Naxal Terror Watch

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Maoists’ urban perspective: an analysis

2011-11-15T20:59:00.001-08:00


Maoists’ urban perspective: an analysis

Uddipan Mukherjee
E-Mail- uddipan.mukherjee@gmail.com

Incalculable harm was done to the Naxalite movement of the late 1960s and early 70s due to the wrong strategic evaluation of the leaders of the insurrection at that time. Their defective understanding of urban warfare and penchant of initiating a bloody confrontation with the administration in the cities led to their abysmal show. However, after the grand merger of the two major Naxal splinter groups in 2004, a series of bulky documents from the side of the Maoists have made their way into the public domain which speaks volumes of their refined doctrinal position vis-à-vis strategy and tactics, especially for urban areas. Out of those documents, two merit serious attention and analyses. The first, the ‘Strategy and Tactics of Indian Revolution’ or STIR was prepared in September, 2004. The other came out three years later, the ‘Urban Perspective: Our Work in Urban Areas’ or UPUA. In the backdrop of a recent spate of arrests of Maoist activists from urban areas and cities; it appears that a re-reading of the two documents to decipher the long-term strategy of the Indian Maoists has become a necessity. In STIR, the Maoists stress on the large concentration of the petit bourgeoisie in urban areas of India. It is no wonder that the rebels are still basing their revolutionary tactics on the lower middle class of the Indian society as the French had done on the Sans-culottes in 1789. Further, in STIR, they write with Marxian moorings: “We should not forget the dialectical relationship between the development of the urban movement and the development of the armed agrarian revolutionary war.” The Maoists admit through STIR that: “In the absence of a strong revolutionary urban movement, the growth of the people’s war will face limitations and difficulties in its advancement”. The pressing question in this context is how the urban work of the Maoists will aid and abet their ongoing rural insurrection? The answer, though stated in STIR itself, is far more conspicuous and resolute in UPUA of 2007. The document reads thus: “Working class leadership is the indispensable condition for the New Democratic Revolution (NDR) in India. Working class has to send its advanced detachments to rural areas.” [Section 3.1.1, p 17, UPUA] Thus, being the centres of concentration of the industrial proletariat (industrial workers), urban areas play an important part in the political strategy of the NDR. The task of the party in urban areas is to mobilise and organise the proletariat in performing its crucial leadership role. According to the Indian Maoists, as written in UPUA, “the specific characteristics of revolutionary war in India is to determine military strategy as that of protracted people’s war – of establishing revolutionary base areas first in the countryside where the enemy (read the government) is militarily weak and then to gradually surround and capture the cities which are bastions of the enemy forces.” Thus it is clear from the Maoists’ document that the armed struggle and the movement in the rural areas will play the primary role; whereas the work in the cities will play a secondary role, complementary to the rural work. In fact, the legendary Chinese leader, Mao Tse-tung had said: “the final objective of the revolution is the capture of the cities, the enemy’s main bases, and this objective cannot be achieved without adequate work in the cities.” The charismatic Che Guevara too opines: “The importance of the urban struggle is extraordinary.” The Maoists assess that presently, India has a larger proportion of the population in urban areas and a much larger working class than at the time of the Chinese revolution. This increases the relative importance of urban work in the particular conditions of the Indian revolution. Nevertheless, in cities, the counter-insurgency state forces are very strong and hence the Maoists are careful while establishing bases. Nevertheless, since a steady supply of urban cadre is necessary to fulfill the needs of the rural movement and to fuel the protracted people’s war, establishment of urban bases is imperative for the Maoists. [Section 3.5.2.3, p 65, UPUA] Urban guerrilla war is far-off The main challenges that the Maoists face in the urban areas are: 1. Democratic party-system is well entrenched in the cities and urban areas and hence it is extremely tedious to dent the political ethos in cities and towns. 2. Extremely strong administrative machinery exists in these regions and thus counterinsurgency repression assumes gargantuan proportions. 3. The trade unions, which are potential fertile regions of fomenting dissatisfaction amongst the urban proletariat; already has established political parties ensconced in. 4. The presence of the Maoists in key industries like defence production, telecom, etc is poor. Undoubtedly, an urban base provides logistical support to the armed struggle, i.e. technical and medical help. It further helps to send cadre to rural areas. The Maoists also plan to infiltrate into enemy organisations like the police, para-military and military in these populous regions. They attempt to do so by conducting propaganda warfare; viz. upholding the problems of the ordinary constables and soldiers. A favourable condition exists in the urban areas of India for the building of broad mass fronts against the state structures. At least that is the evaluation of the Indian Maoists as articulated through UPUA. It may be inferred that the Maoists are venturing into the Indian cities with obvious intentions of solidifying and extending their networks and in addition to that, they are in the process of colluding with other terrorist outfits based in the Northeast, Bangladesh and Nepal, which have grave security implications for the Indian state. In STIR, the rebels stress on forming secret party units in the bastis and slums of the urban areas. Their main focus is that of mass political mobilisation by inculcating the leadership qualities in the urban working class: the real class, according to Karl Marx, which possesses the ‘consciousness’ of revolution. The Maoists have realised their folly in the early part of their revolution when they used to use drastic measures and have regular showdowns with the police in the urban areas. Hence, they warn their comrades in STIR: “we cannot and should not, at this stage of the revolution, organise for armed offensive with the state in the urban areas…..” They accord special emphasis on small towns, small mining centres and areas in the vicinity of their base areas and guerrilla zones. They focus on the formation of both open and secret defence teams to resist state repression. Party structure in urban areas The basic task of the Communist Party of India (Maoists) in the urban domain is to deal with the problem of coordination between open and secret work. Another chief component is to retain contacts between city organisation and leadership in the rural areas – the heartland of the insurgency. In urban areas, they seem to, as per STIR, adhere to the principle of ‘political centralisation and organisational decentralisation’. That is, their Central Committee contemplates small squad-level groups which would be mature enough to take decisions independently, but along party lines. The squad leaders need not refer to the party high command for all minor issues and day-to-day work. In UPUA, they acknowledge that their party’s work and organisation in the cities/towns is extremely weak and generally cannot achieve a dominant position till the final stages of the people’s war. This ‘objective reality’ forces the Maoists to determine a ‘mellowed-down’ long-term policy for urban areas. However, there have been arrests made by the Indian Police (between 2007-11), of prominent Maoist leaders from cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Nasik, Kolkata, Chandigarh and other urban areas. These point to the fact that the ultras are spreading their wings in cities, more so, after the publication of the UPUA. So, what is the long-term strategy of the Maoists with regard to urban areas? 1. They would hardly adopt a short-term approach of direct confrontation with the state forces in order to achieve ‘quick results’. 2. Thus, the threat perception to Indian cities in the form of what we face from the cross-border terrorists is highly unlikely. 3. Urban terrorism accompanies a substantial amount of collateral damage. That acts as a dampener for the Maoists to go for a Lashkar-esque operation in the cities because such sporadic and wanton acts of terror would create disconnect between the left-wing ultras and the masses: a situation they totally detest. 4. The Maoists are concentrating on a long-term approach of solidifying their bases in the urban areas. 5. If at all they have a short-term goal; that has to be to use their urban bases in supplying spare parts, medicines, arms, recruits and ideologues to the rural guerrilla zones. 6. To further the military objective of the revolution, the Maoists are and surely would strengthen their cyber-warfare strategy. 7. Propaganda through student-worker organisations would be the mainstay of their strategy for the time being. 8. Their rural insurgency is in the stage of strategic defence. So, they would very likely continue the above discussed strategy in the urban areas till the rural insurgency reaches the stage of strategic offense. 9. Till then, the Maoists would try hard to penetrate the white-collar employees, intellectuals and youth so as to bolster their insurgency. Evaluating the Iraqi insurgency (2003-06), Major Edward Brady in his thesis submitted at the Maxwell Air Force base, Alabama in June 2008; rightly assesses that urban areas provide access to the insurgents to soft targets that could be attacked by small cells. Moreover, easy sanctuaries are provided to the insurgents to thrive in the cities. However, we may safely hypothesise that keeping in mind their historic failure in the 1970s, the Maoists would be reluctant to enact a Baghdad-type insurgency in Indian cities at this stage of their revolution. Nevertheless, it always could happen that if the top leadership of the Maoists is annihilated by targeted killings/incarcerations, then a breakaway faction could unleash ghastly acts of terror emulating the cross-border militants. That will probably be a cost which we might have to incur in return of the decimation of the insurgency. In the meantime, police ought to step up its human intelligence network and continue to nab the urban outfits of the Maoists as they had been doing for some time recently. Panic buttons need not be pressed right now. But cognisance must be made of the fact that the spread of the Maoists in the sprawling towns and cities of India could shape up as a major destabilising parameter in the future. Dr Uddipan Mukherjee holds a doctoral degree from TIFR (Deptt. of Atomic Energy, India). He writes on strategic issues.

Naxalism is at city's doorsteps: Former top cop

2011-05-29T21:57:00.000-07:00

Prafulla Marpakwar, May 17, 2011, 05.21am IST

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-05-17/mumbai/29551605_1_gadchiroli-top-naxal-leader-naxal-movement

MUMBAI: The Naxal movement, which used to be confined to Gadchiroli and Chandrapur, and later to Gondia and Nanded districts, has reached the doorsteps of the metropolis, due to the failure of the Congress-led Democratic Front government in tackling the problems of tribals.

Former director-general of police Arvind Inamdar on Monday expressed concern over the emergence of Naxalites in a big way in Thane and Pune. "Certainly, it's a matter of serious concern. Prima facie, the Naxalites seem to have succeeded in ensuring the support of tribals and intellectuals in urban areas. As a result of that, their movement is getting support in big cities," Inamdar told TOI.

In 1977, when Inamdar was Nagpur's deputy commissioner of police, he had nabbed Kondapalli Seetharamaiah, a top Naxal leader in those days and later in 1992, he had seized arms worth Rs 8 lakh from a Naxal sympathizer in that city.

Inamdar pointed out that the naxals were now concentrating on urban areas. "It appears that their social networking is very strong, and as a result, they have been able to attract urban intellectuals," he said.

On the reasons for the growth of the Naxal movement, Inamdar said they had impressed upon the tribals that the government and industrialists were exploiting them. "It's a fact that they have been robbed of their livelihood. Their traditions and culture have been neglected. Therefore, they look to the Naxals for justice," he said.

Inamdar warned that if they join hands with terrorists and gangsters, it will be the worst-ever situation. "In the past, there were reports of naxals joining hands with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE). Then there were reports that there was a nexus (between them). If they join hands, it will be an alarming situation," he said.

Gadchiroli district collector Atul Patne, who has taken measures to bring the tribals into the mainstream, felt that more efforts were needed to ensure that villagers don't succumb to Naxal pressure. "We will have to put in more efforts, we will have to involve all sections of society," Patne said.

Tamil Nadu Police 'adopt' 300 villages in bid to curb spread of Naxalism

2011-01-25T20:08:00.001-08:00

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/-Tamil-Nadu-Police-adopt-300-villages-in-bid-to-curb-spread-of-Naxalism/articleshow/7363959.cms#ixzz1C4vVYNii

PTI, Jan 26, 2011

THENI (TN): In a novel attempt to curb Naxal movement from spreading
its wings in Tamil Nadu, police have 'adopted' 300 villages bordering
the state and are providing them basic amenities to improve their
lives, according to a top police official.

Speaking at a function at nearby Varushanadu after distributing
welfare schemes to tribals, DGP Letika Saran said the villages would
be adopted in phases. She expressed confidence that the scheme would
thwart any attempt by Naxals to again intrude the territory after a
failed effort to set up an arms training camp at Murugamalai in 2007.

The function also saw police receive petitions from tribals to assess
their needs and being given cattle and sheep and some basic amenities
like soaps and toothpaste.

In a bid to bring about a sense of camaraderie,police had food and tea
with the tribals, assured them that their rights would be safeguarded
and urged them to educate themselves to better their prospects in
life.

Police sources said enhanced basic amenities would be provided to 300
villages in the first phase of a total of 471 identified villages.
Villagers were being given milch animals, as also ration cards and
blankets in the hope it would help them improve their standard of
living, they said.

A top police official, requesting anonymity, said the idea took shape
after they found some villagers possessing gadgets and watches.
Enquiries revealed they had got it from Naxals, whom they used to help
enter and exit jungles, which have myriad pathways.

Two tribals Karimalai and Easwary,who received benefits, were unsure
whether villagers could provide police with information on movement of
strangers without facilities like phones. They said they were scared
of 'threats' by such people against revealing anything and sought
protection from police and help from forest officials to improve their
economic conditions.

NGOs dealing with tribals felt the Naxal problem could be solved with
proper policing and not such schemes. Moreover, tribals should be
allowed to enjoy the forest produce and the herbs they cultivate. Only
if they move deep inside the forests would they know about movement of
naxals, they said.

Maoists attack road construction workers in Jharkhand

2011-01-16T22:13:00.000-08:00

Throwing a spanner in the works for developmental activities in the region, Maoist ultras attacked road construction workers in Jharkhand's Lohardagga District on Saturday.

Ram Gulab Sharma, Sub-Divisional Police Officer, said that the Maoists were trying to extort money from the factory and in that process burnt the bulldozer kept outside.

"Some notorious group came here and burnt the machine. Allegedly, they were trying to extort money and in the process burnt the machine. We are looking into the matter," said Sharma.

One of the eye witnesses said that the Maoists ultras asked for kerosene from her to burn the machine.

"They asked for kerosene oil and I gave them. They were around 18-20 of them," said Pancho Devi. (ANI)

Teeth for Maoist strategy

2011-01-13T06:05:00.000-08:00

New Delhi, Jan. 11: The Centre is honing its anti-Maoist strategy by pumping in additional funds, recruiting new personnel and bringing more rebel-infested areas within its glare.

Sources said the government had pushed funds under the security-related expenditure scheme (SRE) for 83 districts in nine Naxalite-hit states from Rs 80 crore to Rs 580 crore for this fiscal. It has already released over Rs 200 crore towards schemes under SRE implemented by the states, sources said.

“More than Rs 320 crore worth of funds will be released before March. Expenses of states regarding hiring of choppers, building approach roads and police stations will all be covered,” a home ministry source said.

Some of these announcements were made by home minister P. Chidambaram at a review meeting for paramilitary forces at the CRPF headquarters on Monday.

Sources said the number of special police officials (SPOs) would be increased to 25,500 from 13,500 now. Their salary of Rs 1,500 was also likely to see a substantial increase, the sources added.

SPOs have been a big help to paramilitary forces who have often not been on the best of terms with state police forces. These officials, mostly tribal youths with anti-Naxalite leanings or with a history of being Maoist, have excellent local knowledge that come in handy when security forces conduct operations.

“When we do not have enough policemen like in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada, we take SPOs, so an increase in their number is a welcome move,” said a CRPF officer.

A senior police officer from Chhattisgarh said Bastar alone needed around 100 battalions of security forces to overcome the Naxalite challenge. At present, the state has about 40,000 personnel aided by about 25,000 paramilitary personnel — far from the one lakh needed in Bastar.

So far, 35 of 83 districts in Naxilite-hit states, including West Midnapore, were named “focus” districts. But the government has now raised the number to 60. Some of these districts are believed to be from Madhya Pradesh which are not under the SRE.

An impact assessment of the SRE scheme was to be done for the entire state of Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. There has been an almost tenfold increase in violence in Bengal since 2008, home ministry figures show. With elections approaching, there are fears the violence will increase.

Rebel arrest

A senior Maoist leader from Chhattisgarh undergoing treatment at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital was today detained by security forces. He will be formally arrested tomorrow.

Police sources said Pijush Kanti Acharjee, 64, was hospitalised last week for treatment of paralysis after he was bitten by a snake in the jungles of Dantewada in Chhattisgarh in December. He was picked up on the basis of intelligence inputs provided by the army and the CRPF.

“According to our information, Acharjee is a senior Maoist leader and had joined the Maoists in 1964. He was bitten by a snake and suffered paralysis. He first came to his relative’s house in Shillong and was brought to GMCH last week for treatment. He was in cabin 20,” said the police source.

4 Top Naxals Surrender

2010-12-21T06:24:00.000-08:00

21st Dec, 2010: Additional Director General for Law And Order M Ratan on Tuesday revealed that 4 hardcore Maoists, including a woman, had laid down their arms before the police on Monday, expressing dissatisfaction with the movement.

The 4 Maoists, 2 in Adilabad and 2 in Visakhapatnam, belonged to Maharashtra State Committee and Andhra Orissa Border.

D G Ratan told media persons in Hyderabad on Tuesday that the Maoists had put down their weapons citing the fading Maoist movement.

One of the Maoists has been identified as Anand of Adilabad district, a member of the Maharashtra State Committee, on whom the government had announced a reward of Rs. 10 lakh for his capture.

Similarly Saritha, a Divisional Committee member of North Gadchiroli, had a reward of Rs. 3 lakh on her head.

The 2 other Maoists, who surrendered from Visakahapatnam area, are Killu Raju alias Krishna Kannavaram and Srikanth from Koyyuru Mandal in Vishakhapatnam, who had carried a reward of Rs. 1 lakh and Rs. 50,000 on their heads respectively.

Maoist Anand, who spent more than 25 years in jail, said that he wanted to spend his remaining life by joining in the mainstream and living in peace in society, particularly with his family members.

"We have laid down our weapons due to our age, and want to lead a non-violent life. Whatever was done in the past is bygone, we did our utmost for the movement. Now, we quit without desire" stated surrendered woman Maoist Saritha.

Warangal IG range R P Thakur, Vishakhapatnam IG Range officer VK Singh, and Adilabad Superintendent of Police Pramod Kumar were present.

Courtesy: INN

MAOISTS EYE THE CITIES

2010-12-17T00:48:00.001-08:00

http://www.ipcs.org/article/india/maoists-eye-the-cities-3297.html

Uddipan Mukherjee
Assistant Professor, Kolkata
email: uddipan.mukherjee@gmail.com

In the first week of December 2010, the Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata Police arrested Kanchan alias Sudip Chongdar, the West Bengal state secretary of the banned outfit CPI-Maoist. Along with him, four other top leaders of the group were also taken into custody. Kanchan is considered to be next in hierarchy to the media-friendly Maoist leader Kishenji alias Koteshwar Rao. This high-profile arrest comes months after the state committee leader Telugu Deepak alias Venkateshwar Reddy was nabbed in March 2010 from the same city. Moreover, in February 2008, Kanchan’s predecessor Soumen alias Himadri Sen Roy had already been put behind bars.

Kanchan’s role in the radical outfit could be evaluated by the following facts. When the Maoists announced their involvement in the landmine blast that targeted West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on November 2 2008, the statement was issued in his name. Later, Kanchan issued the statement claiming responsibility for the Lalgarh movement in 2009.

Some startling revelations have been extracted by the STF from Kanchan and his comrades. These, inter alia, indicate a number of important things.

First, it points to the fact that the Maoists are trying to build up an urban network in the eastern zone with Kolkata as the focal point. This means that in the foreseeable future, they would like to coordinate their activities from Kolkata. Apart from aiding the ongoing guerrilla warfare in the hinterland by supplying material resources from the city, the Maoists seem to have chosen Kolkata for two additional reasons.

One, they want to penetrate the student organizations and workers in the unorganized sector. This would help them to bolster their frontal mass movement. Furthermore, the students can serve as a potent recruitment pool for the guerrilla movement as well as provide fillip to the technological prowess of the ultras. And secondly, the rebels, in all probability, intend to wreck the electoral process of the impending legislative elections in West Bengal in the middle of 2011. To ensure that, presence in the city is a must.

