "The Maoists must have planted more than 20kg to blow it up — sometime ago we had seized Maoist documents on how to blow up an MPV," a home ministry official said. Among the dead were deputy commandant Saryawan Singh and assistant commandant B.L. Meena, both from Rajasthan. The rebels carried away 75 weapons that included AK-47s and light machine guns. Air force and BSF helicopters evacuated the seven injured, but not before the guerrillas managed to shoot at one of the BSF choppers. The Maoists fired at the reinforcements too but without causing casualties. Sources said the rebels by now probably wanted only to provide covering fire for their leaders to escape. The heavy casualties — exactly double the previous worst — meant that nearly an entire CRPF company had been wiped out. A company has 100 men or a little more, and some would have stayed behind to guard the base and keep it running. So far, the forces' highest toll at Maoist hands was 38, when the rebels fired rockets at a boat of Andhra Pradesh police's anti-Naxalite Greyhound commandos on an Orissa lake last June. "(Today's) casualty is very high and I am deeply shocked," Chidambaram said. "This shows the savage nature of the CPI (Maoist) and their brutality and the savagery they are capable of." Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had described the Maoists as the biggest threat to India's internal security, expressed "shock and grief" and phoned Chidambaram for details. Singh later chaired a National Security Council meeting, attended by the three service chiefs, that discussed the attack. Pillai denied the possibility of the army being deployed or the air force being asked to provide air cover. The attack has triggered "absolute panic" among mining officials in Dantewada, home to India's largest iron-ore miner NMDC, said the state-owned company's deputy general manager, S.P. Himanshu Kumar. |
South Asia
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - In the deadliest leftist attack in India, Maoist rebels on Tuesday killed 75 police personnel in the central state of Chhattisgarh, in the process making a mockery of New Delhi's recent claims that its strong-arm tactics against Maoist strongholds across north and eastern India were paying dividends.
A government paramilitary force - mostly from the Central Reserve Protection Force - was involved in flushing-out operations when it was attacked in the thick forests of Dantewada district by about 500 armed rebels.
Interior Minister P Chidambaram, who is spearheading "Operation Green Hunt" against the rebels, said, "Something has gone drastically wrong. They seemed to have walked into a trap set by
the Naxalites [Maoists]. Every soldier on the patrol was either killed or wounded."
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the incident "horrific" while Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai said on Wednesday the rebels "will pay a high price" and be hunted down.
Given this massive reversal, there is little chance now that New Delhi will be able to negotiate any kind of truce with the emboldened Maoists. The Maoists believe in armed struggle to overthrow the state and bring about socio-economic change, especially in the northeastern and central eastern states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.
The stated goal of the Maoists is to overthrow the state by 2050, an ideal that is widely dismissed as rhetoric.
The massive military offensive to eliminate Maoists was launched a few months ago in the forests of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Orissa. About 100,000 troops have been deployed, with another 20,000 more to be sent in the coming weeks.
Orissa has rich mineral deposits, including 70% of all of India's bauxite reserves (the sixth-largest deposit in the world), 90% of India's chrome ore and nickel and 24% of its coal. But tribals and Maoists inhabit much of this mineral-rich land. Mining companies - Indian and multinational - have been lining up to extract this wealth. But tribal agitations and Maoist violence have been blocking their ambitions.
Today, 40% of the top 50 mineral-rich districts in India are affected by Naxalite violence, with repeated attacks on any symbol of authority, both private and public, including mining sites. Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh are the worst-affected states.
About 10,000 people, including police, rebels and civilians, have been killed over the past two decades in Maoist-related unrest. In February, at least 25 policemen were killed in West Bengal when Maoists attacked a camp. In March 2007, the Maoists were blamed for an attack that killed 55 policemen, also in Chhattisgarh.
Home Secretary Pillai said New Delhi's resolve had now been further strengthened and that "retreating is not an option", although he ruled out using air power (armored helicopters) against the Maoists.
The latest attack will, however, call into question New Delhi's approach of using sheer force against the Maoists, whom New Delhi calls "the biggest threat to India's internal security" - even more so than disputed Kashmir, where for decades India and Pakistan have squared off, at times even briefly going to war.
The latest security action against the Maoists followed an official assessment last year that the Naxalites were "bent on violence and mayhem against the state and the people" and called for the government to "squarely meet" the threat.
New Delhi argues that the Maoists are not ideologically inspired to fight for the poor and kill foes in cold blood.
India has sought advice from United States counter-insurgency personnel who have been involved in fighting the Taliban and jihadis in Afghanistan and Pakistan's tribal areas.
The regular defense forces have been used only for logistical support as the government has ruled out their direct involvement in taking on the leftists. This could now change.
Critics of the government's approach say that a more political and humane policy is needed in handling the rebels and that there should be more focus on economic and social development of the deprived population. Chidambaram has been castigated for his inflexible and hardline views.
The government has also been criticized for equating Maoists with terrorists. It is pointed out that the rebels attack mostly symbols of state power (property and personnel) and not soft targets or civilians, as is the case with jihadis in Indian-administered Kashmir.
In June last year, New Delhi labeled the Naxalite group, the Communist Party of India (Maoist), or CPI (M), a terrorist organization, putting it in the same league as other banned outfits such as Pakistan's Lashkar-e-Toiba - accused of carrying out the massive Mumbai attack in November 2008 - and the now-decimated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka.
The spread of the Maoist insurgency is so vast across swathes of India's mineral-rich states that it is most improbable that it could be defeated by force alone. The might of the US military and its allies have not been able to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan after nine years. As in that country, the Maoists have strong grassroots support.
The Naxalites are also known to be seeking alliances with secessionists groups, especially northeast insurgents in Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram, in a bid to expand their influence and gain a pan-Indian presence.
