India & the Struggle for Tamil Eelam

Maoist Naxalite attack in Central India

BBC News Report, 16 March 2007
[see also Sumanta Banerjee - India's Simmering Revolution: The Naxalite Uprising]
 

The death toll in the attack on security forces by Maoist rebels in central India (on 15 March 2007) has risen to 55.... Of the 55 security forces who died in the attack, 39 were "special police officers" or members of a civil militia called Salwa Judum that is supported by the state government. It was launched a year and a half ago to fight the Maoists.

Tens of thousands of villagers have been displaced by the Salwa Judum campaign and are living in government camps across the state.

The rebels attacked the security post - manned by 75 policemen - in Bijapur just before dawn on Thursday... They seized a hoard of weapons from the post, 1,500km south of Delhi, then escaped into the jungle. The first security forces to arrive after the attack reported a large number of bodies scattered around the barracks but said they were unable to count them all because the rebels had planted land mines at the scene.

Earlier this month, five security personnel died in a landmine explosion in Dantewada district. The rebels have a strong presence in eight of 16 districts of Chhattisgarh state. Much of the outpost was destroyed in the attack.

The militants are known as Naxalites after the district where their Maoist-inspired movement was born in the late 1960s. They have become so powerful in some districts they run their own parallel administrations and justice systems.

Until recently, Naxalites have operated in pockets of jungle in India's poorest states. But correspondents say there is now more unity between the various groups, and that Thursday's attack will feed into anxiety that they pose a growing threat.

Analysts talk about the emergence of the Red Corridor, a great swathe of Maoist militancy which stretches all the way from the border with Nepal, south through India to the sea.