Second, information has been obtained that the insurgents want to extend their network beyond the so-called Red Corridor and target the tea plantation labourers in the Northeast. In that venture, they are in the process of forging alliances with terror outfits based in the region. Incidentally, the capture of these Maoist leaders appears to be linked to the arrest of Anthony Shimray, the chief arms buyer of the NSCN (IM) and Rajkumar Meghen, the chairman of United National Liberation Front.

Shimray was arrested in Kathmandu on 2 October 2010, soon after he bought a fresh consignment of arms and communication devices worth 4.5 crore. There is a distinct possibility that the huge cache of arms and rudimentary voice-controlled explosives seized from Kanchan and his team was in some way connected to the separatists of Northeast.

Kanchan has disclosed that the Maoists have already struck a deal to get arms and training from the Manipur-based insurgent group, the People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (Prepak). He further told the STF that the deal with Prepak was struck around eight months ago after the leadership of both outfits agreed to help each other.

Hence, this is an additional rationale for the Maoists to develop a base in Kolkata since it would facilitate communications with the Northeast. Moreover, close contacts with the Bangladesh-based Shailen Sarkar’s Communist Party can also turn out to be a reality.

Third, the investigations also point to the interesting fact that Kanchan and his associates feel alienated from the party activities. According to them, Kishenji has been bypassing the state committee since the beginning of 2009 and has been operating with his coterie. Kanchan has claimed that he was almost kept in the dark regarding the party's activities in Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore. However, this could well be a ruse in order to avoid divulging any operational information to the authorities.

Fourth, following these arrests, Maoists appear to be suffering from a leadership crisis. A day after the arrest, Asim Mondal alias Akash, a senior member of the state committee, told the Times of India: “The arrest is unfortunate and no doubt it is a jolt to our organisation.” In fact, Maoist sources have confirmed that they had an 11-member state committee and now seven of them are either behind the bars or dead.

However, these arrests are not without their parallel. A 42-year-old Maoist operative, Loknath Panth, hailing from Gulmi district in Nepal, was arrested in New Delhi on 3 December with a huge cache of explosives. This clearly indicates that the Left-wing ultras are ominously aiming for the cities. It is to be remembered that their top ideologue and politburo member, Kobad Ghandy, was also arrested in New Delhi.

In conclusion, it may be inferred that the Maoists are venturing into cities like Kolkata and Delhi with obvious intentions of solidifying and extending their networks. And in addition to that, they are in the process of colluding with other terrorist outfits based in the Northeast, Bangladesh and Nepal, which have grave security implications for the Indian state.

The Maoists are losing legitimacy

2010-12-08T05:31:00.001-08:00

Uddipan Mukherjee
E-Mail-uddipan.mukherjee@gmail.com

http://www.claws.in/index.php?action=master&task=690&u_id=136

Of late, it seems that the police in the Bankura and West Midnapore districts of West Bengal have bagged considerable evidence so as to jeopardise the legitimacy of the Maoists in Jangalmahal, the area spreading across the three Maoist-affected districts of West Bengal (Purulia being the third).

On November 16, Rumpa Mahato alias Sujata surrendered at the Bankura SP's (Superintendent of Police) office. She belongs to the Majurkata village in West Midnapore’s Salboni area. Rumpa told SP, Pranab Kumar that she joined the Maoist ranks about two years ago, with a hope to get work as she was the daughter of a daily wage labourer.

There was another surrender a couple of months back. In August, Maoist woman leader Shobha Mandi alias Uma, surrendered to West Midnapore SP, Manoj Verma. The CPI-Maoist Jhargram area commander had been on the run for four months.

These two events, though spatially unconnected, however have profound linkage because both the female comrades of the CPI-Maoist party allege sexual exploitation by their male counterparts and leaders.

What does this indicate?

Prima-facie, if one accepts the veracity of the revelations of these surrendered women comrades, then one is led to understand that there has crept in a serious flaw in the internal organisational structure of the Maoists. And, this can and should be exploited by the authorities to win the ongoing Low Intensity Conflict.

Any sort of physical or mental abuse of women cadres is totally unsupported by Maoist-Marxist ideology. Hence such a development, if not arrested soon by the Maoist leadership, can be effectively used by the government as a propaganda tool to thwart their designs in Jangalmahal and other areas.

In the foreword of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara’s acclaimed book ‘Guerrilla Warfare’, Harry Villegas states that “according to Che, the people are to the guerrilla fighters what water is to a fish, that is, their means to existence”.

In fact, this is the very reason why Mao Zedong had used the nomenclature of ‘Protracted People’s War’ to describe the long drawn out ordeal of the Chinese peasants against both the Kuomintang forces and the imperial Japanese in the 1930s and 40s.

And incidentally, this has been the very pillar of ‘legitimacy’ erected by the Indian Maoists. They are supposedly fighting a ‘war’ against the comprador-bourgeoisie Indian state which is overtly exploiting the masses through the bureaucracy-politician-corporate nexus.

Now, in light of the above gruesome tales, what shall be the defence of the Maoist leadership spearheaded by Muppala Lakshmana Rao alias Ganapathy? Will he term these as mere aberrations?

Now, if these are ‘exceptions’, then how does the leadership evade accusations of involvement of Maoist cadre in the derailment of the Jnaneswari Express? The Maoist leadership may distance itself from such ‘wanton’ acts of terror by using the epithet, ‘lumpen elements’. Simply put, it shall be easy for them to say that such acts of terror were carried out by ‘misled’ cadres. However, more such happenings are bound to jeopardise the internal hierarchy of the ultras and along with it, shall also alienate the very ‘downtrodden masses’ for which they claim to be fighting.

Apart from the afore-mentioned facts, a very recent report of November 11 flashed an ominous link between the CPI-Maoist and the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).

According to Vishwa Ranjan, the Director General of Police of Chhattisgarh; somewhere in April or May this year, two LeT operatives had reportedly attended a Naxalite meeting as ‘observers’ at a forested location inside Orissa, close to Chhattisgarh's Bastar region. He however cautioned that the inputs received by the intelligence wings were based on a single source and not corroborated by the required multiple sources.

In fact, even before, there have been allegations that Islamabad-based terrorist organisations have, if not overt, at least peripheral connections with Indian Maoists.

The Maoist core leadership has constantly denied such allegations. Nevertheless, there is a context in which the Naxalites may work with Islamist fundamentalists backed by the theocracy-military complex of Pakistan. As per principle, the Maoists support any movement for self-determination by any section of the Indian populace. Accordingly, they espouse the cause of Kashmiri separatists and the groups belonging to the North-East. Nonetheless, such an ‘emotional’ and ‘philosophical’ attachment with the groups who in turn have direct linkages with Islamist fundamentalists, will certainly brand the Maoists as purely terror outfits, shorn of any legitimacy.

In his article dated June 3 2006, in the Economic and Political Weekly, Gautam Navlakha strongly opined: “To advocate seizure of power and to work to change the world is a legitimate project. Whether this should be through an armed struggle, peaceful means or a fusion of all is an open question. But to advocate as an absolute must the disarming of people concedes to the government the right to a monopoly over violence.”

Now, if the kind of ‘acts’ under discussion, proliferates with space and time; and the Maoist core leadership is unable to control such ‘growing aberrations’, then the basic ‘ideology’ for which the Maoists are purportedly fighting, shall fall into shambles.

Though any liaison, direct or peripheral, between the Maoists and Islamist fundamentalists are serious security concerns for the Indian state, such an alliance and recurrence of misdemeanours toward female cadres have the potential to ‘internally wreck’ the organisation of the Left Wing Ultras.

Ganapathy and his party must appreciate the fact that ‘they’ too possess no ‘monopoly’ over the will of the Adivasis.

Dr Uddipan Mukherjee has a doctoral degree from TIFR (Dept. of Atomic Energy, India). He writes on strategic issues concerning international security.

(The views expressed in the article are that of the author and do not represent the views of the editorial committee or the centre for land warfare studies).

Maoists blow up Jharkhand panchayat building

2010-11-28T05:10:00.000-08:00

Source:IANS Sun, Nov 28, 2010 at 12:50Send to MobilePrint

Ranchi, Nov 28 (IANS) Maoist guerrillas blew up a panchayat building in Jharkhand's Latehar district as the state holds its first panchayat polls, police said Sunday.

According to the police, 15 to 20 Maoists raided Khura village in Latehar, some 140 km from here, late Saturday night and blew up a panchayat building using detonators and explosives.

No one was injured in the incident.

The first phase of the five-phase panchayat polls took place in Jharkhand Saturday that saw 64 percent balloting.

In a separate incident, police recovered two landmines from Khapia village in Latehar district.

The last panchayat elections were held in 1979 when Jharkhand was part of Bihar. The subsequent polls could not be held in Jharkhand due to a legal battle over reservation to tribal people in scheduled areas (notified tribal areas).

In the absence of elected panchayats, the state loses out on over Rs.300-400 crore annually in central assistance, which are provided to these local governments directly.

5 killed in Orissa landmine blast

2010-11-28T05:03:00.000-08:00

At least five persons, including two women and a three-year-old child, were killed as suspected Maoists blew up an ambulance by triggering a landmine blast in Orissa’s Kandhamal district, police said on Sunday.

“We have received information about a landmine explosion that blew up an ambulance in Brahmanigaon area of Kandhamal late last night,” Director General of Police Manmohan Praharaj told PTI.

The ambulance was on its way from Gadapur to Brahmanigaon, about 2 km from the blast site, when it was targetted in the Maoist infested area close to Gajapati and Ganjam, the police said.

The explosion that took place near a culvert at Pangdugaon, about 300 km from Phulbani, killed among others a woman health worker, a pregnant woman and the ambulance driver, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Southern Range) R.K. Sharma said.

The victims were identified as Simon Mallick, the driver, Imoty Digal, her three-year-old daughter Subhasri Digal, their relative Bunu Digal and Sukanti Pradhan, a health worker, the police said.

While the driver was from Gadapur village in the district, the other victims belonged to Daringbadi, he said.

Security forces including CRPF jawans have launched a massive combing operation in the area in the wake of the blast.

The incident came close on the heels of the killing of a prominent contractor, Manoj Sahu on November 25 in Brahmanigaon area

Maoists blow up ambulance, five killed

2010-11-28T04:57:00.000-08:00

November 28, 2010 6:33:50

IANS | Bhubaneswar

Five people, including two women and a child, were killed when Maoists blew up the ambulance they were travelling in in Orissa's Kandhamal district, police said Sunday.

The landmine blast took place Saturday night in a hilly and forested area near Brahmanigaon, some 350 km from here.

The ambulance was on a culvert when it was blasted off. The victims were on way to their home near Brahmanigaon after admitting a pregnant woman in a government hospital in neighbouring Ganjam district.

"Two women, a three-year-old girl and two men, including the driver, were killed," Superintendent of Police S. Praveen Kumar told IANS.

One of the dead women was a health worker, he said.

"The explosion was so powerful that it created a large hole on the road," he said, adding that the bodies have been taken for autopsy.

The latest attack comes after the Maoists killed a contractor in the area Thursday.

Kandhamal witnessed widespread violence after the murders of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four of his aides at his ashram Aug 23, 2008.

At least 38 people were killed and over 25,000 Christians were forced to flee their homes after their houses were attacked by mobs that held Christians responsible for Saraswati's killing, although the police blamed the Maoists.

Maoists blow up Jharkhand panchayat building

Ranchi: Maoist guerrillas blew up a panchayat building in Jharkhand's Latehar district as the state holds its first panchayat polls, police said on Sunday.

According to the police, 15 to 20 Maoists raided Khura village in Latehar, some 140 km from here, late Saturday night and blew up a panchayat building using detonators and explosives.

No one was injured in the incident.

The first phase of the five-phase panchayat polls took place in Jharkhand Saturday that saw 64 percent balloting.

In a separate incident, police recovered two landmines from Khapia village in Latehar district.

The last panchayat elections were held in 1979 when Jharkhand was part of Bihar. The subsequent polls could not be held in Jharkhand due to a legal battle over reservation to tribal people in scheduled areas (notified tribal areas).

In the absence of elected panchayats, the state loses out on over Rs.300-400 crore annually in central assistance, which are provided to these local governments directly.

Naxals travel luxury class for safety

2010-11-28T04:56:00.000-08:00

RAMASHANKAR

(From top) Arms recovered in police raid and Chulbul Yadav, Dharmendra Rai and Gyani Paswan. Pictures by Sanjay Choudhary

Patna, Nov. 27: Union forest and environment minister Jairam Ramesh’s objection to use of SUVs on Indian roads might not have gone down well with Naxalites in Bihar and Jharkhand.

The rebels are travelling luxury class these days.

Their choice of vehicles has flummoxed even the policemen who arrested three activists of the banned CPI (Maoist) from Rohtas district on Saturday.

On the information divulged by the arrested men, a Tata Safari with a UP number was recovered from Chenari block in the same district.

One of the three arrested Maoists, Gyani Paswan, a resident of Dawanpur village under Bhagawanpur police station in Kaimur district, revealed to the police that the rebels are now travelling in sport utility vehicles (SUVs) instead of trains and private buses.

The change in modus operandi, Paswan said, has been made following the arrest of many top-ranking leaders while travelling in trains and buses in the recent past.

The police said the explanation that the arrested Maoist offered for switching to luxury vehicles was that it helps the rebels avoid detection of their identity by security agencies and allows hassle-free transportation of illegal weapons.

Paswan told the police that the cops on check post hardly search SUVs during vehicle-checking drive.

“Unless and until the police have specific information, they don’t intercept the SUVs and search them. The Maoists and criminals take advantage of the police’s leniency in searching the luxury vehicles,” Paswan reportedly told the interrogators. He further said: “The SUVs not only facilitates easy transportation for the Maoists but also helps them ferry weapons without any hindrance.”

Deputy Superintendent of Police (Sasaram) Vishwajeet Dayal said that Paswan was evading arrest in over one dozen cases of kidnapping, loot and murder in Rohtas-Kaimur region.

“Gyani Paswan is a hardened criminal. But he recently established his links with the Maoists’ outfit to create terror in the minds of the people,” he said, adding that the details of his antecedents were being collected from different police stations of Rohtas and Kaimur districts.

According to Dayal, Paswan is a close associate of Tribhuvan Bind, a hardcore Naxalite of Kaimur.

The police suspect Paswan to be involved in supplying arms to Maoists, but the latter denied any such dealings during the interrogation.

Paswan is said to be the mastermind behind a series of attacks on the prisoners’ lock up on court premises at Babhua in Kaimur district to set their accomplices free.

He himself escaped from prisoners’ lock up in Sasaram court in November 2009 after hurling bombs at the police officers present on the premises.

Dayal told The Telegraph on the phone that the police first arrested Gyani and his associate Dharmendra Rai, a resident of Musiman in Bhadohi area of UP, from the Grand Trunk Road under Model police station during checking of vehicles.

One country-made pistol and four ammunition were recovered from their possession.

Subsequently, the police carried out raids at Sabrabad village under Chenari police station of the district and arrested Chulbul Yadav.

Two looted police rifles of .303 bore were also recovered during the raid, he said, adding that the arrest of Dharmendra suggested inter-state links of the arrested persons.

In all, two looted police rifles, one country-made rifle, a double-barrel gun and a country-made pistol were seized from different hideouts of the arrested rebels.

Sources in the state police headquarters said that over 35 zonal and area commanders have been arrested from different Maoists-affected districts in the past one year. Some of them were evading arrest for long, a senior police officer said, adding that over 350 activists of the banned outfit have been arrested from the 33 Maoist-affected districts of the state in the past 11 months

Naxalites, terrorists talking of bullet can't be patriots: Shivraj Singh Chouhan

2010-11-28T04:54:00.000-08:00

Sunday, November 28, 2010 18:20 IST
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that Naxalites and terrorists believing in the policy of bullet instead of ballot cannot be termed as 'patriots or revolutionaries'.

"Those talking of bullet instead of ballot cannot be termed as patriots or revolutionaries as their major aim was to capture power in Delhi," Chouhan, who is the first non-Congress chief minister to complete five years in power on November 29, told PTI.

Chouhan was reacting to the remark of the celebrity author, Arundhati Roy, who has recently termed Naxalites as patriots.

He said not only just Naxalites, she has also termed terrorists in Kashmir as revolutionaries and demanded stern action against her.

"If those involved in such acts are termed as patriots or revolutionaries then no country in the world would be able to run its affairs," she said.

Chouhan also demanded from the Centre to declare all seven districts in the state as Naxal-affected so that funds can be allocated under security related expenditure (SRE) for ensuring additional security in these districts.

He said that though Naxal activities were effectively curbed in Madhya Pradesh, reports of their activities are still knocking in border districts like Sidhi, Singrauli, Dindori, Mandla and Anuppur. The other Naxal-affected districts in the state are Balaghat and Shahdol.

Though a proposal in this regard was pending with the Centre, it has not yet approved the same.

URL of the article: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_naxalites-terrorists-talking-of-bullet-can-t-be-patriots-shivraj-singh-chouhan_1473418-all

Two hardcore Maoists held

2010-11-27T08:55:00.001-08:00

Aurangabad (Bihar), Nov 27 (PTI) Two hardcore Maoists were arrested from Tetaria village in the district today, police said.

The ultras were involved in a blast at Pachokar in the district on November 21 in which eight persons, mostly children, were killed, they said.

The duo were also allegedly involved in burning of several equipment of a thermal power plant being jointly set up by the NTPC and Railways at Navinagar a couple of days ago, they added.

Chhattisgarh Police arrest Maoist rebel in Bijapur

2010-11-27T08:53:00.000-08:00

Saturday, November 27, 2010, 14:00[IST]

Bijapur (Chhattisgarh), Nov.27 (ANI): Chhattisgarh Police on Saturday confirmed the arrest of a senior Maoist rebel during a routine operation near Bijapur.

The arrested Maoist was identified as Median Gucha alias Aitu. Police said that he has confessed to the killing of Special Police Officer Irpa Dinesh.

B. P. Raj Bhanu, Additional Superintendent of Police, Bijapur, said Gucha, along with his Maoist group, had abducted Dinesh and his family while they were travelling in a bus.

He said five members of the family were released one by one, but by the end of October, Dinesh was killed.

After being produced before a Sessions Court, Gucha was sent back to jail.

The Maoists have spread into rural pockets of 20 of India's 28 states. The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, has termed the Maoists as India's gravest internal security challenge and threat. (ANI)

Voters defy Maoists in Jharkhand's first panchayat polls

2010-11-27T08:52:00.000-08:00

Press Trust Of India
Ranchi, November 27, 2010First Published: 14:07 IST(27/11/2010)
Last Updated: 14:09 IST(27/11/2010)

Defying a boycott call of Maoists, voters started queuing up at polling booths early Saturday to cast their votes in Jharkhand's maiden panchayat polls. "I am standing here since 6.15 a.m. We have got a chance to elect mukhiyas (panchayat heads) and will not let go of this chance," said Jamunia

Devi, a resident of Ormajhi block of Ranchi.
Polling began at 7 a.m. amid tight security and by 11 a.m., 15 to 20 percent votes were cast, officials said.

Like Jamunia, thousands of voters were eager to elect their representatives for panchayats, the third, grassroots level tier of governance, irrespective of the Maoist threat.

"Maoists cannot decide everything. We have right to elect our mukhiya and sarpanch," said a voter who did not wish to be named.

Enthusiasm was visibly clear on the faces of voters, especially women.

"Mukiyas and sarpanches enjoy more powers and they will sort our problems," said a local, Malti Devi.

Jharkhand has reserved 50 percent of seats for women. The polls will be conducted in five phases.