They have already established links with leftists in Nepal and LTTE fighters - now that their battle is over - are involved in training the Maoists. Maoist rebels in Nepal overthrew the world's last Hindu monarchy and negotiated their way into government within a decade.
India's stellar economic growth over the past decade has given rise to a consumer class of 50-100 million people, but more than 800 million people have been left behind, the majority of whom live on less than US$2 a day. These impoverished people, especially farmers, landless laborers and tribal minorities in remote areas, are the prime recruits of the Maoists.
As the bodies mount, there might be some in the corridors of power who question whether the use of an iron fist addresses these socio-economic problems that fuel the insurgency.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist. He can be reached at sidsri@yahoo.com.
(Copyright 2010 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LD08Df02.html
Offensive still on, says DGP | ||
| SUMAN K. SHRIVASTAVA | ||
Ranchi, April 6: Police top brass in Jharkhand insist that today's blow to the security forces in Dantewada would not effect future plans of launching joint operations against Maoists in Chhattisgarh and Orissa and alerted all SPs to stick to the rule book while on search and raid operations. DGP Neyaz Ahmed said the brutal attack on CRPF men in the neighbouring state would not have any "demotivating impact" on the security forces and that the operations would continue as before. "We will launch joint operations with Chhattisgarh and Orissa. There is no change in our plans," he told The Telegraph, referring to a meeting with his Chhattisgarh counterpart Vishwa Ranjan on March 29 when plans were chalked out for operations in Chhattisgarh's Ambikapur, Sarguja, Jashpur and Balrampur regions bordering Jharkhand. Ahmed has alerted all SPs about adhering to standard operating procedures (SOP) strictly while acting on tip-offs about rebel hideouts. He has also asked SPs not to allow state police as well as central forces to engage Maoists in encounters without adequate reinforcements and proper communication back-up. "Security forces should not take their vehicles on known routes and roads. They should use 'road opening parties (ROPs)' who are meant to sanitise routes," he said. The DGP's statement notwithstanding, senior police officers confided that the killing of such a huge number of CRPF personnel, that too in the midst of Operation Greenhunt, would certainly have a demoralising effect. "Our challenge is not to let them get demotivated," pointed out a senior police officer. A DIG-rank officer predicted that as an immediate measure, the number of security forces now stationed in the state would be increased. "The immediate change in strategy will be that the number of forces deployed in the state to run the operation will be scaled up," he pointed out. In Rani and Saude in the Khunti-West Singhbhum region, security forces ran a flushout operation with around 16 companies for four days. "They also engaged a Maoist squad in an encounter twice. But now we will revise our strategy and launch the operation again," he said. Police officers believed the rebels would not be able to strike in Jharkhand as definitively as they did in Chhattisgarh as the terrain wasn't as difficult as in the Bastar region — except for the Saranda forests in West Singhbhum, where rebels had killed 27 policemen at Baliba village on April 8, 2004, and killed nine security personnel, including CRPF men, in an ambush on June 10 last year. Moreover, the number of Maoists operating in Jharkhand was less than those entrenched in Bastar and other Naxalite-hit districts of Chhattisgarh. "We are still dominating in Jharkhand where the rebels are on the run," a senior police officer said. |
000 rebels & none saw? Blood spills a home truth | |||
| SANKARSHAN THAKUR | |||
New Delhi, April 6: The Sukma slaughter has laid bare the many faultlines that riddle the government's offensive against Maoists in a single stunning rap. The most significant of them, perhaps, is its utter failure to inspire local confidence in territories dominated by Maoists. In the very immediate, the butchery of 76 CRPF jawans was a consequence of zero ground intelligence. The jawans just toddled into a snare and became easy meat for a Maoist platoon nearly 1,000-strong; it couldn't be that nobody in the area knew of the elaborate arrangements for the mass murder. A senior Chhattisgarh police officer admitted as much to The Telegraph today, affirming that the site of the massacre is not remote enough for nearby tribal settlements to have been unaware. "We get very little information from tribals, and that is a fact and a huge disadvantage," the officer said, "and what little we get is often stale or even tainted information, but those are the odds we work against. We have not been able to build networks, we are still deeply mistrusted by people, whereas Maoists have access either because of fear or genuine support." Palpably rattled, he pleaded that today's was an avoidable tragedy, but having said so, he added a chilling note: "Let me tell you it is neither the first nor the last, such disasters are built into the framework of Operation Green Hunt." In the months since the government declared its rock jawed intent to confront the armed Maoist challenge, experts have been flagging a whole range of strategic and tactical pitfalls that could drag the operation aground — lack of numbers required to take on the formidable offensive, lack of training and preparedness, lack of familiarity with the terrain, and, most of all, lack of a rounded approach to neutralising what the government calls the biggest internal security threat. Shortly after Union home minister P. Chidambaram began sabre-rattling the Maoists last year, one of India's topmost anti-Naxalite strategists, retired BSF director-general Mahendra Kumawat, who also headed the anti-Naxalite taskforce in North Block, had told The Telegraph: "The new crackdown-first-development-later credo of the government, especially the possible use of air power against Maoists, could saddle the nation with Afghanistan and Iraq-like security liabilities. "Development must go hand in hand with the fight against the Naxals, deprived people in the heartland cannot be expected to wait on their misery until the government is done with its long-haul campaigns. The government is going to bleed and lose more hearts and minds to the Maoists if it forges ahead with a strike policy that brings nothing but bloodshed and disruption to people in the affected zones. That is going to multiply our problems, not solve them." Another top security analyst, Ajai Sahni, of the Delhi-based Institute of Conflict Management, had sounded the warning harsher. "An anti-Maoist operation with the current levels of boots on ground and of preparation is stupid. We will be feeding our jawans to the wolves. We have very little idea of the ground, very little information, we have just no idea of what it will take." Most of the Dandakaranya forest, the de facto headquarters of the Maoist military operations — nearly 50,000 square kilometres of undulating jungle straddling parts of Bastar (Chhattisgarh), Gadhchiroli (Maharashtra) and Karimnagar (Andhra Pradesh) — has for decades been a forsaken, off-the-map region visited only by profiteers scheming to rip away the wealth of the land and what lies beneath. They knew much about an exploiter state, little about the welfare state. And for close to 10 years now, the area has remained off limits for the government and its agencies, security or others. It would barely be an exaggeration to say the only "government" the tribals of these forests are acquainted with is the so-called parallel government run by the Maoists — "Janatana Sarkar", the people's government. At the very core of Dandakaranya lies the forbidding Abujmadh wilderness, still a great unknown. For reasons that range from logistical handicaps to concerns over tribal habitat protection, Abujmadh is one of the few pockets of India that has never been surveyed. The forces have very little sense of its lay and topography, and even littler of how the Maoists have positioned themselves. Attempts have been made at aerial mapping but most of Abujmadh is under forest cover, a camouflaged temptress that persistently taunts efforts at unmasking. This morning's mayhem is probably proof that many of those alarm bells were well sounded. The plateau jungles of Sukma, close to the Andhra Pradesh border in south Bastar, typify the perils of the government's headlong leap into confrontation. Most of the area is unmapped and inaccessible; the likelihood is it would have been fairly unfamiliar ground to the ill-fated CRPF jawans venturing in. Sukma is a gazetted Maoist hotbed, but for that reason, it is also formidably security-ridden. The trouble is that government forces are better watched by Maoists than the other way round. They are the insiders in more ways than one, the government is the outsider.