A total 1,348 panchayats of 77 blocks have gone to polls in the first phase. There are 51,433 candidates in the fray, whose fate will be decided by 43,27,944 registered voters.

Five helicopters are being used for air surveillance. Besides, 426 companies of paratroopers and state police have been deployed to ensure peaceful polling.

The last panchayat polls were held in 1979 when Jharkhand was part of Bihar. After the formation of the state in 2000, the polls were delayed due to a legal battle over reservation to tribal people in scheduled areas (notified tribal areas).

Due to the absence of panchayats, the state loses out on more than Rs.300-400 crore annually in central assistance, which are provided to these local governments directly.

Police losing poster war with Maoists

2010-11-27T08:51:00.002-08:00

TNN, Nov 25, 2010, 12.31am IST

BOKARO: Apparently the district police who have geared up for poster war against Maoists have failed to implement it.

In order to disrupt the election process, Maoists have given a boycott call by pasting posters in different areas of Gomia, Nawadih and others. To give a befitting reply to naxalites poster drive, the police displayed separate posters to be pasted across different corners in the district.

In the posters, the police administration planned to project woeful stories of Mako Devi, a resident of Mahuataad whose husband was killed by Maoists. The police are said to have printed around 6,000 posters and pamphlets to distribute among villagers before the election.

For that police have designed about two dozen different kinds of posters and pamphlets. But nothing so far has been seen distributed or pasted in the area, sources said.

Behind this, the police have a strategy to unmask the brutal face of Maoists in front of villagers so that they do not get motivated by this and participate fearlessly in panchayat election. Bokaro SP Saket Singh said they will definitely paste the posters in Maoist-hit areas while search operation is being carried out in Jhumra areas to ensure peaceful election. "Few of the pamphlets have been distributed and others will be circulated soon," said Singh.

Read more: Police losing poster war with Maoists - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ranchi/Police-losing-poster-war-with-Maoists-/articleshow/6984330.cms#ixzz16VDRdgG9

Maoists burn equipment of NTPC plant

2010-11-27T08:51:00.001-08:00

AURANGABAD: Armed Maoists burnt equipment of a power plant being jointly set up by railways and NTPC at Nabinagar in Bihar's Aurangabad district, Superintendent of Police Vivek Raj Singh said today.

Over 50 naxalites raided the construction site of the proposed plant late last night and burnt several equipment including four dumpers, three hydra cranes and mixer machine worth lakhs of rupees, the SP said.

They also kept some of the workers present their captive for some time and assaulted them, he said.

A combing operation has been launched to track down the naxalites.

The railway and NTPC are jointly setting up a 2000 MW power plant at Surar village in Nabinagar.

'Naxals used library to spread their ideology'

2010-11-27T08:48:00.000-08:00

Shailendra Mohan, Hindustan Times
Mumbai, November 24, 2010
First Published: 01:21 IST(24/11/2010)

The banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), dubbed as the single largest threat to India’s internal security by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had set up a base in the city to propagate their ideology and to connect with the youth. The naxalite allegedly used a reading library situated in the slums along the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR) in the western suburbs for this purpose, a witness has told the police.

The witness in his statement to the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has named Surya Devra Prabhakar, an alleged naxalite leader who was arrested by the ATS on January 19. Prabhakar, a member of the politburo and one of the top most leaders of CPI (Maoists), was arrested from Kanjurmarg and he had been working in the city since 1991, trying to lure people towards the naxalite ideology, the witness has said.

Prabhakar had been a member of the organisation since 1978 and was a member of the Maharashtra State Committee of the CPI (Maoists). He allegedly controlled operations for Dahanu, Wada, Palghar and other rural areas and had, therefore, set up base in Mumbai.

“He used to preach his ideology before a group of people at the library. Prerna Wachnalay, situated on JVLR helped him get an audience,” said the witness in his statement.

According to the witness, whose testimony is part of the charge sheet filed by the ATS against Prabhakar in August, Prabhakar used to regularly visit the slums at JVLR and had developed friendship with locals by offering them help by paying their bills and performing their small chores. Prabhakar spoke of the naxalite struggle and activities of the erstwhile People’s War Group (PWG), the witness has stated in his statement.

When the Hindustan Times visited the library on Monday, it was found locked and locals there refused to say anything about it. “It opens at 7pm and people come here to read books,” a man in mid-20s, who was sitting nearby said. He refused to talk further.

On dialing a telephone number that was printed on a poster, which was put up outside the library, a man who identified himself as Milind (refused to give his second name) answered the call and said the library was recognised by the government. “There are all kinds of books here,” said Milind, adding that the membership fee is nominal.

Milind said he did not know who Prabhakar was. “There is no restriction on anyone becoming a member,” he said.

3 civilians dead as Naxals blast 'police vehicle'

2010-11-27T08:47:00.000-08:00

TNN, Nov 26, 2010, 03.28am IST

CHINTAPALLI (VISAKHAPATNAM): Three civilians were killed when Maoists blasted a van in Chintapalli mandal in Vizag Agency, assuming it to be a police vehicle. Though the incident happened on Tuesday night, it came to light only on Thursday after some villagers ventured into Rallagedda hamlet on Balapam-Korukonda road where the rebels triggered a landmine.

The three civilians were heading to Korukonda in a 407 (usually associated with police vehicles) van to get ganja when the Maoists triggered the landmine blast, sources aid.

Though the villagers heard a deafening sound late on Tuesday night, no one dared to venture out into the heavily mined area. The deceased were identified as Deva Nookaraju of Ravanapalli of Golgonda mandal, Hassi of Narsipatnam and Nagaraju.

Sources said the Maoists in fact planned to blast Annavaram police station to send a warning signal to the cops combing the heavily Maoist-infested area. The impact of the blast was such that 10-ft crater was formed, while the bodies were flung to a corner, 200 metres away. Plastic bags, a pair of slippers and blood-stained clothes were found at the blast site, which is 40 km from Chintapalli.

District committee member Chedda Bhushanam alias Khatro, key leader Santosh and five other leaders from Chhattisgarh were present on a hillock where they had assembled to discuss preparations for PLGA fete when the blast took place, the sources said. Sources said top Maoist leaders could be camping there ahead of the Dec. 2 PLGA week celebrations and hence, the cadres must have planted the landmines. "It is because of this worry the cops did not visit the blast site till Thursday evening," a source said. Police said the rebels might have blasted the van in a case of mistaken identity.

The police department normally uses vans bearing 407 registration number to transport security personnel for combing operations. "But the private van had East Godavari registration number," a source averred. It may be recalled the Korukonda committee has been active in the area for the past few months and killed seven tribals, suspecting them to be police informers.

Meanwhile, security in all police stations in the Agency has been beefed up. Apart from deploying combing parties in big numbers, the police are planning to take up joint operations with Orissa cops. "Some choppers are likely to pressed into service to carry out aerial patrolling," a source said.

Read more: 3 civilians dead as Naxals blast 'police vehicle' - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/3-civilians-dead-as-Naxals-blast-police-vehicle/articleshow/6991938.cms#ixzz16VCMLrjO

Security forces to be moved out of government schools in Bastar

2010-11-27T08:46:00.000-08:00

Published: Friday, Nov 26, 2010, 1:56 IST
Place: Raipur | Agency: PTI

Security forces will be soon moved out of government schools in the Naxal-affected Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, official sources said today.

The step is being taken to prevent Naxal attacks on these schools, which house security personnel engaged in anti-Maoist operations, they said.

Besides schools, the personnel reside in state-run hostels and other government buildings, which are often targeted by the Naxals, the sources said.

The security forces will be shifted out of these government facilities and accommodated in safer dwellings which will be built soon, they said.

Meanwhile, the government will remove hurdles coming in the way of filling up long-pending vacancies in Bastar, and if necessary, relax appointment rules, the sources said.

Bastar Development Group has been set up by the government to ensure faster growth in the tribal-dominated region, they added.

Shut shop in villages, Maoists tell MFIs

2010-11-27T08:45:00.000-08:00

TNN, Nov 27, 2010, 03.33am IST

WARANGAL: Taking a tough stand against micro finance institutions (MFIs), the Maoists have asked MFI managements to close their operations in villages immediately in the wake of series of suicides by women.

Maoist party KKW (Karimnagar-Khammam-Warangal) secretary Sudhakar warned MFIs of dire consequences if they do not call it quits. In a statement here on Friday, he said agents and representatives of MFIs are humiliating rural women and insulting their family members because of which several villagers have committed suicide.

He termed the government ordinance on MFIs as a sham since agents continue to collect loan instalments from women forcibly. He also warned SKS Finance chief Vikram Akula, Share Finance company owner and member of Rajya Sabha V Hanumantha Rao, L&T, Swayamkrushi, Chaitanya MFIs' owners of serious consequences. "Followers of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are responsible for the spate of suicides in the state," he said in the statement.

Sudhakar said the government should grant five acres of agricultural land, an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh and employment opportunity to a person from the families of the deceased.

Making an appeal to the youth and women associations to fight against the mushrooming liquor and belt shops in the state, he said the government must take necessary steps to cancel the licences of these shops.

Sudhakar warned former Naxalites against acting as informers of police. "If you do not change your attitude, we will teach you a fitting lesson," he warned.

Meanwhile, four Naxals were arrested in Moranchapalle village in Bhupalapalle mandal. They were nabbed from the forest area. Fourteen country-made rifles were recovered from them.

Anti-terror commando force for Karnataka in 15 days

2010-11-27T08:43:00.000-08:00

Published: Saturday, Nov 27, 2010, 8:34 IST
By Srikanth Hunasavadi | Place: Bangalore | Agency: DNA

Karnataka will get its own anti-terror commando force to tackle any eventuality on the terrorism front in the state. The proposed force is expected to be operational in another 15 days.

“We are not waiting for the central government to send commando forces to the state. Nowadays, terror and naxal activities are spreading alarmingly and underworld activities are also on the rise. So, we decided to set up a commando force consisting of 300 men who are being trained now. Within the next fortnight, we will exhibit their strength before the public,” said home minister R Ashoka.

Making the announcement on the second anniversary of 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, the home minister said that the 300 personnel were being given advanced training to tackle terrorist attacks. He, however, did not elaborate on the details.

Karnataka, particularly Bangalore is on the terrorists’ hitlist, but the city is not equipped to tackle any attack as the police are not trained to handle such situations. Besides Bangalore, Mysore, Hubli and Belgaum are also sensitive, the minister said.

Also, to enhance training skills of the police force, the government has decided to set up two training centres in north Karnataka, Ashoka said. He further said, “To streamline the police recruitment system, we will introduce a transparent policy. Every time we want to recruit police personnel, we have to take permission from the finance department. The process gets delayed. So we will take prior permission from the finance department and go ahead with the appointments. Such mechanism will be evolved in the new policy,” he said.

Central nod to Rs 25-cr scheme for Naxal-hit states

2010-11-27T08:42:00.002-08:00

Nov 27, 8:43 PM
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved a special scheme for 60 districts in nine states affected by Left Wing extremism.

Giving details, Home Minister P Chidambaram said Rs 25 crore would be given to each of the district as grant for the current fiscal and Rs 30 crore in the next financial year.

He said the funds would be made available to a three-member committee headed by the District Collector. The committee will clear the project in consultations with other district officers and will be responsible for the implementation of the projects.

The State Development Commissioners will monitor the implementation of the projects in their states.
Chidambaram said development under the scheme should be visible by March.

Swayamsidha Raises Flag Against Naxalism

2010-11-27T08:42:00.001-08:00

19:07 IST

Swayamsidha – A Girl on Red Corridor,

an Odiya film in the Indian Panorma depicts the Naxalite menace and how it devastates the lives of innocent men and women. Post its screening at IFFI 2010, Sudhanshu Mohan Sahoo, the film’s director and crew met the Press at the Media Centre here today. Briefing the press, he emphasized said that through his movie he want to stress that an opportunity should be given to those on the red corridor to return to the Mainstream. He said that they have tried to put both sides of the story to the public. Siddhanta Mohapatra, the lead actor of the movie and a sitting Member of Parliament said” Nobody is Naxalite by birth but is only the circumstances which makes a person Naxalite” and so they should be extended a helping hand to come out of the circumstances.

Prabhat Ranjan Mallick, the producer of the film informed the Press that the movie has been made in Bengali and is being released in Kolkata today. The film has been shot in 70 days out of which 50 days in Naxal affected Koraput.

The film sees the debut of Yukta in the role of the main protagonist Shreya who is educated and talented. But the negligent attitude of the administration, failed protests and unsuccessful appeals force her to the path of terror. Shreya, in her struggle to build a society free of exploitation, metamorphoses into Swayamsiddha. In her struggle, she comes across Raj who is a happy-go-lucky man kidnapped by her group. All-out efforts to secure Raj’s release end in vain. Raj comes to know about the sordid ordeals that had befallen Shreya. Raj tries to dissuade her which only ends in further devastation. Eventually, Raj gives a clarion call; Shreya hears it and her Swayamsidha-side steps out.

Govt unveils Rs 3,300 cr plan for naxal districts

2010-11-27T08:41:00.001-08:00

PTI, Nov 26, 2010, 07.30pm IST

NEW DELHI: With an aim of tackling naxalism through development, the government has unveiled a special Rs 3300 crore action plan in 60 affected tribal and backward districts across nine states.

The Integrated Action Plan (IAP) is intended to provide immediate redressal to problems of the people in tribal and backward districts in the sector like healthcare, drinking water, education and roads.

The IAP would be given as an additional central assistance scheme on 100 per cent grant basis to be implemented in two years, Home Minister P Chidambaram said about the decision taken at the meeting of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs held last evening.

"In the current year (2010-11), a block grant of Rs 25 crore will be made available to each of the 60 districts for which the schemes will be decided by a committee headed by the distrcit collector with district SP and district forest officer as members," Chidambaram said here.

The projects would have to be completed by March in a "concrete" and "visible" manner, he said.

The works would be taken up by district collectors by December 1, he said, adding the block amount of Rs 25 crore will have to be utilised in the remaining four months of the current fiscal.

Elaborating on the action plan, he said the grant would be utilised by a committee headed by district collectors of the state to undertake doable projects like construction of link roads, Panchayat Ghar (office building) etc.

The government, he added, proposes to call a meeting of the collectors of the 60 districts shortly to apprise them about the scheme and also the urgency to complete projects within the stipulated time frame.

During the financial year 2011-12, the block grant will be raised to Rs 30 crore per district and it will be reviewed for implementation in the 12th Plan at a later stage.

"Construction of roads and schools and proper implementation of public distribution system will take place in all these Maoist-hit areas," Chidambaram said.

Read more: Govt unveils Rs 3,300 cr plan for naxal districts - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Govt-unveils-Rs-3300-cr-plan-for-naxal-districts/articleshow/6996094.cms#ixzz16VAkWH2f

Maoists use teen girl as ‘porter’

2010-11-24T07:42:00.000-08:00

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Bankura, Nov. 23: Suspected Maoists forced a 13-year-old Bankura girl to carry landmines and kept her sleepless on night-long vigils after luring her with promises of a better life, police said today, claiming she had escaped from the rebels.

Bankura police chief Pranab Kumar, who held a news conference with the Santhal girl by his side, said that within a month of being drafted by the rebels this March, she was put through gruelling drills and had to learn how to use weapons like pistols.

The girl said she had decided to leave after a close shave in an encounter with the police on November 8. “A bullet whizzed past my head. I hid my pistol and ran away. That day I decided I would escape,” the girl said.

The police said they had rescued the girl on November 14, days after she had escaped and was going around villages in the area asking for food from residents who refused to help her for fear of being targeted by the rebels.

“We got to know that a minor girl had fled from the Maoists and was hiding in the forests. With the help of her parents, we found her,” Kumar said.

A source, however, suggested the girl was caught on the day of the November 8 encounter. “She could not flee with the others. Since then she has been with the police,” the source said.

The Maoists put the girl on sentry duty and made her carry heavy loads, including “Challenger” landmines that weigh up to 15kg, Kumar said.

It was in March that a youth named Chhotu — apparently a rebel recruiting agent — had first approached her in her village, Bagdubi, 310km from Calcutta. “He said he would get her money and new clothes if she came with him and performed some tasks,” Kumar said.

The girl is the eldest of five children. Her father cultivates his own small patch of land.

When Chhotu promised her a better life if she came away with him, she took the opportunity. But she didn’t realise then that she was being recruited as a potential Maoist squad member.

“When she came home (initially), she seemed happy and wanted to go back again. Later, we got to know that she was with the Maoists. We did not report the matter to the police for fear of reprisal by the Maoists,” said her mother, who was also at the news conference.

A child soldier of the Maoists caught

2010-11-24T07:40:00.000-08:00

Anirban Roy
Kolkata, November 24, 2010
Updated 10:53 IST

Maoists 'hide' child cadre in school

The West Bengal Police have picked up a 13- year- old girl-said to be an active member of the Maoists' Raniband squad - giving credence to reports that the Maoists are recruiting minors in their ranks.

The girl Lakshmi (name changed) was picked up by the police from Bagdubi village in Bankura district, one of the hotbeds of Maoist activities in the state.

It was exposed by Mail Today on September 11 how the Maoists were recruiting children from schools in the remote areas of Purulia district.

Bankura SP Pranab Kumar said Lakshmi was lured by one Chhotu, whose identity is yet to be established, and handed her over to the Ranibandh squad last year. She was promised good food, new clothes and a prosperous life for joining the rebels.

" Even though she is young, Lakshmi is trained in guerrilla warfare," Kumar said, adding she has taken part in Maoist operations carried out in several places in Bankura district.

Kumar said Lakshmi was unable to bear the hardship of guerrilla life and had tried several times to leave the squad. She requested senior squad members to let her go home, but she was not allowed. Instead the rebels threatened her with dire consequences if she tried to flee.

" She gave a tragic account of her days with the Maoists," the superintendent of police said. The little girl was forced to perform rigorous physical exercises, sentry duties at Maoist camps and even forced to carry " challenger" land mines on her shoulders, he added.

Lakshmi had a miraculous escape when a bullet whizzed past her head during an encounter with the police on November 8 at Lithira forest near Ranibandh in Bankura.

During the encounter, she managed to escape.

A team of doctors on Tuesday examined Lakshmi in Bankura to ascertain whether she was sexually assaulted.

It is believed that Bankura police located Lakshmi based on information given by Maoist leader Kinkar Pal, who was arrested from Huangana forest in Barikul on Sunday.

Arrangements are being made by the district administration for Lakshmi's rehabilitation, including her education, vocational training and health care. A well- known NGO has been contacted, Kumar said.

" It is sad the Maoists are now forcing children to join their peoples' war," said a member of Bankura Mahila Samiti, requesting anonymity.

Shobha Mandi alias Uma, a Maoist squad member who had surrendered in West Midnapore in September, had alleged that she was sexually exploited by the Maoist leaders for two years.

Maoist ideologue Vara Vara Rao termed the allegation of recruitment of child soldiers in West Bengal as a " propaganda" by the ruling Left Front.

CRPF boss on rebel turf recce

2010-11-24T07:36:00.000-08:00

SUMAN K. SHRIVASTAVA

DGP Neyaz Ahmed and CRPF DG K Vijay Kumar in Ranchi. (Prashant Mitra)
Ranchi, Nov. 23: Director-general (DG) of CRPF K. Vijay Kumar reviewed the ongoing anti-Naxalite operations in Jharkhand at a high-level meeting with the state and police brass today and said the offensive would be intensified.

The DG also made an attempt to bond with the jawans fighting the Maoists. Immediately after landing in Ranchi yesterday, Kumar went to Jhumra, Bokaro, and then to Garu in Latehar — two of the remotest areas where CRPF companies are stationed. He even spent the night with the forces in Garu. “It conveyed the message to the personnel that the top officers are with them,” said CRPF IG (operations) Alok Raj.