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Whiff of Orissa hands |
| SUBRAT DAS |
Bhubaneswar, April 6: Among the 1,000-odd rebels who lay in wait this morning in Dantewada, some of them may have just waded across a river from neighbouring Orissa. Police and intelligence sources in Orissa said Maoist cadres in the state might have played a role in today's attack as the site of the ambush is close to the border between Chhattisgarh and its rebel-hit neighbour. "The possibility of Maoist cadres crossing the border and joining the Dantewada operation cannot be ruled out," said Anadi Sahu, a former inspector-general of Orissa police. Sahu said tribals from Podia and Motu in Malkangiri regularly visit the Kunta weekly market in Chhattisgarh by crossing the Sileru river. Kunta is close to Tarmetla forest in Dantewada, where the Maoists ambushed the CRPF and police personnel today. Illiterate Koya tribals, who live on either side of the Orissa-Chhattisgarh border, are influenced by the Maoists, Sahu added. Intelligence sources said Motu, Kalimela, Podia, Bhejangiwada, Chitrakonda, Malkangiri and Balimela were some of the major Maoist support bases in Malkangiri district that the rebels have declared liberated zones. The sources said there were around 250 to 300 Maoist cadres in the border area under the command of the Orissa Andhra Border Zonal Committee of the banned CPI (Maoist). A senior intelligence officer from the region echoed Sahu, saying Maoist cadres from Malkangiri district might have been used in the Dantewada attack as foot soldiers. "They (the Maoists) have no border. There is every possibility that rebel cadres from border areas of Orissa participated in the Dantewada operation," said T.J. Jacob, deputy inspector-general of the CRPF group centre at Bhubaneswar. However, state director of intelligence Prakash Mishra, who was in Visakhapatnam to meet the police personnel injured in Sunday's landmine blast in Koraput, said he had no such information. "I don't have any intelligence input in this regard," he told The Telegraph. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100407/jsp/nation /story_12311698.jsp |
Won't ask to shed violence: Activist | |||
| ANANYA SENGUPTA | |||
New Delhi, April 6: Rights activists have blamed today's Chhattisgarh massacre on the government's policy of "waging war on its own people" and called for a dialogue with the Maoists. They alleged the security forces were killing Adivasis and meant to eliminate the Maoists, who could not be expected not to fight in self-defence. "The home minister has expressed shock at 75 paramilitary personnel been killed… he didn't express any concern when these forces killed 200 Adivasis in Bastar between September 2009 and January 2010," said G.N. Saibaba, deputy secretary of the Revolutionary Democratic Front. "I will not ask the Maoists to abjure violence — the men who have been killed today were in the forest to kill them. I will appeal to the government to withdraw forces and initiate dialogue." Saibaba was recently named in the chargesheet against arrested Maoist ideologue Khobad Ghandy for allegedly sheltering rebel leaders in Delhi. G. Navlakha, former secretary of the People's Union of Democratic Rights, who has also been named in the Ghandy chargesheet, said: "Why is it that each time security personnel are killed, the media call up civil rights activists and ask for quotes but don't do the same when Adivasis or Maoists get killed?" He added: "Since war remains the preferred option of the Indian government, it has no one else but itself to blame when combatants die. We wish to remind them that the security forces were returning from three-day-long operations when the ambush took place. As a civil rights organisation, we neither condemn the killing of security force combatants nor that of the Maoists combatants." The Centre accuses rights activists in Delhi of being Maoist sympathisers and spokespersons, and has cracked down on them since Ghandy's arrest. The Delhi police has charged several rights bodies with being fronts for the Maoists. "Each time there is an instance of Maoist violence, people like us are asked how we can justify it. This question has no answer," said Rona Wilson, spokesperson for the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners, accused by the police of being the Maoists' PRO in the capital. "The solution lies with the state — being the primary custodian of law and order, it has to take confidence-building measures. The Maoists had said they would stop violence for 72 days, but the home minister didn't respond, saying it was a ploy." The government says the rebels must lay down arms before a dialogue can be held, and that talks offers cannot be made through the media. Home minister Chidambaram had even announced a ministry number to which such offers could be faxed. "A dialogue is welcome, but the government doesn't seem serious about it," civil rights lawyer Prashant Bhushan said. "Basically, they don't want to call off Operation Green Hunt." | |||
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Attack exposes chink in mine vehicle - Rebels thwart machines with big bombs | ||