At today’s closed-door meeting, which continued for an hour at the state police headquarters, Kumar stressed on speedy development and strengthening of the police apparatus to check the Maoist menace in the state.

Promising every help to the CRPF for carrying out the operation successfully, chief secretary A.K. Singh, who was present at the meeting, said: “We should work in tandem.”

Kumar, a Tamil Nadu cadre IPS officer who had played a crucial role in the elimination of sandalwood smuggler Veerappan as the head of Special Task Force, also lauded the successful joint operation carried out by Gumla and Latehar police, CRPF and Cobra from November 19 to 21.

He handed over cash prize of Rs 1 lakh to the personnel who took part in the offensive in which a Maoist was killed and ammunition recovered.

Later, speaking to mediapersons, the chief secretary said it was a general review meeting. “Absence of BDOs and COs was cited as a factor behind non-execution of development plans. They will, henceforth, be compelled to stay at their headquarters once the panchayat bodies are in place,” Singh said.

DGP Neyaz Ahmed and IG (operations) R.K. Mallick were also present at the meeting.

2 jawans killed in retaliation to Naxal deaths

2010-11-24T07:35:00.000-08:00

"The Naxals blew up the vehicle by setting off a landmine resulting in the death of the driver and a constable," he said.

Nine Naxals were killed in a fierce encounter with CRPF and state police personnel in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, 383 kms from here.
Earlier report:

RAIPUR: Nine Maoists were Tuesday killed in a fierce gun battle with Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers in a forested pocket of the rebels' stronghold Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, police said.

The killings were reported from Jagargunda area of Dantewada district. The casualty site is located over 500 km south from here.

"It's a big success. CRPF's 111th battalion fought bravely with over 150 heavily armed Maoists. We have recovered bodies of all the nine rebels with their weapons," Dantewada's Senior Superintendent of Police S.R.P. Kalluri told IANS over phone.

A senior CRPF official posted in Dantewada said on condition of anonymity that the gun battle began when rebels opened fire on a strong contingent of the paramilitary force which was on patrolling from early morning.
"This time, we stunned them (Maoists). The personnel put the rebels' squad under heavy firing for nearly an hour. We successfully hunted nine of them. I believe many more received gun shots and probably were taken inside the forests," the officer informed.

The CRPF recovered many arms and explosives from the site. Senior CRPF officials and state police officers have rushed to the site which is not less than 200 km from Dantewada town - headquarters of India's worst insurgency-hit district.
For the paramilitary force, which has been put under repeated attacks in the sprawling 40,000 sq km mineral-rich, restive Bastar region, Tuesday's success is considered a big morale booster.

Maoists had been up against the CRPF in Bastar, mainly in Danteweda. They had killed 76 security personnel, including 75 of the CRPF, in a single attack in April this year.

'Maoists extorting from low-rung officials in Jharkhand'

2010-11-24T07:33:00.000-08:00

Updated on Tuesday, November 23, 2010, 19:26

Ranchi: The Jharkhand Government Tuesday confirmed Maoists extorting money from low rung officials in rural areas, even as CRPF chief Vijay Kumar suggested speedy development in these places for curbing left wing extremism.

"Some Naxalites have been collecting levy from development programmes. They take it from contractors. We also got information from some areas that they (even) demand levy from officials at various level," Jharkhand chief secretary A K Singh told reporters here today.

The CRPF Director-General today met Home Secretary, the state DGP, besides him to discuss about extremism, he said.

"CRPF DGP also spoke to Superintendents of Police of Naxal-hit districts and reviewed his forces deployed in the state. He is of the view that development has a big role in combating extremism and benefits should reach to common man," Singh said.

Kumar was told that development works were being done expeditiously, the chief secretary added.

He, however, said that major success cannot be achieved unless block development officers, circle officers and doctors stay at their places of posting, Asked whether BDOs and COs were still flouting even after government's recent directive, Singh said the officers have started to stay.

"Now they have started to stay after clear instructions have been given," Singh said.

Stating that the Centre had been giving huge funds, much of which remain "unspent", he said the government was determined to utilise the funds.

The presence of BDOs and COs was necessary, he added.

Refuting reports that the state's surrender policy did not evoke much response from Maoists, Singh said several Naxalites had recently joined the democratic fold and changes would be made in the policy if it was necessary.

About frequent Maoist killings in Khunti district, he said securitymen were also achieving success, but it was a long-drawn battle against the left wing extremism.

"Yesterday, security forces arrested Maoists and police weapons were recovered at Ghatsila in East Singhbhum."

18 of the 24 districts in Jharkhand have been officially announced as Maoist-hit areas.

PTI

20 Naxals killed in Dantewada encounter

2010-11-24T07:32:00.000-08:00

PTI First Published : 23 Nov 2010 08:45:07 PM IST

RAIPUR: About 20 Naxals were today killed in a fierce encounter with CRPF and state police personnel in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district. In another incident, two CRPF jawans were killed in a landmine blast triggered by the Naxals in Bijapur district.

CRPF Inspector General Pankaj Kumar Sinh said a joint team of CRPF jawans and state police deployed in Jagargunda area of Dantewada had gone for area domination exercise when about 200 Naxals started firing at them near Aasrampura village. The security forces returned the fire after which the Naxals fled.
Nine deadbodies of Naxals in ''green uniforms'' have been recovered by the security forces. The IG said the police also saw a pool of blood at the spot and there were certain marks which indicated that some bodies were dragged from there.
He said though bodies of only nine Naxals were found, possibly 20 Naxals have been killed in the firing. A team of the CRPF's 111 battalion accompanied by two special police officers (SPOs) and four state policemen made the first contact with Maoists at 7 AM and subsequently encircled the Maoists in the dense jungles of Jagargunda.

The security personnel also recovered nine weapons and explosives from the site and a search operation has been launched in adjoining areas, the officer said. Dantewada has been a Naxal hotbed and security forces have been trying to conduct successful operations here after 75 CRPF personnel and a state policeman were killed in a deadly ambush by the Maoists in April.

The second incident occurred near Murtanda village, 280 kms from the state capital, when a bullet-proof vehicle was on its way back from Awapally after ferrying jawans of Timapur-based 168 battalion of CRPF, according to Additional SP BPS Rajbhanu. "The Naxals blew up the vehicle by setting off a landmine resulting in the death of the driver and a constable," he said.

Fate of Chandauli forest dwellers still undecided

2010-11-23T02:58:00.000-08:00

Rajeev Dikshit, TNN, Nov 22, 2010, 10.40pm IST

VARANASI: The fate of around 4,000 people of Maoist-affected Chandauli district, who have lost the scheduled tribe (ST) status in the past 8-9 years, continues to hang in balance due to the indecisive attitude of the Union government. The state government has forwarded the recommendation to restore the ST status of these tribals but the Centre is yet to act on it. Due to the delay in the restoration of ST status, these people are still deprived of the benefits of the Tradition Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.

A tug-of-war between chief minister Mayawati and her arch rival and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had resulted in separation of Chandauli from Varanasi, re-merger and restoration of district in the past one decade. During her past regime, chief minister Mayawati had carved out Chandauli from Varanasi as a separate district in 1997. However, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav merged it again in Varanasi district after coming back to power in 2004. Finally a high court order helped in restoring the status of Chandauli district in July 2004. But in this tug-of-war, the jungle natives of Chandauli lost the status of ST and, in the lack of revenue records of past 75 years, proving them to be the traditional forest dwellers also became impossible. It also jolted the bid of the Chandauli administration to utilise this act as a major weapon against the Maoists.

On the basis of available revenue records and other evidences, only nine persons and their families of Chandauli district could be certified as the tradition forest dwellers. On May 22 last, social welfare commissioner and principal secretary Prem Narain visited the district and distributed the 'patta' of land among the same nine beneficiaries to provide them benefits as per the Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. If divisional forest officer of Kashi wildlife division PP Verma is to be believed, the benefits of community claims as per this act have also been given to the same beneficiaries.

According to Verma, over 14,000 claims have been received to seek the benefits of this act in the district. After proper verification, only nine applicants were found eligible for it. He said if the ST status of around 4,000 persons was restored, they could also be given the benefits of this act. During his May visit, Narain had disclosed that recommendation for the inclusion of 10 castes of Chandauli district on the list of ST had already been forwarded to the Union government.

District magistrate, Chandauli, VK Tripathi said the reminders were being sent to the Union government on regular intervals for taking decision on the issue. However, the Union government has not shown any interest in restoring the status of ST of the people of such castes. Verma said until they included in the ST list again, providing them the benefits of the act would be impossible. Members of the same castes are enjoying the ST status in adjoining Maoist-affected districts of Sonebhadra and Mirzapur, where a large number of the population has succeeded in getting the benefits of this act.

Read more: Fate of Chandauli forest dwellers still undecided - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/varanasi/Fate-of-Chandauli-forest-dwellers-still-undecided/articleshow/6971930.cms

Soft target & revenge whiff in 5 murders

2010-11-23T02:47:00.000-08:00

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Family members of Chunku Soren. (Samir Mondal)

Midnapore, Nov. 22: Suspected Maoists shot two CPM members dead today after a kangaroo court trial in West Midnapore, while the ruling party was accused of the revenge murders of two Trinamul Congress supporters with rebel links.

Paresh Rana and Sushil Mahato were dragged out of their homes in Sankrail and killed, raising the CPM toll in Maoist hands since Saturday to five. Intelligence sources explained that the rebels were going after stray “soft targets” after losing ground to the joint forces and a regrouping CPM.

The bodies of Chunka Soren and Kalipada Tudu, Trinamul supporters linked to the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities, were found in Salboni just about 500 metres from the spot where the Maoists had yesterday murdered local CPM leaders Rahim Patar and Pashupati Singh.

The families of the Trinamul duo claimed CPM cadres had killed them to avenge the deaths of Patar and Singh.

In the first incident, the police said, the Maoists forced around 200 people from neighbouring villages to march to Jambedia and Murakati. While Rana, 35, was picked up in Jambedia, Mahato, 53, was dragged out in Murakati.

The bullet-riddled bodies of Rana, a CPM branch committee member, and Mahato, a local committee member, were found in Murakati today.

Patar and Singh were gunned down in Salboni, a day after Maoists beheaded a CPM supporter in nearby Binpur.

Intelligence branch sources said Maoists were targeting “unguarded” local Left leaders after the CPM’s armed recapture of Lalgarh and villages in Salboni and Goaltore. “It is not possible for the rebels in these areas to attack the CPM cadres because they mostly remain inside heavily guarded party offices,” an intelligence official said.

So, he added, the rebels are targeting local CPM leaders who don’t have security rings around them. The rebels believe these leaders “oversee work to strengthen the party’s organisation in the Maoist belt”.

The intelligence sources said the Maoists killed the CPM men in Sankrail and Salboni on the suspicion that they had provided “inputs” to the police which led to the death of eight rebels in an encounter in Salboni in June.

The families of Soren and Tudu said around 20 armed CPM goons picked the duo up from their homes along with five others. Soren’s brother Khudon said: “The CPM goons ordered the seven to attend a meeting. This morning, five of them returned but my brother and Tudu did not.”

Reds blame cops for Aurangabad blast

2010-11-23T02:45:00.000-08:00

GAYA: The outlawed CPI (Maoist) has blamed the Aurangabad police for the tragic death of eight persons including seven children on Sunday and attributed the tragedy to a "police conspiracy" to malign the Maoists.

Paramjeet, the Maoist spokesperson who rang up TOI to make the allegation, said the Aurangabad police deliberately abandoned the live cylinder bomb to defame the Maoists.

According to Paramjeet, the Pachokhar villagers were given the impression by Aurangabad police that the cylinder bomb had been rendered ineffective and as such converted into an innocuous object inviting locals' curiousity. He claimed he was in possession of a vernacular daily published from Patna in which police officials were quoted as saying that the cylinder bomb has been rendered ineffective.

Paramjeet claimed the Maoists did not believe in killing innocent people.

Aurangabad SP Vivek Raj Singh vehemently denied that the police ever told the villagers that the cylinder bomb had been rendered ineffective.

Read more: Reds blame cops for Aurangabad blast - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Reds-blame-cops-for-Aurangabad-blast/articleshow/6972193.cms#ixzz166L2jrKg

'Governmment taps 5,000 phones on average'

2010-11-23T02:39:00.000-08:00

PTI First Published : 23 Nov 2010 09:01:28 AM IST
Last Updated : 23 Nov 2010 02:38:55 PM IST

NEW DELHI: Telephone calls of about 5,000 people are being recorded by central security agencies daily as part of security and preventive measures.
Government sources said on an average telephones of about 5,000 people are being kept under surveillance by intelligence agencies suspecting their linkages with terror activities, hawala operators and members of banned organisations.
Telephones of a number of people involved in various economic offences are also being monitored.

Sources said that conversations of terrorists and insurgent outfits in Jammu and Kashmir, Northeast and the banned CPI (Maoist) are mostly under the scanner of intelligence agencies.

"A lot of times the phone tapping is done for only sixty days. But when it involves persons who are facing any criminal case or are under the scanner of investigating agencies, their phones are kept under surveillance for a longer period," a senior Home Ministry official said.

As per official procedures, the phone tapping by intelligence agencies is done with the consent of the Union Home Secretary. The government can authorise tapping for 60 days which can be extended again as per needs.

The sources said that emails are also being monitored by government agencies after getting the consent of the service providers.

Sources said that tapping of telephone conversations of leading corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, whose name has cropped up in the 2G Spectrum row, with several influential persons were authorised by the government.

Joint operation to hunt rebels

2010-11-23T02:38:00.000-08:00

TNN, Nov 21, 2010, 11.01pm IST

Read more: Joint operation to hunt rebels - The Times of India

BOKARO: The police and Central Reserve Police Force ( CRPF) are carrying out a joint anti-Naxalite search operation in Jhumra and its surrounding areas in Gomia block here.

The recent spurt in rebel activities has forced the men in khakis to start hunt for Maoists in jungles.

The area, which was in peace since past one year, has suddenly shaken with landmine blasts triggered by Maoists recently. Behind the rise in Maoist activities, the upcoming panchayat elections is one of the reasons, feel the police. Maoists want to disturb polling process to create dominion among the residents of Maoists prone areas, they said.

After announcement of panchayat polls, the Maoists have given a boycott call, but seeing that despite the threat residents are filing nominations and are keen to take part in the democratic process, the Red outfits just went overboard. However, security forces have taken up challenge to conduct the elections peacefully in Maoist-prone areas.

Observing three separate landmine blasts in the foothills of Jhumra in past 10 days that claimed one security personnel and injured five others, have made the security forces launching operations. A large numbers of paramilitary forces have been deployed in the Jhumra region, who are carrying out operation.

"The operation is carried out to flush out Naxalities so that panchayat elections would be conducted in peaceful environment. We have deployed specially trained forces for such operation. They are scanning the area to search Red outfits," said Saket Singh, Bokaro SP.

13-year-old girl detained for supplying arms to Maoists

2010-11-23T02:37:00.000-08:00

BANKURA (West Bengal): A 13-year-old girl has been detained by the police after it raided a Maoist hideout at a village in Naxalite-affected Bankura district.

Acting on a tip off, Sukurmoni Soren was detained from Baghdubi village in the Barikul police station area on Monday night, district Superintendent of Police Pranab Kumar said.

Kumar said the girl was being interrogated by police officials.

Bankura is one among three districts in West Bengal where Maoists have been active for sometime, the other two being West Midnapore and Purulia districts.

MHA officer detained for leaking info to telecom company

2010-11-23T02:33:00.000-08:00

New Delhi
The Special Cell of the Delhi Police on Monday raided the office and residence of 1994-batch West Bengal-cadre IAS officer Ravi Inder Singh, currently posted in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), for allegedly leaking sensitive information.

Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) P N Aggarwal denied reports that Singh had been arrested. Police sources said he had been detained for questioning. A case has been registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Singh is posted as Director in the Internal Security (IS) division and was allegedly passing on information to a telecom company. His office, it is learnt, was involved in granting security clearance to companies. He was under surveillance for over a month.

Union Home Secretary G K Pillai said the Delhi Police, acting on a tip-off, raided the North Block office of Singh. “The raid was conducted after complaints that the officer was leaking sensitive information to some corporates,” Pillai said. He denied that Singh was involved in procurement of arms and material for central police organisations. He also refused to say to whom Singh was passing on information, though raids are likely at the offices of this company.

The IS Division of the MHA is one of its most sensitive wings, dealing with crucial issues related to security, including the Naxal problem. “So far, it looks like a case of corruption. If required, the officer will be taken into custody,” said a source. Singh had joined MHA in January.

Maoist sub-zonal commander killed, 2 associates arrested

2010-11-23T02:31:00.000-08:00

23 NOV, 2010, 12.17PM IST,PTI

JAMSHEDPUR: A self-styled sub-zonal commander of the CPI (Maoist) was killed while his two associates were arrested following a fierce encounter with the police at Bardi village in Naxal-hit Ghatsila sub-division of East Singhbhum district.

DIG (Kolhan) Navin Kumar Singh said that Dalma squad sub-zonal commander Arup Mochi was killed and two other Maoists - Maheshwar Mahto and Ganesh Chandra Tudu - were arrested in the encounter on Monday night.

Singh said one more person was detained for interrogation.

The police also recovered two police rifles, one 9mm pistol and one 7.65 mm pistol along with a large quantity of live cartridges and cash from the spot.

The encounter took place a day after suspected Maoists shot at and critically injured a villager at Sonahatu village under Chakulia police station

Naxal killed as mine being planted goes off

2010-11-23T02:30:00.000-08:00

TNN, Nov 23, 2010, 03.26am IST

Read more: Naxal killed as mine being planted goes off - The Times of India

NAGPUR: A Naxalite was killed and a few of his aides injured when a land mine they were planting under a road went off accidentally near Eragatta in Sironcha tehsil on Saturday evening. The Naxalites were planting the mine under the road connecting Alapalli to Sironcha.

Unconfirmed reports claimed they were planning a big attack on a police patrolling party. It failed due to inept handling of the explosives. Patrolling parties of C-60 commandos and Central Paramilitary forces are at present combing the adjoining areas.

The Naxalites are generally trained in such activities and are not known to suffer such setbacks. They had recently killed four security personnel at Perimilli in a mine explosion and on the following day blew up a police vehicle in similar manner leaving several cops injured.

Rumours started doing rounds about the casualties though initially there was no confirmation. Till now, there is confusion regarding date of incident. While additional superintendent of police, Aheri, Rajesh Sharma claimed the incident took place on Saturday evening, a reliable source in Gadchiroli said it was on Friday afternoon. There was confusion regarding the numbers of casualties too.

Local police, opting not to take risk, ensured that a villager was sent to the area where the mine had likely gone off. "Blood stains were spotted in the forest adjoining the road. The place was close to the road. There was no crater formed. Shrapnel or splinters could not be traced. We cannot expect an expert's comment from the villager," said Sharma.

"Our police team would be there to inspect the spot in another couple of days as they are busy in patrolling at present," said Sharma. The senior officer also said that there was no official confirmation of the incident. "We have received no formal complaint. There was no trace of any injured persons or body found at the place," said Sharma.

The security agencies, based in Nagpur, were activated after the incident came to their notice. Sources claimed that the undercover sleuths had started visiting hospitals and nursing home anticipating that the Naxals may bring their injured for treatment here. Their counterparts in other districts were also alerted, it is learnt.

Nine naxals killed in Chhattisgarh encounter

2010-11-23T02:29:00.000-08:00

Nine Naxals were killed today in a fierce encounter with CRPF and State police personnel in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district.