| SUJAN DUTTA | ||
New Delhi, April 6: Today's attack by the Maoists has thrown up questions yet again on the capability and the equipment of the central paramilitary forces to take on the rebels. Military officers who have been, or are engaged in, counter-insurgency operations are hesitant to draw conclusions without being able to get a battlefield situation report. But they are already questioning the use of mine protected vehicles (MPV) and helicopters in counter-Naxalite operations. In the attack today, the rebels blew up yet another MPV adding to the toll of policemen who were killed by booby traps and improvised explosive devices. Officers such as Brigadier B.K. Ponwar who runs the Counter Terrorism and Jungle Warfare School in Kanker, Chhattisgarh, say there is no alternative to patrolling on foot in the kind of terrain the conflict is now raging. "If an MPV is designed to withstand an explosion of 8-10kg, they (the rebels) will simply stash the device with more explosives to cause damage," one officer said. Apparently, that is what happened today. It is a repeat of several actions in the past. In July 2008, the Maoists blew up an MPV carrying 24 CRPF and Chhattisgarh policemen. The MPV was designed to carry about 12 people. Also, the explosive that blew up the vehicle was more powerful than the state forces had encountered. Not surprisingly, India's armed military and police forces are in the market to buy upto 1,500 MPVs that are armoured more heavily to withstand the blasts. The MPVs that are in use are largely supplied by the Ordnance Factory Board's Medak unit. Originally designed on the South African Cassipir, the MPV called Aditya, is not exactly a write-off. In 2007, there was even a discreet inquiry by the US armed forces to acquire the vehicle for their operations in Iraq where, too, improvised explosive devices used by anti-occupation militants have taken a larger toll than any other weapon. The MPVs have high ground-clearance with V-shaped undercarriages to deflect the impact of the blast and the floor is heavily armoured. The heavier the armour, the greater the protection, but, the greater the requirement of engine power. Chiefs of police forces from across India came to take a look at the equipment they need in the counter-Naxalite operations at Defexpo 2010, the arms bazaar and weapons exhibition, held in New Delhi in February. Topping their list was the MPV. Quick to seize the opportunity, no less than four companies — Mahindra Land Systems (in a tie-up with BAe Land Systems), Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors and Shri Lakshi Defence Solutions — exhibited newer and, what they claimed, were stronger MPVs. "With enhanced protection technologies, the new vehicle provides the highest levels of crew protection available in India today," Brig. (retired) Khutub Hai of Mahindra, had said of his vehicle. The use of helicopters is being debated in the home ministry and the defence ministry. In June last year, forces marched into Lalgarh with a senior CRPF officer flying sorties over them in a helicopter flying out of Kalaikunda. The helicopter was not armed and did not fire at suspected Maoists. But the officer was in radio contact with his forces on the ground, reporting what he could see on the roads — the axis from Bhadutola-Pirakata-Jhitka and from Goaltore-Pingboni-Ramgarh to complete a circle of domination in Lalgarh. In the current counter-Maoist offensive, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft are being used to move troops or evacuate casualties. But, as one air force officer told The Telegraph "a casualty will be evacuated by air if he is senior enough, they just let the constables be". Even if the IAF has decided to arm its helicopters, air support by firing from the air is a difficult ask in the jungles. Also helicopters cannot easily land in these places. |
Portrait of 'mastermind' | ||||
| G.S. RADHAKRISHNA | ||||
Hyderabad, April 6: The brain behind today's Dantewada massacre is a short, middle-aged, bespectacled widower who looks like a schoolteacher rather than a guerrilla war strategist, Andhra Pradesh police sources say. Katakam Sudarshan alias Anand, 53, however, is one of the CPI (Maoist)'s top nine leaders and is part of its politburo, which has 15 to 18 members. As secretary of the outfit's "central regional bureau", he is also in charge of operations in the Dandakaranya forests, north Telangana and the Andhra-Orissa border — a belt where the rebels are perhaps most active. Police sources described Sudarshan, who also uses the aliases of Mohan and Birenderji apart from Anand, as a stocky man only five feet and two inches tall. He is dark-complexioned and has thick hair and greying sideburns. Analysts say Sudarshan is a brilliant strategist who plans every detail of an attack with clockwork precision. He is wanted in at least 17 criminal cases in Andhra, including several murders, and carries a Rs 12-lakh reward on his head. Sudarshan, the police sources said, had recently been given the command of a company of the Maoists' People's Guerrilla Army to try and stall the Centre's anti-Naxalite operation, Green Hunt.