Acting on specific intelligence inputs, a team of the CRPF’s 111 battalion accompanied by two special police officers (SPOs) and four state policemen encircled the Maoists in the jungles of Jagargunda around 9 AM.

So far, nine bodies of the Naxals have been recovered, Superintendent of Police, Dantewada, S R P Kalluri said.

He said the encounter had taken place in thick jungles and he had not received any report of any casualty among the security forces.

The security personnel have also recovered arms and explosives from the site and a search operation is still on, the official said.

Dantewada has been a Naxal hotbed and security forces have been trying to conduct successful operations here after 75 CRPF personnel and a State policeman were killed in a deadly ambush by the Maoists in April.

How and why Narayan Murthy gave up on Communism

2010-11-21T20:41:00.000-08:00

NR Narayana Murthy who was a staunch Communist in his early days reveals how he moved away from communism in this lecture given in 2007 at New York University's Leonard N Stern School of business.

Narayana Murthy on the lessons life has taught him

After some thought, I have decided to share with you some of my life lessons.

I learned these lessons in the context of my early career struggles, a life lived under the influence of sometimes unplanned events which were the crucibles that tempered my character and reshaped my future.

I would like first to share some of these key life events with you, in the hope that these may help you understand my struggles and how chance events and unplanned encounters with influential persons shaped my life and career.

Later, I will share the deeper life lessons that I have learned.

My sincere hope is that this sharing will help you see your own trials and tribulations for the hidden blessings they can be.

The first event occurred when I was a graduate student in Control Theory at IIT, Kanpur in India.

At breakfast on a bright Sunday morning in 1968, I had a chance encounter with a famous computer scientist on sabbatical from a well-known US university.

He was discussing exciting new developments in the field of computer science with a large group of students and how such developments would alter our future. He was articulate, passionate and quite convincing.

I was hooked.

I went straight from breakfast to the library, read four or five papers he had suggested, and left the library determined to study computer science.

Friends, when I look back today at that pivotal meeting, I marvel at how one role model can alter, for the better, the future of a young student. This experience taught me that valuable advice can sometimes come from an unexpected source, and chance events can sometimes open new doors.

Break with communism

The next event that left an indelible mark on me occurred in 1974.

The location: Nis, a border town between former Yugoslavia, now Serbia, and Bulgaria.

I was hitchhiking from Paris back to Mysore, my home town.

By the time a kind driver dropped me at Nis railway station at 9pm on a Saturday night, the restaurant was closed. So was the bank the next morning, and I could not eat because I had no local money.

I slept on the railway platform until 8.30 pm in the night when the Sofia Express pulled in. The only passengers in my compartment were a girl and a boy.

I struck a conversation in French with the young girl. She talked about the travails of living in an iron curtain country, until we were roughly interrupted by some policemen who, I later gathered, were summoned by the young man who thought we were criticising the communist government of Bulgaria.

The girl was led away; my backpack and sleeping bag were confiscated. I was dragged along the platform into a small eight-by-eight-foot room with a cold stone floor and a hole in one corner by way of toilet facilities. I was held in that bitterly cold room without food or water for more than 72 hours.

I had lost all hope of ever seeing the outside world again, when the door opened. I was again dragged out unceremoniously, locked up in the guard's compartment on a departing freight train and told that I would be released 20 hours later upon reaching Istanbul.

The guard's final words still ring in my ears 'You are from a friendly country called India and that is why we are letting you go!'

The journey to Istanbul was lonely, and I was starving. This long, lonely, cold journey forced me to deeply rethink my convictions about Communism. Early on a dark Thursday morning, after being hungry for 108 hours, I was purged of any last vestiges of affinity for the Left.

I concluded that entrepreneurship, resulting in large scale job creation, was the only viable mechanism for eradicating poverty in societies.

Deep in my heart, I always thank the Bulgarian guards for transforming me from a confused leftist into a determined, compassionate capitalist!

Inevitably, this sequence of events led to the eventual founding of Infosys in 1981.

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Maoists are patriots of a kind: Arundhati Roy

2010-11-21T20:27:00.000-08:00

PTI / Sunday, November 21, 2010 21:08 IST

Glorifying Maoists as patriots of a kind, controversial writer Arundhati Roy today accused the prime minister and the Union home minister of "violating the Constitution and PESA (Panchayat Extention of Scheduled Areas) act by allowing corporates to use tribal land."

"Patriots of a kind, they (Maoists) are. But here patriotism is very complicated. So at the moment what people are fighting for is to keep this country from falling apart," Roy told reporters after addressing a meeting on "Cultural resistance to war on people in corporate interest", organised by a magazine considered to be pro-left.

NAXALWATCH COMMENT

Going by her (Arundathy Roy) logic, some day we could expect a definition from her as 'Terrorists are "Super Patriots" of a kind who are fighting to keep the world from falling apart'.

To a question, the writer-cum-activist, however, said she did not think there could be only Maoist revolution for solving problems. "There will be a new kind of alliance of all kinds of people," said Roy, whose visit here was opposed by saffron outfits like RSS and ABVP for her remarks on Kashmir.

Stating that PESA Act was enacted to safeguard rights of tribals and others living in scheduled areas, the Booker Prize winner said that Prime Minister and home minister were saying that forest land was needed for other purposes.

"They (PM and HM) enact laws and violate it," Roy alleged claiming that local people, particularly tribals had every right over the land, forest and water in their areas.

Besides PM and HM, the police, CRPF and BSF also violate laws framed under the Constitution, she alleged.

Accusing successive governments at the Centre of "frequently" using military force in places like Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab and the Northeast, Roy said while people in Pakistan are fighting against military rule, "some people here want to use brute force to suppress people's voice."

"Force was being used by the government and not the Naxalites," she alleged.

URL of the article: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_maoists-are-patriots-of-a-kind-arundhati-roy_1470033-all

'Polavaram project to serve capitalists'

2010-11-21T20:26:00.001-08:00

PTI First Published : 21 Nov 2010 09:40:29 PM IST
BHUBANESWAR: Giving a new twist to the Polavaram controversy, Maoist ideologue and poet V V Rao today claimed that multi-purpose project was aimed to feed water to industries than irrigating land in coastal Andhra Pradesh.
"Polavaram project is being set up by Andhra Pradesh government to feed water to 23 industries for which MoUs are signed by the state government." Rao told reporters at the sideline of a meeting here.
Claiming that about three lakh people of 304 villages in Andhra Pradesh's Khamam and Godavari districts would be adversely affected by Polavaram project, Rao rejected the state government's claim that it would irrigate about 80,000 acre of land in coastal region.
"They (Andhra Pradesh govt) had already set up an industrial corridor in coastal region which required a huge quantity of water for their daily consumption," he said claiming "that late chief minister YSR Reddy had planned Polavaram project to meet the interests of corporate houses."
Stating that Maoists were opposed to Polavaram project, Rao said the dam over river river Godavari "would also affect tribal villages in Orissa and Chhattisgarh."
The revolutionary poet also accused "the governments both at the Centre and the state of working at the behest of corporate houses and not for the common man."
"All political parties participating in elections are working for corporate houses," he alleged.

Maoist threat to NE looming large

2010-11-21T20:24:00.000-08:00

R Dutta Choudhury

GUWAHATI, Nov 21 – Though the Maoist rebel groups are yet to gain strong foothold in Assam and other parts of the North-east region to indulge in violence like in some other parts of the country, the threat to the region cannot be overlooked as there have been intelligence reports of the Maoists trying to establish roots in this part of the country.

Highly-placed sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) told The Assam Tribune that the Maoist rebel groups have already established links with some of the militant groups of North-east and there are definite inputs that they would try to establish their bases in the region.

Sources pointed out that the Maoists have already signed a joint agreement with the Revolutionary People’s Front (RPF) of Manipur to support each other and “honour the sovereignty of Manipur and India” and according to reports, members of Maoist rebel groups even visited Manipur and Nagaland. There have been reports of a few Maoist rebels visiting Myanmar where a number of militant groups of North-east have their strong bases. But it is still not known whether the Maoist rebels went to Myanmar just to meet the militant leaders of North-east or for training.

MHA sources said that the Maoist groups have links with the NSCN (I-M) and there were definite information of NSCN leaders attending a meeting of the Maoists in Chattisgarh. Security agencies also believe that the rebel groups of NE supplied weapons to the Maoists, but senior NSCN leader Anthony Shimrey, who has been arrested recently in Nepal by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) on charges of gun running, claimed during questioning that he was not involved in supplying of weapons to the Maoist rebel groups.

On the threat perception in Assam, sources said that the Maoist rebels have openly supported all the “nationality struggles” all over the country including in Assam and Jammu and Kashmir. Senior Maoist leader Kishenji had openly supported the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) in an interview to the mouthpiece of the Maoists. But it is still not known whether the Maoists managed to gain foothold in Assam. “But as it is an established fact that Maoist rebels visited Manipur, Nagaland and even Myanmar and one can only assume that they must have visited Assam at some point of time,” sources pointed out.

Sources revealed that in 2006, the Maoists formed a lower Assam committee but that could not be sustained. However, there were reports of individuals from Assam attending a meeting of the committee for release of political prisoners formed by the Maoist groups, which indicate that the Maoists have their connections in Assam, sources added.

Mass movements must fight corporates: Arundhati Roy

2010-11-21T20:22:00.000-08:00

SATYASUNDAR BARIK

Writer Arundhati Roy, who faced an angry protest by Sangh Parivar activists here on Sunday, urged those involved in mass movements to oppose corporates which she said were eyeing the rich natural resources of tribal heartlands.

Ms. Roy came here to attend a meeting on ‘Cultural resistance to war on people in corporate interest.'

As soon as she reached the venue, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and Bajrang Dal activists waved black flags to protest her recent remarks on Kashmir, terming them anti-national.

They also started shouting that she should leave the venue immediately. Soon a scuffle broke out. The organisers chased away the agitators. The police took at least 10 of them into custody.

Unperturbed, Ms. Roy addressed hundreds of tribal activists from different parts of Orissa. “The number of poor people living in India will be more than that of the total poor in 26 African countries. The condition of poverty in Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal is critical. All the attention is, however, trained on these States, as these poor are raising their voice against land acquisition attempts by big corporates of the world,” she said.

She said the Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, prohibited land acquisition in tribal areas. “But now, people in power say it is imperative to acquire land from tribals for development. Those who frame policies are the violators.”

“Earlier people's movements had sprouted to get back excess land lying with zamindars. But the nature of the struggle has undergone a change. Now it is a fight not to let the land — whatever is left with the tribal population — be snatched by the corporate-backed government,” she said.

Ms. Roy alleged that leaders thought development was possible only when 80 per cent of the population started living in urban areas, and they wanted to vacate villages in the interest of corporates. “They are inviting the military to take over the affairs. Our States are becoming military States. Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Lalgarh have already been militarised.”

Maoist ideologue Varavara Rao and Oriya writer Bibhuti Patnaik spoke.

Villager beheaded, Maoists gun down two CPM

2010-11-21T20:20:00.000-08:00

TNN, Nov 22, 2010, 12.41am IST

MIDNAPORE: Suspected Maoists shot a villager and then beheaded him near West Midnapore's Binpur. The body of Ganesh Ahir was found on State Highway 9 early on Sunday morning. The severed head was lying near his left hand. A bullet mark was found on the chest of the beheaded body, police said.

According to a senior police officer, Ahir a resident of Rashidpur village under Lalgarh police station had been working with local CPM camps which had been set up to fight the Maoists. "We have reasons to believe that Maoists are behind the murder," the officer said.

Locals said a group of "miscreants" raided Ahir's residence late on Saturday night. They had reportedly been looking for his nephew Madhu, who is an active CPM supporter. When they could not trace him, the took Ganesh away with them.

Later on Sunday, the Maoists gunned down two influential CPM leaders near Kalsibhanga in West Midnapore. Interestingly, the area is now known to be a CPM stronghold.

The CPM leaders, Pashupati Singh and Rahim Pathar pradhan of Garmaal panchayat of Salboni block and member of CPM's Salboni zonal committee respectively were going to their Bhadutala party office from Kalsibhanga area of Salboni block when the incident occurred.

Pathar and Singh were on a motorcycle and the two others party workers were accompanying them on another bike.

These to CPM workers later told police that it was around 2.30pm when they were passing through Kharikasuli forest near Kalsibhanga. When they reached an area between Kharikashuli and Godamouli, they heard gunshots and accelerated to leave the place as soon as possible. The CPM workers claimed that the guerrillas were firing on them from the forest.

Pathar and Singh, however, could not flee and were stopped by a group of suspected Maoists, who reportedly dragged them deep into the forest.

After local CPM leaders contacted police, a combing operation was launched and the lifeless bodies of Singh and Pathar were found inside Kharikashuli forest.

Syam Pandey, secretary of CPM's Salboni zonal committee, said: "They have been killed by the Maoists while on their way to our party office." Midnapore superintendent of police Manoj Verma confirmed the murders as the handiwork of the Maoists.

The attack is quite significant, as the area had been recaptured by CPM just a few months ago. Salboni area, which once was a CPM bastion, turned into a favourite hideout of the rebels, including their politburo member Kishanji. But since last June, CPM started regaining the turf. In the past couple of months, the party set up several armed camps in this area and police also started believing that Maoists have moved out of the area. For long, no major Maoist activity was noticed in this area, which encouraged the CPM leaders to enter the forest villages.

Sunday's double murder came as a big jolt for the CPM as the Maoists have proved that they are still active in the area and hold power to retaliate.

Read more: Villager beheaded, Maoists gun down two CPM - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Villager-beheaded-Maoists-gun-down-two-CPM/articleshow/6966660.cms#ixzz15yvgTZwQ

Worried over setback, Maoists launch leadership training

2010-11-21T20:14:00.000-08:00

K. SRINIVAS REDDY

Worried over the continuing loss of senior leadership and the revolutionary movement failing to strike root in urban areas, the CPI (Maoist) has begun a serious exercise train its leaders in identifying their mistakes.

The ‘Leadership Training Programme' is meant to help the Maoist leaders reinvent the ideological moorings of the Protracted People's War (PPW) and check ‘lethargy' — a direct offshoot of ‘years of stagnation' [in spread of revolutionary movement]. Intelligence agencies believe that this programme began last year.

The main purpose is to help the rebel leaders “change the direction of work from going in circles to going in spirals,” notes a seven-page circular on the programme, a copy of which is with The Hindu. It throws light on the Maoists' perspective on their inability to extend the revolutionary movement in many States.

The Maoist think tank's analysis is that the rebel leaders “tend to go about their work in a routine and mechanical way with little creativity and dynamism…Many comrades rest satisfied with petty achievements and mundane activities.” While many committed leaders continue against all odds, their dedication does not bear fruit. “What is the reason for this?” asks the circular. The decision to train leaders comes in the backdrop of some worrisome developments for the Maoists. Their movement failed to take off in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala and Gujarat, managed by the Maoists South Western Regional Bureau (SWRB. While some important leaders were arrested, some were shot dead by security forces and the movement in Karnataka suffered a vertical split on ideological issues. “In the XYZ region [possibly a reference to SWRB] in the course of just one year we have lost over two-thirds of CCMs [Central Committee Members] to encounter killings, arrests and untimely deaths. We have also witnessed the near wipe-out of an entire State committee due a series of arrests”.

The circular says: “Our very limited mass base and our weaknesses to conceptualise the changes in the enemy's methods are leading to heavy losses.”

Rebels behead CPM activist in restive zone

2010-11-21T20:13:00.001-08:00

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Midnapore, Nov. 21: A CPM supporter was beheaded near Lalgarh in the first such act by suspected Maoists in Bengal while two local party leaders were killed in a neighbouring pocket in separate incidents since last night.

The bullet-riddled body of Ganesh Ahir was found on a road near Binpur’s Paluidanga, around 6km from his home in Lalgarh’s Rasikpur from where he had been dragged away. The severed head had been placed on the right hand, police said.

The rebels appeared to have picked Rasikpur carefully. The Maoist-backed People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) is not strong there, with the villagers having made it clear that they are poor and cannot afford to turn up at the outfit’s rallies and meetings.

The village is in one of the pockets where the CPM has organised marches since the party’s recapture of Lalgarh town last month.

West Midnapore police chief Manoj Verma confirmed that it was the first beheading by Maoists in Bengal and put it down to frustration at the joint forces’ intensified offensive.

“The Maoists have not beheaded any victim before. But Ganesh was brutally killed and beheaded. The Maoists are trying to prove their existence which has been threatened by sustained raids by the joint forces and rejection by the people.”

The murder came as a chilling reminder of the manner in which Jharkhand inspector Francis Induwar was abducted and beheaded in October last year. Like Ganesh, his decapitated body was dumped along a road.

Ganesh’s neighbour Manoranjan Mahato (name changed) said the farm labourer was a widower and lived with his son and two daughters.

“A little before midnight, around 20 people with guns slung across their shoulders came to Ganesh’s house. Ganesh initially refused to open the door but relented after they threatened to kill his children along with him if he did not come out. Then, they took him away,” said Manoranjan.”

Mohammad Khaliluddin, a member of the CPM local committee in Rasikpur, said Ganesh’s family had long been supporters of the party.

“Ganesh’s nephew Madhu is a member of the branch committee of the party but he stays away from home because of rebel threats. In Rasikpur, the PCPA was never very strong. The Maoists killed Ganesh so brutally because they want to create panic,” said Khaliluddin.

In the other incident, which occurred this afternoon in Salboni, Rahim Patar and Pashupati Singh were waylaid and shot by suspected rebels while they were travelling on a bike to the local panchayat samiti office for work related to the revision of electoral rolls.

Rahim, 32, was a member of the CPM’s zonal committee in Salboni and a functionary of the panchayat samiti. Pashupati, 55, was a local committee member of the CPM and chief of the Garmal panchayat in Salboni.

They were riding along a forested stretch. Around 2pm, when they reached a spot between Kharikashuli and Godamouli, four youths armed with automatic weapons suddenly emerged from the forest.

“When the two leaders saw the youths blocking their path, they slowed down. The youths opened fire and the leaders fell on the ground with their motorcycle. Two more party workers had been following them on another bike. They turned around and fled,” said Meghnad Bhuniya, a district committee member of the CPM.

Police chief Verma said: “We have come to know about the murders of the two CPM leaders. A joint forces team has rushed to the spot.”

Bomb bungle kills 7 students

2010-11-21T20:12:00.000-08:00

RAMASHANKAR MISHRA

Patna, Nov. 21: Seven students and a farmer were killed in Bihar when a Maoist bomb that police had failed to defuse yesterday and abandoned for the night in an open field went off while schoolchildren were passing by this morning.

The tragedy exposes numbing professional inadequacies in the security apparatus fighting the Maoists in the hinterland. The amateurish handling not only failed to avert deaths despite a bomb being found well in time but also snared victims who were not the original targets.

The toll is higher than that from any single incident during the month-long Bihar elections that passed off in relative peace and concluded yesterday.

The seven students killed in the 6.45am blast in Bihar’s Aurangabad district were aged between 12 and 18. They were walking to their tutorial classes past the bomb that looked like any ordinary cooking gas cylinder.

The farmer, the eighth victim, was heading for his fields in the village, Pachokhar, 180km south of Patna. The five injured — three are in serious condition — include four children.

The villagers demonstrated against the police today although officers claimed the bomb squad had yesterday alerted residents about the bomb they were leaving behind.

State police chief Neel Mani said the station house officers of Dev and Dhibra police stations, whose men were on poll duty at the site yesterday, had been suspended for dereliction of duty.

The police had detected the bomb, apparently planted by the Maoists to target security personnel during polling, but failed to defuse it despite their best efforts, Aurangabad superintendent of police Vivek Raj Singh said.

Ordinarily, they would have carried it to some safe place or dropped it in a pond, but a cylinder bomb weighs about 5kg and it would have been risky to try and move it, sources said.

Singh said the police warned some villagers about the bomb and left for the night, saying they would try to defuse it today.

The incident is the third in a fortnight to raise questions about the competence of bomb squads in Bihar. Last evening, the chief of a Bihar Military Police bomb squad and a home guard were killed while trying to defuse a Maoist landmine at Londa village in Gaya district.

On November 8, a pressure bomb had exploded while being defused at Banke Bazar, 30km from Londa, killing two military police jawans.

At Pachokhar today, villagers refused to let the bodies be moved till 3pm and relented only after the government announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh for the family of each of the dead and the suspensions of the station house officers.

The state government has ordered an inquiry and sought a report from development commissioner K.C. Saha and home guard director-general U.S. Dutt by tomorrow.

Orissa cops nab RK's close aide

2010-11-21T20:11:00.000-08:00

TNN, Nov 22, 2010, 02.52am IST

VISAKHAPATNAM: Former Maoist state committee leader and Amara Veerula Bandhumitrula Sangham state president Ganti Prasad was taken to Koraput on Sunday by Orissa cops after he was arrested at Vizag railway station on Saturday night.

Sources said Prasad would be produced before the Koraput magistrate late in the night and sent to judicial remand on the charges of waging war against the state and conspiring against the government and police. Prasad is a close associate of top Maoist leader Ramakrishna alias RK, who escaped the Orissa police dragnet in Narayanpatna forest block recently.

Sources said the cops trailed Prasad from Vijayawada after he got into Janmabhoomi Express and once the train reached Vizag, they took him into custody. He was immediately whisked away to an unknown location. Later, it was learnt that he was taken to Sunebada. Police got information that Prasad has been maintaining contact with RK and Sudhakar, another top Maoist leader. "In fact, it was Prasad who had made all arrangements for the meeting of Sireesha alias Padma with her husband RK in Narayanpatna block before she was arrested by Orissa cops," sources said.

Police sources said Prasad was acting as a political tutor for the underground cadre Naxals. Civil rights organizations representatives said Prasad went missing after 6.30 pm while travelling in Janmabhoomi Express. "He had neither reached Visakhapatnam nor Komarthi village in Srikakulam where he resides with his family," they said.

Former Virasam president G Kalyan Rao said he had a telephonic conversation with Prasad at 5.30 pm. Virasam member Chalasani Prasad said he had called up Prasad's son around 6.30 pm. "After that his whereabouts were not known. We believe he must have been picked up between Tuni and Vizag," he said.

Prasad was one of the six accused in the Aurangabad conspiracy case in May 2005. All the accused were acquitted in August this year as there was no evidence to prove that they had hatched the conspiracy.

Prasad was an underground cadre of the erstwhile People's War Group. His brother Ganti Ramesh alias Rajanna, secretary of Srikakulam division, was among the 11 Naxals killed in the Kopardung encounter in 1998.

Earlier, Kalyana Rao and Chalasani Prasad demanded that the government produce Prasad before court immediately. "We fear there is a threat to his life from the police. Hence, we want the government to produce Prasad immediately," they said.

Read more: Orissa cops nab RK's close aide - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Orissa-cops-nab-RKs-close-aide/articleshow/6966531.cms#ixzz15ytTaKPf

Maoists abduct two more-teacher and woman social worker

2010-11-21T20:10:00.000-08:00

Express News Service
Posted: Mon Nov 22 2010, 06:07 hrs

Two persons were abducted from West Midnapore in separate incidents on Saturday.

In the first incident, a woman employee of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), Sampriti Mahato, has been reportedly abducted by Maoists. According to the police, Sampriti of Jamda village near Lalgarh was reported missing yesterday night. In another incident, a school teacher, Devendra Singh, was also allegedly abducted by the Maoists. Praveen Tripathi,

Superintendent of Police, Jhargram, said that Singh was reported missing on Friday evening. Police said that Singh went to his school at Kajla village yesterday and since then he has not returned home.

Meanwhile, the police have today arrested two Maoist squad members from Bankura and Purulia. Kinkar Pal, Bankura district president of Peoples’ Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), was arrested from a forest near Hijli village in Barikul. A firearm and 10 rounds of ammunition were recovered from him, said Pranav Kumar, Superintendent of Police, Bankura. In another raid, the police arrested Sudhir Hemram, a resident of Arsha, in Purulia, said Sunil Chowdhury, SP, Purulia.

Maoist RK’s close aide in police custody?

2010-11-21T20:07:00.000-08:00

Express News Service First
Published : 22 Nov 2010 03:33:45 AM IST
Last Updated : 22 Nov 2010 07:53:42 AM IST

VISAKHAPATNAM: Police arrested Ganti Prasad, a close aide to Maoist top gun Ramakrishna, while he was travelling to Visakhapatnam from Vijayawada by Janmabhoomi Express yesterday, the Viplava Rachayitala Sangham has alleged.

But police are yet to make an announcement that Prasad is in their custody.
Speaking to Express, Virasam president Chalasani Prasad said here today that Ganti Prasad, who hails from Bobbili in Vizianagaram district, had been active in the people’s movement for several few decades buty the police detained the “Bobbili hero’’.

Ganti Prasad had joined the mainstream of life about ten years ago and his wife resides at Komarti village in Srikakulam district while his son Sujhir is studying law in Srikakulam.

According to the Virasam president, Ganti Prasad boarded the train at Vijayawada to go to his home town Bobbili but did not reach Visakhapatnam, giving rise to suspicion that police took him into custody as he was RK’s close aide. When contacted, police refuted Virasam’s charge of arrest.

Not black as he’s painted

2010-11-21T20:05:00.000-08:00

A file picture of Subrata Mukherjee and Siddhartha Shankar Ray in 1990

Trinamul Congress leader Subrata Mukherjee pays tribute to “Manuda”, his mentor Siddhartha Shankar Ray, claiming it is wrong to call him the chief minister of the black era. Ray died in the city on November 6

After (former chief minister) Prafulla Chandra Sen, Siddhartha Shankar Ray was the most honest man I have seen in my life. Manuda never accepted his fees as a barrister without a cheque. He used to pay his household employees also with cheques. I never saw him clearing a file just by signing it. Before signing he used to write a note with his observations on the matter.

In 1972, the All India Congress Committee’s plenary session was to be held in Calcutta, at Salt Lake (Indira Bhavan was constructed then for Indira Gandhi). Manuda was the chief minister. He had asked Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, Arun Moitra and me to manage the event. One day he called us and said: “I can do everything but not raise funds.”

But after 1977 (when the Left Front came to power), when Chhatra Parishad fell on difficult days, he used to donate the entire amount of his honorarium as MLA and leader of the Opposition to Chhatra Parishad.

If he had not been the chief minister, neither Priya da nor I could have become ministers at that young age. In 1971, when he recommended my nomination I was so green that I used to believe that Bidhan Sabha had been named after Bidhan Chandra Roy.

Manuda would admonish me like an elder brother, but forgive me. One day on my way to Writers’ Buildings, I saw a policeman slap a cart-puller and take money from him. I got down from my car and slapped the policeman. Manuda called me to his room. But later when we were meeting Indira Gandhi at Hyderabad House, Manuda in a casual mood narrated the incident to her. Mrs Gandhi only laughed and said: “This is Subrata.”

Manuda was so averse to corruption that when he heard that Rajani Dalui (a Congress leader) had been taking money and giving jobs to Chhatra Parishad workers, he immediately advised the police to arrest him.

I think crushing the Naxalite movement and setting up of the Wanchoo Commission to investigate corruption charges against some of his cabinet colleagues and the three-tier panchayat system, consisting of gram panchayat, panchayat samiti and zilla parishad, are achievements of Siddhartha Shankar Ray for which he should be remembered. The Naxalites had held the entire state and its peace-loving people to ransom. The government had to issue a slogan like “Live and let live” (banchoon ebang banchte din) in Bengali. Trams would carry these words on them. Since people were scared to go out after sundown, night shows were discontinued and noon shows were introduced instead.

Siddhartha Shankar Ray was committed to bringing back the rule of law by crushing the Naxalite movement. The Left Front claims the panchayat system as its achievement. But the three-tier system was Siddhartha Shankar Ray’s work. He could not hold the elections as he feared these would spark violence in rural Bengal.

It was a blunder not to hold the elections. After coming to power, the Left Front held the polls. The panchayat elections gave the CPM the opportunity to destroy the traditional mass base of the Congress in the rural belt.

It is wrong to call Manuda the chief minister of the black era in West Bengal. The Left Front government instituted 13 commissions against him but none could find him guilty.

Ray should have been cremated with full state honours: Pranab

2010-11-21T20:04:00.000-08:00

2010-11-21 16:50:00

Kolkata, Nov 21 (IANS) Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Sunday sharply criticised the Marxist-led West Bengal government for not according full state honours to former chief minister Siddartha Shankar Ray after his death, and regretted that such treatment of dead leaders has become a practice in the state.

'A former chief minister should always be cremated with full state honours. But those who are in government have not done this. But in every state of India, this protocol is being maintained,' said Mukherjee, addressing a condolence meeting for Ray here.

A lot of political furore was created over Ray not being accorded full state honours after his death. Ray, West Bengal chief minister (1972-77) and Punjab governor from 1986-89, was neither taken on his last journey on a gun carriage, nor was his body draped in the tricolour.

In contrast, Marxist icon and former chief minister Jyoti Basu was cremated with full state honours after his death in January.

'After independence the first chief minister of West Bengal Prafulla Ghosh, then first non-Congress chief minister Ajoybabu (Ajoy Mukherjee), then chief minister Prafulla Chandra Sen and now former chief minister Siddhartha Sankar Ray, if they are not given full state honours after their death, then we feel like there is a gap in performing our duty,' Mukherjee said.

'It hardly matters to the dead leaders whether state honours are given to them are not. Whether a gun carriage, gun salute and the last post is provided during the last journey, it hardly matters to the dead person. But we feel there has been a gap in performing our duty,' he said.

Mukherjee also lauded Ray's foresightedness for his iron hand dealing with the Maoist movement.

'He had successfully dealt with the Naxalite (Maoist) problem with his foresightedness. He firmly believed that if any power with the help of the gun challenges a government democratically elected by the people, then that was unacceptable and the state should fight back.

'In carrying out the task, he had to face heavy criticism, but that could not deter him, and he performed his duty successfully,' he added.

Sitting ducks in bomb den

2010-11-21T20:03:00.000-08:00

JOY SENGUPTA

Special Task Force personnel with the recovered cylinder bomb that exploded on Saturday at Imamganj. Telegraph picture

Patna, Nov. 21: The death of seven students early this morning in Aurangabad and that of two cops in Imamganj yesterday exposed the lack of expertise of the police in defusing bombs.

Security forces posted in Naxalite-hit areas claim they are not equipped to handle the landmines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) they encounter in course of their daily patrol. The lack of equipment may have been the cause of the blast of the 5kg cylinder bomb that killed the home guard jawan and a bomb disposal squad member at Londa village, under Dumaria police station on Saturday, minutes before the polling came to a close.

A Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan on guard at a polling booth in Imamganj constituency in Gaya said the landmines and IEDs were the most dangerous threats faced by the security forces in their campaign against the rebels.

The jawan said: “We can engage and defeat the Maoists in gun battles as we have better arms and fire power. But we can’t fight the landmines — they are difficult to find. Even if we spot them, defusing them is difficult.”

A Special Task Force jawan said detecting bombs was just a matter of chance. He said: “We try to look for wires on the road.”

That is what bomb disposal squad chief Anil Singh and home guard jawan Baleshwar Singh found out on Saturday. A source at Dumaria police station on Sunday recounted the incident that killed Anil and Baleshwar and injured seven others.

The source said: “The two of them tried to do all they could to defuse the bomb. First they tried to explode the bomb with extended wires and a battery. When that didn’t work, they tried using a car battery.”

When they found it was a cylinder bomb, they started digging for it.

The source said: “The bomb was then brought out and the wires cut. The security personnel, who had gathered around, thought the bomb had been defused. Photographers came close and started taking pictures. A camera flash caused the explosion.”

Dumaria police station officer-in-charge Ratan Lal Thakur told The Telegraph: “Five companies of Border Security Force are camping in the area. We have information of movement of Maoists in this area, close to the Jharkhand border.”

The source said Anil had asked his subordinate to get him wires but the two suitcases of equipment they had did not have any. Neither did it have any torch battery or larger batteries required to defuse bombs. Policemen arranged for the required equipment from nearby villages.

A senior police officer in the district said there was a serious lack of equipment as well as personnel. He said not all districts had bomb disposal squads and the local security forces had to wait for personnel to arrive from Patna when they detect a bomb.

He said: “This can be very frustrating as we have to wait for hours when even a minute’s delay can be catastrophic.”

Earlier, senior police officers maintained that the bomb disposal squads of Bihar Military Police had the required equipment to deal with the situation. Now even they accept the situation is serious.

A member of the bomb disposal squad based in Patna said: “I have been defusing country-made bombs for a long time. But I don’t have proper protective jackets or equipment. I have just been lucky.”

Director-general of police Neel Mani told The Telegraph: “It’s not that we don’t have equipment. But often the personnel of the bomb disposable squad do not wear protective jackets or equipment. We will look into this.” Mani said: “We have a meeting tomorrow. Senior officers will be there. A lot of changes will be introduced in it.”

Police leave bomb in India field; 8 die

2010-11-21T20:02:00.000-08:00

AURANGABAD, India, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- A bomb planted by Maoist rebels exploded Sunday morning in eastern India, killing eight people and wounding 11 others, police said.

The device was discovered Saturday by a police team in a field in the Aurangabad district of Bihar state, on the last day of elections, but it was left there in the absence of a bomb squad, the Press Trust of India reported.

Seven victims, five of them children, died at the scene and the eighth in a hospital.

Bihar Police Superintendent Vivek Raj Singh said the bomb was planted by the Maoist Naxalite guerrillas in the village of Pachokhar. The rebels had ordered voters to boycott the election.

The bodies at the scene were not yet identified because enraged villagers kept the police out of the field.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has ordered an investigation and compensation for families of the victims.

The last test in Naxal hotbed

2010-11-21T05:39:00.001-08:00

Santosh Singh Posted online: Sat Nov 20 2010, 12:27 hrs

Gaya, Aurangabad, Sasaram : As Bihar gears up for the sixth and last phase of elections to 26 Assembly seats on Saturday in the Naxal-infested districts of Gaya, Aurangabad, Rohtas, Kaimur and Buxar, the ruling NDA looks set to marginally improve its previous tally of 13 seats.

The opposition RJD-LJP is expected to put up a tough fight in Sasaram, Gaya and Aurangabad, playing on the anti-incumbency factor against some NDA candidates, including Bihar Assembly Speaker Udai Narain Choudhary and ministers Chhedi Paswan and Awadhesh Narain Singh.

As 21 of the 26 seats are Naxal-hit, the Election Commission apprehends a low voter turnout and has heavily deployed central forces to ensure free and fair elections. The Maoists have called for a poll boycott at several places, including Imaganj (Gaya) from where Speaker Choudhary faces a tough opponent in RJD’s Roshan Kumar. A total of 426 candidates, including 43 women, are in the fray in this round. Besides Choudhary, other heavyweights in the fray are RJD leader Shakil Ahmed Khan from Sherghati against JD-U’s Vinod Yadav, JD-U’s Chhedi Paswan against RJD’s Niranjan Ram in Mohania, former Union minister Kanti Singh (Nokha) against BJP’s sitting Rameshwar Prasad, Minister Awadesh Narain Singh against RJD’s Iliyas Hussain in Dehri and Anil Kumar against RJD’s Bagi Kumar Verma.

This round assumes significance because of senior RJD leader and Buxar MP Jagdanand Singh making the Ramgarh seat a prestige battle. His son Sudhakar Singh is contesting for the BJP against the RJD’s Ambika Yadav.

Singh would tell voters: “Sudhakar is my biological son but Ambika is my political heir”. The JD-U’s Karakat MP Mahabali Singh is also facing embarrassment with his son Dharmendra contesting as the RJD nominee from Chainpur. Similar is the case with JD-U Aurangabad MP Sushil Singh whose elder brother Sunil Singh is contesting from Aurangabad as RJD nominee. The NDA, which won just one seat in Buxar, looks for big gains in the district with JD-S candidate and sitting Dumraon MLA Dadan Pahalwan facing a tough fight from JD-U’s Dawood Ali. Rohtas, Kaimur, Aurangabad and Gaya, however, may produce mixed results with a slight tilt towards the NDA.

The biggest worry, however, is Naxal threat. Though poll percentage in the last five phases averaged 52 per cent, this phase would be real test if the “Nitish factor” has been working well in Naxal-hit areas.

Nitish Kumar, who recently travelled across all poll-bound districts, said: “Good voter turnout alone is point to ponder in this phase. Crowd presence at several meetings had been good indicator though.”

State to rehabilitate abused naxal women

2010-11-21T05:36:00.000-08:00

Ashish Tripathi, TNN, Nov 21, 2010, 06.01am IST

LUCKNOW: The state government has decided to rehabilitate the tribal women who joined naxal movement a few years back but were later abandoned, after exploitation by the leaders of the Ultra groups. Such women will be trained under various welfare schemes and given jobs for self-sustenance. The decision comes after victims sought relief from the chief minister and TOI highlighted their plight. Social activists have welcomed the state government initiative but said that the move will succeed only when the district level officers are sensitive about the cause and there is a regular review by top officials.

Hailing from the naxal-affected Kaimur range of east UP, which includes Robertsganj, Mirzapur, Sonbhadra and Chandauli, many young women had joined the banned outfits between 2000-2005. Most of them were driven by abject poverty and some out of anger against exploitation and oppression by dominant Yadav community in the area, police and forest officials. But naxals were no better. They exploited women members and abandoned them when they became pregnant. Some of the women surrendered before the police and few were arrested. All these women are now living in a pathetic condition. Their families have refused to take them back. Government agencies are of no help. Social organisations are not helping because of the fear of being caught in police-naxal crossfire.

Last month, these women petitioned to chief minister Mayawati seeking her intervention for their rehabilitation. On their behalf, Shanta Bhattacharya, a social activists associated with Kaimur Kshetra Mahila Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, wrote to the chief minister and the National Commission for Women. The TOI also highlighted their cause in the news report `Abused Naxal women approach CM for help' published on October 13. Reacting to it, the state government issued directions to the administrations of the naxal affected districts to identify such women, train them under various welfare schemes and provide jobs. "We have asked district magistrates to take up the matter on priority basis," Prem Narain, social welfare commissioner, told TOI.

The district magistrate and senior superintendent of police of Sonbhadra district have contacted Vijay Vinit, a social activist, who, along with Shanta, has been working for the cause of `abused abandoned women' for help to trace victims. "These women can be trained and given jobs as mid-day meals cooks in primary schools, shikshak mitras, anganwadi workers, among other things," Vinit told TOI on phone. "There are scores of such victim women in naxal-affected areas. Most joined naxals for the sake of sustenance. The naxal leaders abandoned them after exploitation because a `pregnant women' is a liability. The government effort will succeed only when district level officers take up the cause as seriously as senior officials in Lucknow have taken it," said Shanta.