A Maoist source confirmed this, saying: "Mohan has been given the responsibility of delaying Green Hunt." Born to the weaver community in Bellampally, Adilabad district, Sudarshan had studied at a polytechnic in Warangal before joining the People's War Group of Kondapalli Seetharamaiah in the 1980s. For the past three decades, he has been working in the field, leading the Maoist movement from north Telangana to the Adivasi-inhabited regions of Dandakaranya. A few years ago he lost his life partner Sadhana, who was secretary of the Maoists' Adilabad district unit in north Telangana. In a recent interview, Sudarshan had said Green Hunt was not "something unexpected" and added that: "We have been in the middle of a cruel, bitter war for several years." He had alleged that the Centre wanted to neutralise the top Maoist leadership one by one besides taking the guerrillas on in the jungles. "The arrest of Khobad Ghandy was part of this plan," he said. He had claimed that government agencies were on the trail of the CPI (Maoist) central committee and had arrested eight of its 45 members and killed 22 others. The Maoists' top nine, apart from Sudarshan, include Ganapati alias Mupalla Laxman Rao, Mallojula Koteshwar Rao alias Prahlad, Prashant Bose alias Kishan Da, Nambala Keshav Rao alias Gangana, Cherkuri Rajkumar alias Uday, Mallojula Venugopal alias Vivek, Rajesh Da and Balraj alias Arvind. Each carries a cash reward of Rs 12 lakh on his head. | ||||
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Chhattisgarh massacre sets off alarm Bengal cops 'sitting ducks' | |||
| PRONAB MONDAL | |||
Calcutta, April 6: Some 800 policemen posted in six camps along Bengal's border with Jharkhand may become "sitting ducks" in case of a major attack by Maoist guerrillas, senior state police officers admitted today. The massacre of jawans in Chhattisgarh today sent "alarm bells ringing" about the lack of infrastructure in the border posts and the administration's failure to take lessons from the February attack on the Eastern Frontier Rifles camp in West Midnapore's Shilda. The camps — at Belpahari, Chhurimara, Jamtolgora and Neguria in West Midnapore and Dulukdihi and Bogdubi in Purulia — lack basic infrastructure like bunkers and watchtowers. Besides, none of the policemen there have night-vision telescopes fitted to their rifles, something so essential to fight in the dark. These camps also have a "logistical disadvantage" in that they are located so close to Jharkhand — all within 1km to 7km — in a hilly terrain dense with forests. The officers said that a big guerrilla group, double or triple the number posted at any of these camps, can easily descend from Jharkhand and give the police a "beating".
"There are about 100 to 120 police personnel, drawn from both the central and state forces, posted in each of these camps," inspector-general (law and order) Surajit Kar Purakayastha said. "If the Maoists emerge from the forests and surround the camps, the police will be in a very disadvantaged position and the situation can be a cause of great worry. The chances of reinforcements arriving on time is remote as the Maoists would have planted improvised explosive devices on roads leading to the camps that they target." After the Chhattisgarh strike, the Bengal police apparently went into a huddle and decided that the chinks in the armour, especially in these six camps, would have to be repaired at the earliest. "Unless the security infrastructure is improved in these camps, we will be endangering the lives of the policemen posted there," said an officer. "It is obvious that the Maoists are stepping up their attacks and we must be prepared for all eventualities." After the Shilda attack, some 10 camps that the police felt were "not secure" were dismantled and merged with others. But nothing was done about the border camps and nor was it possible to withdraw them, given their strategic position. Director-general of police Bhupinder Singh, too, expressed his apprehension today after the attack in Chhattisgarh. "Anything may happen and one cannot rule that out," he said at Writers' Buildings. "They may try (to do a repeat of Chhattisgarh). Policemen have been asked to be ready for self-defence and to retaliate.… No one can say such an incident will not occur here." An alert has been issued to Maoist-hit districts, mentioning the possibility of an attack, especially on the six "vulnerable" camps. "If about a thousand Maoists attack a camp, as in Chhattisgarh, those posted in any of the camps across the state will be helpless," an officer said. However, those along the border are the "real source of worry". "The other camps are at a distance from the border and the Maoists will find it impossible to reach" without being intercepted," the officer said. For instance, he added, Lal- garh is at least 20km from Jharkhand and that gives it the "security of distance". Chief secretary Asok Mo-han Chakrabarti said: "We keep telling the police to be on high alert at all times and be wary of traps set by the Maoists. The risk will always be there." He added that some "security measures" had been taken following the "directions" of Union home minister P. Chidambaram, who was in Lalgarh on Sunday. | |||
| WITH INPUTS FROM OUR CALCUTTA BUREAU |
Traitor tag on Suman |
| OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT |
Calcutta, April 6: Painter Suvaprasanna today "strongly" opposed the appeal by singer MP Kabir Suman's artiste, author and activist friends to accommodate him in the Trinamul Congress and offer him the freedom to express his individual opinion. "I strongly oppose the artistes and authors who said Kabir Suman should be accommodated in the Trinamul Congress," Suvaprasanna said. The appeal had said Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee and Suman should sit together to bury the hatchet "for the sake of the country and the people". Suvaprasanna, who is known to be close to Mamata, said: "Suman, who talks rubbish against a political party that has elected him an MP, does not have anything to do either with the country or the people. Suman is a traitor and I don't find any justification in backing him." Asked if he had begun a counter-campaign to ensure yesterday's appeal did not sway Mamata, the painter said: "I have spoken to a few artistes and authors regarding Suman. They don't approve of what he has been doing consistently to lower the image of the party. Besides, I am in constant touch with Mamata." A Trinamul general secretary said they were waiting for tomorrow. "Suman had put his resignation on hold for a week following Mahasweta Devi's request last Wednesday. Let's see what he does tomorrow. But we all want him to quit the party." Author-activist Mahasweta said she was expecting Suman at her Golf Green home tomorrow. "I shall again request him not to resign," she added. |
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India 'not planning' to deploy army after Maoist attack
India says it has no plans to deploy troops to fight Maoists, a day after rebels killed 76 paramilitary police.
Home Minister P Chidambaram said central paramilitary and state police forces could deal with the threat, but did not rule out using the air force.
Mr Chidambaram urged calm and patience on a visit to central Chhattisgarh state, where the attacks took place.
Correspondents say it is the worst attack on security forces by the rebels since their revolt began.
 |  To our offer of talks, they have replied by savage andbrutal acts of violence  P Chidambaram, Indian Home Minister |
An air force transport aircraft has been sent to Chhattisgarh to bring back the bodies of the soldiers killed in the attacks.
State police said the death toll had risen to 76 with the death of another member of the security forces.
Thousands of people have died during the 20-year fight for communist rule.
The Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of the rural poor who they say have been neglected by governments for decades.
'Long struggle'
Mr Chidambaram laid a wreath near coffins of security force personnel and promised that the offensive against the Maoists would continue.