"The decision has come as a ray of hope for victims who can now look forward to a decent life," said Arti, a resident of Chicileek, Sonbhadra, who had joined naxals in 2002. She worked with the guerrilla team and was used for carrying goods and cooking. She fell in love with one of the team members but, was abandoned by the party when the commander came to know about her pregnancy. Her parents refused to take her back and she was forced to leave the village. She is living an oblivious life with her child, working in a stone-crusher plant. "It would end the miseries of my parents who are suffering because of me," said Sarita Chero, who married a fellow naxal but was caught in 2006. After getting bail from the court she went to live with her parents but, the entire village decided to boycott the family.

Read more: State to rehabilitate abused naxal women - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/State-to-rehabilitate-abused-naxal-women/articleshow/6962161.cms#ixzz15vLJArZk

Maoists set ablaze panchayat office

2010-11-19T19:23:00.000-08:00

Suspected Maoists set ablaze a panchayat office at Sankrail in West Bengal's Paschim Medinipur district late on Thursday.

Meanwhile, there were reports that four bodies were seen by villagers at the bottom of a dried-up well at Shirshi village in the district. The police, however, could not confirm the report. “A group of men set the panchayat office on fire.

Most of the furniture and some documents were gutted. None was injured in the incident,' Superintendent of Police of Jhargram, Pravin Kumar Tripathi said on Friday.

Mr. Tripathi said investigations pointed to the involvement of some local supporters of the Maoist-backed Police Santrash Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee, and that attempts are being made to arrest them.

Suspected Maoists blew up a Communist Party of India (Marxist) office at Bhimpur earlier in the day with a landmine.

Cops get ready to face 26/11, Naxalites

2010-11-19T19:22:00.001-08:00

Government has bought simulators with software that will recreate environment during the 2008 attacks

Ashutosh Patil

Posted On Saturday, November 20, 2010 at 02:02:17 AM

Mumbai police on Friday got its second advanced training simulator installed at Kandivali police station to better the skills of its force. The first simulator was installed at RCF police station in Chembur in May.

This new simulator comes loaded with a software that will recreate the environment of 26/11 attacks and the ongoing fight with Maoists in the forests of Gadchiroli.

Dedicating the equipment to the team, Additional Commissioner of Nnorth Region Ramrao Pawar said, “Four policeman can be trained at a time on this simulator.”

Senior officers who experienced the machine were excited.

The government has earmarked Rs 2 crore to purchase seven such simulators for centres across the city

“We get an opportunity to practice at the shooting range once a year, but here we can practice as many times as possible.

This will definitely can improve our shooting skills,” said Suryakant Ghadge, senior inspector of Kandivali Police station.”

Jayawant Hargude, Assistant Commissioner of Police said, “With the new software, one can experience combat situations like 26/11 attacks or fight with Naxals dense forests lined with landmines.”

The government has earmarked Rs 2 crore to purchase seven such simulators for centres across the city.

The software can be upgraded whenever required and can be changed to create environments as per requirement.

Omar warns of growing Maoist-terrorist nexus

2010-11-19T19:20:00.001-08:00

November 19, 2010
Updated 14:16 IST

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday warned of a growing nexus between Maoists and the militants in his state.

Speaking at the India Today State of States Awards ceremony in the national capital, Abdullah blamed Left-thinking academics and Maoist sympathisers for that. He said they were trying to stir trouble in the valley by organising seminars there.

"What for a lot of states is a theory of how to deal with it (militancy), we have been dealing with it in practical terms for 20 years now. We have seen the effect on development, the effect on governance of insurgency," the young chief minister said.

He said efforts were being made to build bridges between Naxals and militants in the state. In this context, it was disturbing to see Maoist sympathisers moving to Srinagar.

"While we have no experience with the Maoist insurgency, of late, we find effort being made to build bridges between the Maoists and Naxalites of rest of India with the militants of Kashmir and also some Left-thinking academicians and students in Jammu region as well," Abdullah said.

"What we have lived through is the actual effects of violence and insurgency on every aspect of governance, on our ability to generate investment, on our ability to actually govern, on our ability to conduct an election in which people are free to vote as they wish to, on our ability to provide basic services," he added.

Omar warns of growing Maoist-terrorist nexus

2010-11-19T19:20:00.000-08:00

Links between Naxals, militants visible: Omar

2010-11-19T19:19:00.000-08:00

November 20th, 2010

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Friday said there were “visible and invisible links” among the militants in the state, the Maoists, Left-leaning academicians and supporters.

“We have no experience with Maoist insurgency even though of late we find efforts being made to build bridges between the Maoists and Naxalites of the rest of India with militants of Kashmir and also some Left-thinking academicians and students in Jammu region as well,” Mr Abdullah said. He maintained that not only were there visible links, but also several covert connections between the two. “We have seen evidence of it (of bridges being built between Maoists and insurgents in Kashmir). A lot more effort to build a sort of interaction. A lot of movement of known Maoist sympathisers now travelling to Srinagar and organising seminars and conferences with supporters of militant violence in Jammu and Kashmir as well,” he said while speaking at a seminar in the capital. Mr Abdullah was apparently alluding to Maoist sympathisers like writer-activist Arundhati Roy who had expressed support to Kashmiri separatists at a recent programme held here where pro-Azadi slogans were also raised.

Mr Abdullah pointed out that the state has been witnessing a new form of violence since 2008 in the form of stone-pelting “which is a more orchestrated civil protest sort of system”. He said that due to militancy and violence Jammu and Kashmir could never hope to compete with big states. Mr Abdullah maintained that insurgency had affected all aspects of governance including conduct of elections and generating investment in the state. Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir government is soon expected to de-notify Srinagar under the Disturbed Areas Act, a move that would render the AFSPA ineffective in the summer capital of the Valley. Government sources here said that nearly 2,000 security personnel will be shifted out from the civilian areas to the border areas without disturbing the counter-insurgency grid in the state.

Naxals strike Jharkhand village, kill & maim at will

2010-11-19T19:18:00.000-08:00

B Vijay Murty and Anbwesh Roy Choudhary, Hindustan Times
Email Author
Bundu, November 20, 2010First Published: 00:21 IST(20/11/2010)
Last Updated: 00:22 IST(20/11/2010)

When Pradip Munda was about to start the feast he had been promising his friends, Sanjay Mahato and Sonaram Munda, for a long time, it was well past dinner time in a rainy night. Pradip and his friends, who were quite high on the Maoists’ hit list for their anti-Maoist campaign, also felt secured

because of the presence of a company of Jharkhand Armed Police (JAP) in a school building barely 50 metres away.
But it took only four rebels to storm the hutment and kill the three and Pradip’s elder daughter. The policemen dared to come out of their camp only after one and a half hours later and making sure that the rebels had left. “They even asked the village women to shield them,” said angry women,

Next day, as the impact of the violence sank in, anger surfaced in Pradip’s Barahatu village, raising once again apprehensions of a fierce fight between the rebels and the villagers.

Agitated villagers, mostly youngsters who had pledged to resist the rebels, took out rallies with traditional weapons and forced a shutdown in the town.

A shutdown has also been called in four blocks of Ranchi district on Saturday to protest the killings. The villagers are once again regrouping to launch a campaign against the Maoists.

The scene at Pradip’s hutment on Friday morning was gory. Utensils, clothes, bed sheets and a tattered blanket were all soaked in blood and a portion of the roof was blown apart. “Since it was raining, people were inside their houses,” said Pradip’s uncle Pada Lakshman Singh Munda, who came out of his house in the neighbourhood after hearing the gunshots only to find his nephew and the three others dead.

A 14-year-old girl, witness of the incident, said: “Pradip and his friends were seated on a cot inside the house. His wife, Lakhimani, and two daughters were near the hearth when suddenly the rebels came in and sprayed bullets.”

Changing face of red zone in Bihar

2010-11-19T19:16:00.000-08:00

Agencies Posted online: Thu Nov 18 2010, 15:46 hrs

Imamganj (Sherghati) : When Saman Kumar Daangi set up the first cyber cafe in Imamganj bazaar of this naxal-hit area nine years ago, there were no takers.
But that was then. At least three cafes within an area of half a kilometre have come in the bazaar now, nothing short of a revolution for the people in this backward constituency.

Scores of village youths, including girls, can be seen waiting outside Prime Computer Centre for their turn.

"I had opened the first computer centre in the bazaar in 2001. Then as the law and order situation improved, two more computer centres came up in 2008. Currently three of the five computer centres in the area have internet facilities. And terminals hardly remain unoccupied with village youths evincing keen interest in net-surfing," says Saman.

The cyber cafes, which have come as a boon for residents of nearby villages like Bovandi, Malhar, Dubhal and Karain, do a brisk business but power supply remains a problem.

"Electricity connection has come but power plays truant during day time. Out of 24 hours, power is for around 10 hours during night and we have to depend on generators to run our business," says Saman.

"Despite, Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Project, there is no electricity in major parts of the constituency. Electric poles are there in many villages but wiring has not been done while at some places, transformers have not been installed," a local Baleshwar Prasad said.

But Prasad is hopeful that the area would see a turn around once it is connected with 153-km state highway connecting Dumaria with the state capital. The under construction road will bring down the distance between Imamganj and Patna at least by 50 kms.

The Vasudha Kendras opened by the state government which provide villagers at panchayat level facility for internent use have added to the cyber revolution.

However, out of the 17 panchayats in Imamganj, only eight have these centres.

In the newly-constituted Sherghati assembly segment, Muslim girls cycle their way to school, a rare sight till a few years ago.

"My sister Sana has got the cycle from the school. Since the bicycle has come, our parents no longer forbid us from cycling. 10 to 15 girls in our village have got bicycles," says Nazneen in Akouna village.

The school, which is almost seven kms away from Akouna, has been a sudden surge in attendance particularly after the state government provided the girls free bicycles.

"They are paddling to power," remarks a school teacher in Sherghati.

Imamganj, the hot-bed of naxal activities and caste/class wars fought between erstwhile MCC and Sunlight Sena, is also witnessing for the first time a resistance to such "forced" violence.

Maoists had swooped on a high school building in Maigra in broad daylight during Independence Day celebrations and asked villagers to hoist a black flag. An angry school girl snatched the flag from the Maoists' hand and burnt it in their presence.

As the group tried to drag the girl, students accompanied by locals attacked the extremists forcing them to flee.

"This was something that was unimaginable ten years back," says a local in this constituency represented by Bihar Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhury.

The area has not witnessed any major caste violence in at least six years with residents more keen on addressing the basic issue of livelihood.

A noted Urdu poet Harendra Giri "Shad", who has studied social strifes, says, "the caste-strife has reached a saturation point in the area and there is a realiasation in both sections that mindless violence is not going to solve their problems.

"Though the divide persists, the eruptions are not so extreme," he said.

In Sherghati bazaar, the screaming wall writings for making Sherghati a district which were visible till a few years ago are absent and it appears the decades-long movement has lost its edge. The recent incidents of some highly publicised murders appear to have had some bearing on RJD's Muslim-Yadav combination in this constituency, though its candidate and former Power Minister Shakeel Ahmed Khan is the most known face in the area.

The most talked case is of Neema village, where Aftab Khan, who had married a Yadav girl almost thirty years back, was bludgeoned to death soon after he returned the village with his wife a few months ago.

Neema falls in Gurua constituency, which was represented by Khan three times.

Khan used to hold five portfolios during the heydays of Lalu Prasad's RJD and even now he is a prominent Muslim leader in the state.

The SP, BSP, and JDS have also fielded Muslim candidates while at least four Yadav candidates are also contesting from the area.

The JD-U has fielded Vinod Yadav, who is banking on his personal rapport in the area and Nitish Kumar's development plank.

All the three blocks of the constituency Aamas, Dobhi and Sherghati are naxal affected.

In the adjacent Gurua constituency, it appears to be a direct contest between RJD's Bindi Yadav and BJP's Surendra Singh. Congress has fielded a local Anirudh Yadav. Bindi Yadav has been the Chairman of Zila Parishad.

Karma village, described as "cultural hub" of Maoists, is just a few kilometres away from here.

Auto rickshaws and mini buses ply even in the first few hours of the night on the road connecting Karma and Gurua bazaar, which was earlier considered o go areas after 4 PM. Howver, rampant unemployment and poverty prevails in villages dotting the road.

"There are no jobs. The road is there but the road should also lead to somewhere," says Ravi, an under-graduate student

UAV commando carriers for anti-terror ops on government menu

2010-11-19T19:15:00.000-08:00

New Delhi, Nov 18 (PTI) Government is looking to procure helicopter-shaped Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to airdrop small commandos units for launching special operations to counter terrorism and naxal menace with added swiftness and stealth.

The UAVs till now were used by various security forces to gather intelligence and conduct reconaissance missions in unfriendly terrian but commandos onboard is a maiden initiative.

The Qualitative Requirements (QRs) for the rotary wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) floated by the Home Ministry specify that the air borne machine should be able to "deploy two to three men team" at a short notice.

Experts handling the technology in the Home Ministry said that such UAVs have recently been used by the NATO forces in Afghanistan and it can carry men by replacing the equivalent weight of the payload that the UAV is stipulated to bear.

Such operations, by deploying a crack commando team on-board the UAVs, can be undertaken in case of a terror attack in urban areas and even naxal zones, sources said.

The Draft QR specifically states that the "UAV should be capable of rapid deployment with a detachment not exceeding two to three men and should have all weather day and night operations capability", an essential requirement for such machines to perform in the tough and unknown terrains.

"The system (UAV) must be able to detect and acquire the designated targets. The sensor packages must provide a high quality imagery resolution to permit target detection, recognition, identification and accurate location of targets, move of personnel and vehicles.

"The UAV must be capable of being deployed and operated in built up areas and narrow lanes during counter-terrorist and counter-hijack operations," the QR said.

The new desired UAVs for the security forces including the elite NSG, will also have the capacity to record data upto 80 Gega Bytes (GB).

The security forces, according to sources, have asked for an "intelligent" UAV which can change its pre-fed programming and go into a "loiter" mode in the operations area to suit the need of the operation.

The UAV should also be capable "of providing real time high quality video with full flight telemetry and capable of tackling ground targets, both static and mobile".

The UAV is desired to cruise at a speed of 30 knots and above with hovering and hanging facilities in the air and the sensors deployed on it should pick up the target at 400 metres. It should also be airborne for about six hours, the QR floated after consultations with various security agencies said.

Sources said the desired UAV should have a platform to enable simulation exercises for troops prior to an operation and should have all facilities of maintenance and product support.

Anti-Naxal Force hit by fund shortage

2010-11-19T19:13:00.002-08:00

Express News Service
Posted: Fri Nov 19 2010, 03:52 hrs
Kolkata:

The financial crisis has taken its toll on the government drive against Naxalites in the Left Wing Extremism-affected districts of Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore.

The state government had sanctioned Rs 35 crore for raising the Counter Insurgency Force (CIF) to tackle Naxal menace. However, a bill for Rs 17 lakh - to buy uniforms for the jawans - has been pending for the last three months. The government has also not cleared the 30 per cent risk allowance for the CIF, which if meant for police personnel deployed to fight Naxalites.

“Both the files have been lying with the finance department,” a senior official of the Home Department told The Indian Express.

A meeting, which was chaired by Home Secretary G D Gautama, was held today to sort out the issue. While the training centre for the CIF is going to be set up at Salua, in West Midnapore district, the administrative headquarters will be set up at Garia in Kolkata.

“At present training is imparted from various schools run by police forces of other states and also the BSF and the Army,” the official said

Two Naxals arrested in Dantewada

2010-11-19T19:13:00.001-08:00

2010-11-19 01:30:00
Last Updated: 2010-11-19 08:01:39

Raipur: Two Naxals, including a woman carrying a reward of Rs one lakh on her head, were arrested in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district on Friday, police said.

Acting on a tip-off, police arrested Madkami Hunge alias Shanni, who was carrying a bounty of Rs one lakh, and Madkami Arjun, Sautnaur village under Tongpal station area, Dantewada SP SRP Kalluri told PTI over phone.

Shanni, a member of the Darbha division's military company, was in Arjun's house in Sautnaur since the past one month for getting treatment, he said.

She was involved in Naxal activities since 2003, while she was just 15, Kalluri said adding that she was working under Darbha division committee commander Ganesh Uikey since March 2010.

Shanni was involved in an encounter Palodi under Kistaram station area, in which three jawans were killed, another encounter in Singanmadgu in which six police officials were killed. She was also involved in an the firing on a police helicopter in 2008, the police officer said.

A 315 bore rifle and three live cartridges were found from her possession, he said.

Pakistan and the Naxalite Movement in India

2010-11-18T07:24:00.001-08:00

"Pakistan and the Naxalite Movement in India is republished with permission of STRATFOR."

November 18, 2010 | 0857 GMT

Read more: Pakistan and the Naxalite Movement in India | STRATFOR

By Ben West

Indian Maoist militants, known as Naxalites, have been meeting with members of the outlawed Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), according to the director-general of police for India’s Chhattisgarh state. Based on information from a police source, state police chief Vishwa Ranjan said Nov. 11 that two LeT operatives attended a Naxalite meeting in April or May. While their presence at the meeting still needs to be corroborated, the chief said, it appears very likely that the Naxalites held the meeting to adopt a new policy and plans for increasing “armed resistance” in order to seize political power in India.

Indian authorities are using the alleged meeting between LeT operatives and Naxalites as evidence that Pakistan is trying to forge relationships with the Naxalites, which India has long suspected. India blamed the LeT for the 2008 Mumbai attacks and the 2001 parliament attack. For the Indian public, LeT also has become synonymous with Pakistani intelligence operations. The group that Indian officials refer to as “LeT,” however, is no longer an ally of Pakistan and has changed so much in recent years that we have started to refer to it and similar groups as “neo-LeT”.

Before this latest accusation, Indian officials implicated at least six other militant groups in Naxalite activities (with varying degrees of Pakistani support). Linking the estimated 10,000-strong Naxalites to militant groups backed by Pakistan, India’s main geopolitical rival and primary source of external security threats, creates a “nightmare” scenario for India. Indeed, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has labeled the Naxalites “the biggest internal security challenge” to India. Taken at face value, reports of such an alliance lead to visions of well-trained, well-disciplined Naxal militants expanding their near-daily attacks on low-level rural targets in eastern India (known as the “Red Corridor”) to political and high-tech targets in Calcutta, Hyderabad or even New Delhi. But such visions are alarmist and do not reflect the true nature of the very limited Pakistani-Naxalite relationship.

STRATFOR has watched Indian officials link Pakistan to the Naxalites before, but we have yet to see significant changes on the ground that would give any credence to the scenario outlined above. Many Indian officials are equally insistent that no connections exist between Naxalites and Pakistan. Although the Naxalites have provided rhetorical support for Kashmiri (and other anti-Indian groups’) opposition to New Delhi over the past year, there has been little action to back up the rhetoric. The Indians have long feared that outside powers would manipulate grassroots groups in India and further destabilize an already regionalized country. When the Naxalite movement began in the 1960s, New Delhi feared Beijing was trying to get a foothold in India, and for the past 50 years India has demonized Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI) for allegedly supporting militant operations in India.

To better understand the allegation that Pakistan is supporting the Naxalites, we have decided to investigate the sources of Naxalite weapons and training to get an idea of how much outside help the Naxalites rely on in the first place, since this is one way to measure the level of outside assistance. The study below focuses on what types of arms Naxalites have access to, how they got them and who they got them from. While we did find evidence of some Pakistani involvement in supplying the weapons through third parties, the Naxalites appear to remain a very self-reliant group that has not established a strong partnership with Pakistan when it comes to weapons and training.