 Mr Chidambaram (right) visited injured troops in hospital |
"We must remain calm and hold our nerves to rid India of this threat," he said after meeting relatives of some of the dead soldiers.
"You cannot expect instant success. This is a long, drawn-out struggle. It will take two to three years, perhaps more [to defeat the rebels]."
He said the Maoists presented the "gravest threat to internal security".
"We are paying the price for the neglect of the last 10-12 years," the home minister said. During that time the Maoist movement has grown in strength in large rural areas in eastern and central India.
But he said they would not be allowed to succeed in their long-term aim of overthrowing the government.
India's main opposition party, the BJP, has said there should now be an all-out offensive against the rebels and the media are full of talk of war against the insurgency.
The BBC's Chris Morris in Delhi says the government has always insisted this is not just a security issue.
Our correspondent says it bitterly condemns Maoist violence, but it acknowledges that chronic poverty, and lack of opportunity and development, are significant factors which have given the insurgency added impetus.
'Totally outnumbered'
Police said the paramilitary troops on patrol in remote jungle in Dantewada district were ambushed by hundreds of heavily-armed insurgents.
|   |
Rescue teams were then ambushed in attacks using landmines and gunfire.
An armoured vehicle was first bombed before rebels on a hillock opened fire, police said.
As security personnel took cover, they found the rebels had booby trapped trees with explosives. Troops in the open were gunned down by the rebels.
"We were totally outnumbered. And they [the rebels] had far too much ammunition," Pramod Kumar, one of seven soldiers who survived the ambush, told The Times of India newspaper.
"How could just 80 of us fight more than 1,000 of them? We got no time and no opportunity to retaliate."
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The Maoists have stepped up attacks in recent weeks in response to a big government offensive along what is known as the "red corridor", a broad swathe of territory in rural eastern and central India where the Maoist rebellion has been gathering strength.
Nearly 50,000 federal paramilitary troops and tens of thousands of policemen are taking part in the operation in several states.
Mr Chidambaram has said troops will intensify the offensive if the rebels do not renounce violence and enter peace talks.
The rebels want four senior leaders freed from jail and the offensive halted before any talks.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8606483.stm| India vows to hunt down Maoists | |||||||
Indian authorities have vowed to hit back at Maoist rebels who killed 76 police personnel in a brutal attack in the central state of Chattisgarh on Tuesday. Gopal K Pillai, the Indian home secretary, said on Wednesday that the rebels would pay a high price for the deadliest attack on security forces to date. "In the days and months to come we will hunt everyone down," Pillai said. He said that the government response would become "much firmer and fitting". More than 500 Maoists launched the attack against a group of soldiers returning to base from a two-day patrol in Chhattisgarh states's Dantewada district. Many of the personnel from the Central Reserve Protection Force (CRPF) were gunned down. Others were blown up by mines the rebels had planted. 'Walked into trap'
P Chidambaram, the Indian interior minister, said the soldiers were part of a joint operation involving state forces and paramilitary fighters. "But something has gone very wrong. They seemed to have walked into a trap set by the Naxalites [the Maoists]. Casualties are quite high and I am deeply shocked,'' he said. Every soldier on patrol was either killed or wounded, three critically, R K Vij, a police inspector, said. The attack appears to have been in response to the government's "Operation Green Hunt" offensive launched late last year in Maoist strongholds across north and eastern India. Senior Maoist officials have said they will only negotiate if the government halts the offensive. Ajai Sahni, a defence and security analyst in Delhi, said the attack shows gaps in the state's strategy against the Maoists. "This is an inevitable consequence of the incoherence of strategy of the bombers and the inadequate deployment of forces in the areas afflicted by the Maoist threat," he told Al Jazeera. Regular attacks Rubina Khan Shapoo, a correspondent for India's NDTV, said the attack will force Indian authorities to develop a new strategy against the rebels. Maoists regularly ambush police and attack railway lines and factories, aiming to cripple economic activity. The government recently hardened its rhetoric against the rebels after 10 policemen were killed in a landmine attack in the eastern Orissa state, with Chidambaram calling the rebels "cowards". In February, at least 25 policemen were killed in the eastern state of West Bengal when Maoists attacked a camp. And in March 2007, the Maoists were blamed for an attack that killed 55 policemen, also in Chhattisgarh. The rebels mostly draw support from tribal groups and the poor in rural areas. The Maoists are also known as Naxals, after a small village called Naxalbari in the Indian state of West Bengal where the first armed uprising took place some 40 years ago. About 2,000 people, including police, rebels and civilians, have been killed over the past few years. |
Mao vs. Gandhi in Chhattisgarh
A naïve admiration for the Maoists is emblematic of the tendency in some among the Indian intellectual class toward left-wing utopianism.
By SALIL TRIPATHI
Maoist insurgents ambushed Indian security forces in the dense forest region of Chhattisgarh state in central India on Tuesday, killing over 70 troops of the Central Reserve Police Force. Analysts are calling it the worst single-day loss in fighting domestic insurgencies.
But despite such massacres, not everyone in India regards the Maoists with horror. One such apologist is the talented and articulate novelist Arundhati Roy who has, since her Booker Prize-winning 1997 novel "The God of Small Things," focused on bigger things, such as attacking Indian economic reforms, foreign investment, free markets, the United States and Israel.
In a rambling 19,500-word essay published a week ago in Outlook magazine in India and the Guardian newspaper, Ms. Roy writes of recent experiences following the Maoists in the Dandakaranya forest, near where the security forces were ambushed this week. The piece was headlined "Gandhi, but with guns."
The comparison is obscene. Not only does it suggest an amoral nihilism, it also represents a rewriting of history. A Gandhian with a gun is as absurd as a Maoist pacifist. India's founding father Mohandas Gandhi may not have been as perfect as some would make him out, but he did believe that only the right means could be used to reach an end, however noble. In 1922 he suspended a nationwide civil disobedience movement, when some Congress followers burned a police station in Chauri Chaira, killing over a dozen policemen and officers. Maoist ideology is precisely the opposite: The ends justify the means.
Ms. Roy herself notes that when she mentioned Mohandas Gandhi's non-violent struggle to the Maoists, they laughed hysterically. Despite her best efforts to portray a bucolic image of Maoists and tribals living harmoniously, their tranquility disturbed by forest officers, loggers, mining companies, and security forces, the truth still comes through. The Maoists show off an impressive arsenal of weapons, and their teenage recruits watch hours of reruns of violent ambush videos. The kids tell her they want to implement Mao's vision in India.
Ms. Roy's naïve admiration for the Maoists is emblematic of the tendency in some among the Indian intellectual class toward left-wing utopianism. In "Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers," Tom Wolfe lampooned the Park Avenue elite sucking up to the Black Panther terrorists who were killing cops in 1960s America. Is history repeating itself in India?
Nevertheless, just as in America three decades ago, the tide may be turning as ordinary voters become fed up with the violence. Maoists have been fighting the Indian state for over four decades under various names, including Naxalites, the name the movement got because of its origins in the town Naxalbari in West Bengal, where peasants revolted against landlords in the 1960s.
Like Maoists elsewhere, they are brutal. They conduct show-trials, sometimes executing the people they find guilty; they use improvised explosive devices and land mines; and they appear to use child soldiers. Since 2006, their attacks have become audacious, targeting police stations, power lines, schools and trains. They have not spared civilians and other "class enemies" who in their view collaborate with the state.
Even India's Communist Parties have distanced themselves from Maoists, and condemned their practices. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party strongly supports the government in its battle. For his part, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called the Maoists' threat the gravest national security crisis the country faces.
To be sure, Indians living in forests have legitimate grievances. Their rights are routinely violated. Successive governments have failed them. Large companies, Indian and foreign, want the mineral wealth in those forests. The state hasn't built schools, nor equipped the few that are built. There are few primary health care centers, and the administration neglects remote areas. The rapidly modernizing and prospering parts of urban India ignores the region, its poverty, and its problems.
But the Maoists offer no solution. Their collectivist authoritarianism is culturally alien in an India where spiritual acceptance of fate prevails, and where, despite feudal structures, inequities and rigidities, there is social and economic mobility. With all its flaws, it is a real democracy. Maoists know they would never win power through the ballot box.
They can only win through force, by shocking the state, by spreading terror, and by scaring away the administration so that they can reach their end. Which is power, not the removal of poverty.
Maoists want an articulate messenger, and Ms Roy fulfils that role. Her poetic eloquence clothes their naked ambition of power, offering it respectability. Her fame helps make their struggle known to audiences abroad, where people with limited knowledge of India accept the romanticized image of warriors in the jungle fighting for justice that she writes about. In early April, while the Maoists were preparing to ambush the troops in the forest, Ms Roy was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a public forum with Noam Chomsky.
Ms Roy has explained Maoist violence as a response to the repressive state, suggesting that the tribal groups are rising against the state, getting even—an eye for an eye. But as Gandhi said, an eye for an eye leaves the world blind.
Mr. Tripathi, a writer based in London, is the author of "Offense: The Hindu Case" (Seagull, 2009).
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India's Naxalite insurgency
Politics with bloodshed
An appalling slaughter signals the inadequacy of India's counter-insurgency effort
Apr 7th 2010 | From The Economist online
FOR those who consider India's Maoist insurgency a grave and urgent threat, the evidence keeps mounting. On Tuesday April 6th several hundred Maoist guerrillas attacked a convoy in a forest in eastern Chhattisgarh state, killing 76 paramilitary policemen. This was reckoned to be the worst loss in the history of a stuttering, four-decade-long conflict.
It was also an emphatic response from the rebels to the central government's latest offer of peace talks. Encouraged by an ostensible Maoist ceasefire proposal, India's home minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, has repeatedly declared the government ready to talk—provided the insurgents first lay down their arms. On April 4th, on a visit to Lalgarh, a Maoist-infested area of West Bengal, one of six eastern states most affected by the insurgency, Mr Chidambaram asked, "Why do they not come for talks by just shunning violence?" There seems to be little prospect of this.
With roots in a 1967 peasant uprising in the West Bengali village of Naxalbari—hence their name, Naxalites—the Maoists have recently grown more potent. They have an estimated 14,000 full time fighters and loosely control a broad swathe of central and eastern India, albeit in jungle areas where the state is hardly present. India-wide, they are considered to be found in over a third of the country's 626 districts. Last year 998 people were killed in Maoist-related conflict. With almost 300 killed this year, it could be even bloodier.
Three main factors explain the Naxalites' rise. Since merging their two main factions in 2004—to form the Communist Party of Indian (Maoist) under Muppala Lakshmana Rao, known as "Ganapathi"—they have minimised the internal conflict that always plagued them. Second, many festering grievances among the tribal communities who live in India's poor eastern states have provided them willing hands. And rapid economic growth there, especially in mining, has given the Naxalites new targets for extorting cash, from both foreign and state-owned mining companies.
The official response to this has been pitifully weak. Despite calls to action from the central government—in 2006 the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, described the insurgency as the "single biggest internal-security challenge" India had ever faced—most state governments, though primarily responsible for law and order, have hardly stirred. Complacency is partly to blame: until recently few state-level politicians seemed to share Mr Singh's grave assessment. Political expediency also plays a part: Shibu Soren, chief minister of Maoist-wracked Jharkhand, won an election last year with the guerrillas' support and is predictably reluctant to fight them.
Perhaps most worrying, with the exception of Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, the worst-affected states are also among India's least capable. Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand were founded in 2000 as off-cuts from two of India's poorest states. Chhattisgarh's most notable counter-insurgency ploy, arming an anti-Maoist tribal militia, known as Salwa Judum or Peace March, was predictably a violent failure: displacing over 50,000 villagers and acting as a recruiting sergeant for the Maoists. Yet, to be generous, it was at least partly a response to the inadequacy of the state police.
For the same reason, Mr Chidambaram is now deploying an additional 15,000 centrally trained troops to the worst-affected states, taking the total to around 75,000. Yet, for a vast area home to 450m people, this is still a tiny force. Moreover, properly trained state-level officers, who know the local language and conditions, have a much better counter-insurgency record. The clearest example is in Andhra Pradesh where, through a combination of improvements in policing and generous development schemes, the insurgency has been greatly weakened in recent years.
To achieve similar results, other states will in the end have to take similar measures. After all, the latest slaughter in Chhattisgarh shows how hapless outsiders can be. Most of the dead men came from Uttar Pradesh and were killed by cunningly placed land mines after they rushed to take cover from the Maoists' opening attack. As Mr Chidambaram said, "They seem to have walked into a trap."
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15863697&source=features_box_mainBloomberg
Deadliest Maoist Raid Highlights Mittal, Posco India Challenge
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By Madelene Pearson and Abhishek Shanker
April 7 (Bloomberg) -- The deadliest attack on Indian security forces in four decades of left-wing conflict underscores the challenge companies including ArcelorMittal, Posco and NMDC Ltd. face in investing in mineral-rich states.
Maoist rebels killed 76 officers in an ambush yesterday in the eastern state of Chhattisgarh, where NMDC operates its biggest iron-ore mine. In neighboring states, ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest steelmaker, and South Korea's Posco have yet to start their $32 billion projects because of protests over land.
Resistance from property owners, some backed by Maoist or Naxalite rebels, and delays in approvals for land and mines have stalled more than $80 billion of projects in India that would double national steel output. Yesterday's attacks are a setback to India's efforts to rid the eastern states of left-wing guerillas and open up regions rich in iron ore, coal, bauxite and manganese to investment.
"If the global players had got a footprint in India they could have really made a good return on their investment," said Abhisar Jain, metals and mining analyst with ICICI Securities Ltd. in Mumbai. "India as a whole will stand to lose if no global player is able to put up its plant here."
The Naxalite rebels, named after the 1967 peasant uprising in the West Bengal village of Naxalbari, have waged a violent campaign against the government, police and landowners for more than four decades to install communist rule. It was greeted as "a peal of spring thunder" by China's People Daily at its birth during the political purges of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution.
High Risk
"Most of the mining assets in India are present in the Maoists belt, which is a threat as more mining can't take place and new leases can't be executed," Santha Sheela Nair, secretary at the mines ministry, said in a March 5 interview.
ArcelorMittal, which aimed to build two mills, one each in Jharkhand and Orissa states, has yet to acquire any land needed to set up the 12 million ton plant in Jharkhand, said a director at the state's industries department, asking not to be identified as he isn't authorized to speak to the media. The company hasn't also acquired land in Orissa. Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal declined to comment on yesterday's attacks.
"Containing the Naxal movement is integral to raising India's energy and mineral self sufficiency," Deutsche Bank AG's Abhay Laijawala and Anuj Singla wrote in an April 2 report. "Unless the Naxal resistance abates, the high levels of risk associated with doing business in Naxal-infested areas will deter investment."
Local Opposition
Posco's $12 billion steel unit and iron-ore mine in Orissa has been delayed for five years as the company is unable to acquire almost 90 percent of the land required for the project due to opposition from the local population. The company has also not been able to secure any mines.
"When you are setting up projects of this size there are bound to be some people who will dissent," Posco India General Manager Simanta Mohanty said yesterday in an interview. "The challenge before us is to mobilize the support of the people and get the required land."
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh-based NMDC, Asia's third-biggest iron ore producer, posted a 40 percent decline in third-quarter profit after a slurry pipeline used for transporting ore was damaged by Maoists. The company, in which the government sold an 8.38 percent stake last month, mentioned rebel attacks as one of the risk factors in the sale document. The company has plans to raise production capacity by 67 percent to 50 million tons by 2015.
Watchtowers, Patrols
NMDC said yesterday's incident hadn't disrupted its biggest mine as the company protects its facilities with barriers and security patrols.
"Mining operations in the Bailadila mines are normal," NMDC Chairman Rana Som said yesterday in a telephone interview. "The mine area is surrounded by several layers of fencing and we monitor the area from watchtowers."
India needs to counter the terror tactics that risk hampering industrial growth, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, or Ficci, said in a November report.
"Just when India needs to ramp up its industrial machine to lock in growth and when foreign companies are joining the party, Naxalites are clashing with mining and steel companies essential to India's long-term success," the report said.
At the Niyamgiri Hills in Orissa, the tribal population and non-governmental agencies oppose a bauxite mine planned by Vedanta Aluminium Ltd., a unit of London-based Vedanta Resources Plc. Construction has been delayed for more than four years.
"What can the company give us?" Niranjan Acharya, who lives in the area and "absolutely" opposes the Vedanta mine, said in an interview with Bloomberg UTV. "How much employment can they possibly generate? Our livelihood is Niyamgiri, we get everything from there. If the mining happens, 10 to 20 years down the line this place will become a desert, what will the people here do then?"
To win over the population, the federal government is proposing laws to quicken mine allocation and land acquisition. The law will allow companies to give annuities to the families displaced from mining areas, besides a one-time compensation.
"The aim is to involve the local population in the developmental activities of the region so they do not feel left out and resort to opposition" Mines Secretary Nair said.
--Editors: Indranil Ghosh, Stephen Foxwell
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