Weapons

Local Indian media sources report that Naxalite forces have an arsenal of approximately 20,000 weapons — an average of two weapons per soldier. The Naxalites have obtained this arsenal from four different sources:

From Indian security forces, either by Naxalite raids on their outposts in Naxalite-controlled areas or bribing or coercing members of the security forces to sell or give them firearms and ammunition, along with ballistic vests and tactical gear, including night-vision optics. This is the source of most Naxalite weapons, which include Indian-made assault rifles, light machine guns and carbines that fire 5.62mm NATO ammunition; variants of the AK-47 that fire 7.62mm rounds; and locally made shotguns of various gauges. Israeli-made sniper rifles have also been found in Naxalite caches on a few occasions, likely the Galil 7.62mm rifles that India acquired from Israel in efforts to target Naxalite leaders in the first place.
Theft from businesses operating in the Naxalite-controlled areas, including fertilizer distributors and mining companies that maintain stocks of explosives, blasting caps and detonators.
Local arms factories run directly by Naxalites or other criminal groups. These operations demonstrate a wide range of craftsmanship, from assembling makeshift weapons from discarded parts to more advanced forging processes. These factories also produce homemade mortar rounds and components for improvised explosive devices.
Procuring foreign weapons, ammunition and explosives from external militant and criminal groups operating within and outside of India. Details on the types of weapons procured this way are available from seizures of weapons shipments into India that have included rifles in the .315- to .30-06-caliber range. Such shipments are traded for smuggling services or purchased with funds from banditry, extortion or revolutionary taxes. Purchasing weapons from the outside is very expensive. According to a 2009 India Daily News article, Naxalite expenditure reports seized by police showed that, over a six-month period, one zone command spent more than three-quarters of the unit’s budget on weapons ($70,214), with the rest ($20,604) spent on supplies. Such evidence suggests that Naxalite weapon procurements from the outside have their limitations; obtaining them locally is far cheaper and can be done by virtually any Naxalite fighter.

The Naxalite arsenal is vast and diverse, consisting of weapons manufactured in China, Russia, the United States, Pakistan and India. Photographs of Naxalite units in training or on patrols show fighters wielding a variety of rifles in different calibers and conditions, indicating a lack of weapons uniformity across Naxalite units. While this does suggest a certain level of resourcefulness among the Naxalites, it also means that parts and ammunition are not interchangeable, which is an important tactical limitation. If one rifle breaks, its parts cannot be easily replaced. If one militant runs out of ammunition, he cannot turn to his neighbor for more rounds. Standardized weapons are a key advantage for organized militias (the Taliban, for example, virtually all use a variant of the AK-47), an advantage the Naxalites appear to be lacking. The lack of weapons uniformity among Naxalite groups indicates that they do not have a benefactor that has bestowed on them a reliable, standardized arsenal and have had to build up their own from scratch.

Outside Suppliers

There are numerous reports in open-source media in India and elsewhere that link Naxalites to a number of militant and criminal groups throughout South Asia. These groups interact with Maoists from Nepal, secessionists in India’s restive northeast, ISI-backed Islamists from Bangladesh, criminals from Myanmar and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka. Weapons flow among these groups in a region that has historically been a rich environment for secessionist movements.

(click here to enlarge image)

The British originally encouraged strong regional identities throughout the Indian subcontinent to prevent the various ethnic groups from uniting in opposition to British colonial rule. The Pakistanis continued that strategy in order to maintain leverage over India, supporting anti-Indian groups primarily in the contested Kashmir region and later in Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan), which they used as bases for extending their activities into India. India also supported anti-Pakistani groups in Bangladesh in an attempt to offset this Pakistani pressure. The Naxalites have benefited from this arrangement, directly from foreign powers like Pakistan and, for the most part, through indirect relationships with other regional secessionist movements that also oppose New Delhi.

STRATFOR sources in India claim that Pakistani intelligence has established business relationships with Naxalites to sell arms and ammunition and lately has tried to use Naxal bases for anti-Indian activities. There is evidence that the ISI is providing weapons and ammunition to the Naxalites in exchange for money or services, mostly through third parties like the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) or the ostensible Bangladeshi militant leader Shailen Sarkar (both are described in more detail below). Naxalite leaders in India deny cooperating with Pakistan but have very publicly pledged their support for separatist movements in India. STRATFOR sources in the Indian army say they are investigating but still lack the evidence to prove a direct link between the Naxalites and the ISI, since the Pakistanis continue to play a peripheral role.

The groups below are reported to have had contact with the Naxalites and to have provided various levels of support. Some of these groups have established links to the ISI, which makes them possible conduits of contact and support between Pakistan and the Naxalites.

ULFA, one of the largest, most violent secessionist movements in India’s northeast, is accused of working with ISI Islamist assets along the Indian-Bangladeshi border, where it controls smuggling routes through the Siliguri corridor. The Indian government accuses the Naxalites of working with ULFA to smuggle drugs and counterfeit money through Siliguri on behalf of the ISI in exchange for weapons and explosives.
The People’s Liberation Army of Manipur (PLAM) is a secessionist group in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur. According to Indian security officials, the respective political wings of the PLAM and the Naxalites signed a document in October 2010 pledging to “overthrow the … Indian reactionary and oppressive regime.” However, there are no documented instances of PLAM providing material support to the Naxalites. Indian intelligence agencies report that a militant from Manipur who was arrested in 2007 revealed that the PLAM leadership was in frequent contact with the LeT leadership in 2006 as directed by the ISI.
The National Social Council of Nagaland-Issac Muviah branch (NSCN-IM) is a secessionist movement in the northeast Indian state of Nagaland. Indian Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said in June that the leader of NSCN-IM helped members of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-M) smuggle weapons through Myanmar and Bangladesh. Indian officials in the state of Tripura accused the NSCN-IM of working jointly with the ISI in assisting militant cadres.
The People’s War Group (PWG) was a militant faction of the Communist Party of India-Marxist/Leninist until 2004, when it left and helped form the CPI-M, which is the political arm of the Naxalite movement. In 2004, the PWG received bomb-making materials and training from groups like ULFA and NSCN-IM in Bangladesh in exchange for smuggling drugs into India, an effort organized by the ISI between 2000 and 2004, when the PWG was not under the Naxalite umbrella.
LTTE is an ethnic secessionist movement in northern Sri Lanka that was defeated by Sri Lanka’s military in 2009 after 26 years of fighting. According to a surrendering Naxalite commander, LTTE militants taught Naxalites how to handle mines and grenades at a camp in Bastar, Chhattisgarh state. LTTE fighters have fled Sri Lanka since their 2009 defeat, and Indian authorities suspect that Tamil fighters are providing training for Naxalites in exchange for safe haven.
Nepalese Maoists comprise the militant wing of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal. They have exchanged training and weapons with Indian Naxalites, and there are also reports of Nepalese Maoists receiving medical care at Naxalite camps in India.
Shailen Sarkar is a member of the Communist Party of Bangladesh. The Indian Home Ministry accuses Sarkar’s group of training Naxalites at ISI-funded camps in Bangladesh. The ministry also claims that Sarkar has met with Naxal leaders in India.

Evidence of direct links between the ISI and the Naxalites is hard to come by. The connections above show only links between Naxalites and Pakistan via third parties, which makes it hard to measure the influence that Pakistan has over Naxalite militants. Pakistan likely wants to keep its activities in India covert so as not to exacerbate an already tense diplomatic situation. Murky, circuitous relationships are most likely preferred in this kind of environment.

Indeed, Pakistan does not necessarily need much more than murky, circuitous relationships in order to keep pressure on New Delhi. The Naxalites are a low-maintenance, self-sustaining movement that will continue to undermine Indian rule in the country’s east — Pakistan does not need to expend more resources to sustain this, and the Naxalites are likely wary of undermining their own local legitimacy by accepting too much assistance from an outside government. While something like a standardized arsenal compliments of the ISI would benefit the Naxalites operationally, such a move would be a high-risk, low-reward effort for Islamabad, which seeks to operate very subtly in India for the time being while tensions over the 2008 Mumbai attacks continue to cool off.

The lack of evidence of an institutional relationship between Naxalites and Pakistan does not mean that personal relationships between ISI assets and Naxalite cadres could not develop through the limited interaction now taking place. A combination of more aggressive people from both sides could certainly lead to a more concerted attacks in India, reminiscent of the 2008 serial bombings in cities throughout India.

Such attacks, however, would likely be more of a one-off exception. For the time being, reports of Pakistani-Naxalite cooperation will continue to surface, though this cooperation will probably involve third-party groups that give both Pakistan and the Naxalites plausible deniability. Until we see indications from either the Naxalites or Pakistan that they are willing to establish more robust connections and become more aggressive toward India, a coordinated militant campaign remains unlikely.

Rally against Maoists in their hotbed

2010-11-17T21:10:00.001-08:00

KOLKATA: Several political parties and civil groups took out a rally at Banshpahari, located near the West Bengal and Jharkhand border, in West Bengal's Paschim Medinipur district on Wednesday in protest against the persistent Maoist violence in the region.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Jharkhand Anushilan Party and the Gana Pratirodh Committee were the principal participants. The rally was held under the banner of the Vananchal Adhikar Raksha Committee.

Banshpahari and the adjacent Belpahari in West Bengal are notorious for their hilly terrain, which provides a safe haven for Maoists as well as an escape route into the neighbouring Jharkhand during security operations.

“More than 5,000 people assembled at the rally, where the demand to resume normal panchayat activities was made. Due to the ongoing Maoist violence for the last two years, development in the region has been completely stalled,” CPI(M)'s district committee member Dahareswar Sen said.

Pointing out that such a big rally had not been witnessed in the area in the last 12 years, Mr. Sen said it indicated that the locals were fed up with Maoists, contrary to the claim of the extremists.

Positive sign

District Superintendent of Police Pravin Tripathi said it was a positive sign that the local people had started raising their voice against the left-wing extremists.

Teacher turns out to be wanted Maoist

2010-11-17T21:06:00.000-08:00

Hyderabad, Nov. 17: Kandula Shirisha, 38, was a play teacher in a home for destitute children in Hyderabad where she has been working for three years.

At Rainbow Home, set up by an NGO with the support of the district collectorate, everyone knew that the single mother — she has a teenage son, Prithvi — had studied up to intermediate and that she was estranged from family and friends because of a personal tragedy.

That was till Monday, when sleuths arrested her in Koraput district on the Andhra-Orissa border and revealed that Shirisha is Padmakka, wife of Maoist top gun Ramakrishna alias Akkiraju Hargopal and a prominent Maoist herself.

Suspected to be involved in many Maoist operations in Andhra and Orissa, Padmakka carried a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh on her head.

She was arrested while on her way to meet her husband, who is unwell, and son in the Narayanpatna forests in Koraput. Orissa police have filed a case of sedition and treason in a local court.

Civil rights activist G. Kalyan Rao, who called on Padma at Koraput jail, disputed the police version that she was arrested on Monday and claimed instead that she was taken into custody by Orissa police near Saluru on November 10, interrogated by Andhra police at Vizianagaram and later handed back to Orissa police.

Revolutionary poet and Maoist sympathiser Vara Vara Rao also contests the police claim that Padmakka, who is also known as Durga and Nirmala, was a Maoist activist and said she was only working in an orphanage in Hyderabad.

“She always avoided being photographed during events in the school-cum-hostel,” the NGO that runs Rainbow said.

Ramakrishna, 45, a central committee member and in charge of the Andhra-Orissa border committee of the Maoists, is alleged to be in a safe hideout in either the Narayanpatna or Bandhugaon blocks in Orissa. Son Prithvi is also with him now, so the Maoists are protecting him zealously, the police said.

Andhra police, who had deployed eight units of the elite commando force Greyhounds to track down Ramakrishna, blame Orissa police for jumping the gun and arresting Padma before she made contact with her husband’s couriers.

Said to be the brain behind eliminating the police network of informers — former activists and tribals — in the Andhra-Orissa border area, Ramakrishna is guarded by a 70-member guerilla military unit and always moves with three rings of security and 10-15 heavily armed personal escorts.

“Under his guidance, the action teams bumped off police informers and tightened movement in the region,” a state intelligence officer said.

He has over 32 cases pending against him, including that of the assassination of Telugu Desam home minister A. Madhav Reddy, whose car was blown up on a state highway when he was on his way to his hometown Bhongir in Nalgonda.

Ramakrishna, part of the Maoist top 10 leaders, had joined the movement in the early ’90s while working as lecturer in a college in Macherla in Guntur district, sources said.

Padmakka, the daughter of a retired state government employee, is also from Guntur, the sources added. She has a sister who was employed with the National Institute of Rural Development in Hyderabad.

After he led the Maoists in the unsuccessful talks with the Andhra Pradesh government in 2004 and narrowly escaped the state police in the Nallamalla forest, Ramakrishna was moved to Orissa and given charge of the border area.

Andhra and Orissa police have deployed 600 CRPF and Greyhound commandos around the Narayanpatna and Bandhugaon forest blocks to catch Ramakrishna and another top gun, Sudhakar. Using GPS and satellite technology, the police tapped Ramakrishna’s calls to followers and aides on a hillock of Narayanpatna, which they have encircled.

Two helicopters have been kept on standby for immediate action in the coming days.

Anticipating a police attack, the Maoists leaked information on landmine and claymore explosives around the Narayanpatna forests, leading about 100 Greyhound commandos to withdraw in the past couple of days, sources said. The Maoists also blasted a police station at Kathirigumma in Koraput to divert attention.

“Landmine threats are keeping the forces at bay as Ramakrishna and his associates are still holed up in the border areas,” said an inspector-general rank officer camping at Visakhapatnam to supervise anti-Naxalite operations.

The police have set up checkposts on forest routes to Chhattisgarh (Narayanapatna-Raigarh-Sambalpur) and Bengal (Srikakulam-Parlakamidi-Behrampore).

Sexual abuse and mental tortured ' women Maoist surrenders

2010-11-16T18:42:00.002-08:00

TNN, Nov 17, 2010, 01.38am IST

Article
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Tags:Sexual Abuse Of Maoist|Maoist|Lalgarh Movement|Kishan

BANKURA: Alleging sexual abuse and mental torture in the hands of her comrades, a woman Maoist squad member surrendered before Bankura SP Pranab Kumar on Tuesday.

Rumpa Mahato alias Sujata surrendered with a 9mm pistol, 11 cartridges and plenty of revolutionary' literature at the SP's office. The daughter of a daily labourer at Majurkata village in West Midnapore's Salboni, Rumpa told the SP that she had been lured by Maoists about two years ago from her home with the promise of work. The 21-year-old is a Class VIII dropout.

Rumpa said she initially liked the Maoists' mission' and willingly went along with them. In her confessions to the SP, Rumpa said: "I met Kishanji. I also had several interactions with Maoist squad leaders Bikash and Bikram at arms training sessions. I was involved in several Maoist operations, mainly in Nayagram and Gopiballavpur. I also participated in the Lalgarh movement of the Maoists."

But Rumpa said she was being physically and mentally tortured by the male squad members for many days now. "I could no longer bear this torture," she said. She also grew disillusioned with the Maoist movement and described the ongoing killings by the ultras as "anti-social activities".

The SP said Rumpa's statements would be verified. "She seems to be suffering from fear psychosis. She was involved in many incidents and we are cross-checking her statement with West Midnapore police," said Kumar.

Read more: Tortured' Maoist surrenders - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Tortured-Maoist-surrenders/articleshow/6938448.cms#ixzz15VIUnz5q

Recruitment in CPF

2010-11-16T18:42:00.001-08:00

18:27 IST
Recruitment of Constable (GD) in Central Para Military Forces is being conducted as per scheme issued by MHA, in which 60% of vacancies are being allotted amongst all states/UTs on the basis of population ratio, 20% vacancies are allotted to border districts falling within the area of responsibility of Border Guarding Forces (BGFs) and 20% vacancies in Border Guarding Forces are allotted to the militancy affected area (i.e. J&K, North Eastern States and Naxal affected areas) as notified by the Government from time to time. In Forces other then BGFs, 40% vacancies are allotted to militancy-affected areas (i.e. J&K, North Eastern States and Naxal affected areas). The recruitment in CPMFs is being conducted on a regular basis. Recruitment from border areas is also being made as per the provisions mentioned above.

. This was stated by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Shri Ajay Maken in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.

Orphanage worker Padma is booked for waging war

2010-11-16T18:41:00.001-08:00

TNN, Nov 17, 2010, 04.21am IST

PARVATHIPURAM/KORAPUT: The Koraput police filed criminal conspiracy cases against Kandula Sireesha alias Padma, wife of top Maoist leader Ramakrishna alias RK, and three of her associates who were arrested in Dudari forest area in Naryanapatna block on Sunday afternoon.

They were booked under section of 120-B (waging war against state) of Criminal Conspiracy Act, sections 18, 20 of Unlawful Activities (amendment) Act, section 17 of Criminal Law Amendment Act (propagating financing, supplying either direct or indirect waging war against governments of India and Orissa), sections 121, 121 A of IPC (waging war against government and state) and sections 122 and 124 of IPC.

Nihar Ranjan Nayak, advocate of Padma and others, told TOI that he would be filing a bail petition on Thursday as Wednesday is a holiday for the court on account of Bakrid. "If the sessions court rejects our bail petition, we would move a petition in the higher courts," he said.

Civil rights activist and former Virasam president G Kalyana Rao met Padma, his wife's sister, at the Koraput central prison on Tuesday evening. Kalyana Rao claimed that Padma was arrested near Saluru on November 10. "Naxal Iswari of Vizag was arrested on Nov. 12 somewhere near Saluru by the Andhra police," he said. They were shifted to Viziangaram for two days for interrogation and later handed over to the Orissa police. "While shifting Iswari from Saluru to Vizianagaram, the cops blindfolded her and even beat her up," he alleged.

Earlier, speaking in Visakhapatnam, Kalyana Rao said Padma was not connected with the activities of Maoist party. "She was only going to meet her ailing husband. There is no law which prevents a wife from meeting her ailing husband," he said. He said there were no cases against Padma or the arrested persons who were accompanying her.

Padma, who studied up to Intermediate, was brought up by Kalyana Rao and his wife and as recently as two weeks back Padma visited Kalyana Rao's house in Prakasam district, sources said. Kalyana Rao asserted that she had always been with them or in Hyderabad where she worked in an orphanage.

He said Padma's son Prithvi was also nurtured by him during his early years. Asked about the photographs of Padma in militia fatigues, he said it was possible that her photo in those pictures might have been morphed.

Meanwhile, a police station was set on fire by the Maoists in Koraput district in protest against the arrest of Padma. Over 40 Maoists ransacked the Kakirigumma police station late on Monday night and set on fire records and torched a police jeep. The guerrillas also damaged furniture.

Read more: Orphanage worker Padma is booked for waging war - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Orphanage-worker-Padma-is-booked-for-waging-war/articleshow/6938279.cms#ixzz15VIA6EsA

Four hardcore Naxalites held

2010-11-16T18:40:00.000-08:00

TNN, Nov 17, 2010, 02.40am IST

PATNA: The Munger police arrested four hardcore Naxalites with arms and Naxal-literature after a stiff encounter with them that lasted for over an hour at Gobadda hills at Kharagpur on Tuesday.

The Munger SP said that two extremists were reportedly injured in the encounter in which the police fired 50 rounds. Massive manhunt has been launched to arrest the Maoists, he said. They have been identified as Dharo (Lakhisarai), Sunna and Sanjay (Munger) and Anil Yadav (Jamui), he said.

The SP said that the arrested Naxalites were involved in Kajra Hills encounter in Lakhisarai district in late August, Sangrampur block blast and burning of some campaign vehicles.

Read more: Four hardcore Naxalites held - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Four-hardcore-Naxalites-held/articleshow/6937896.cms#ixzz15VHxZ9e8

Greyhounds in Koraput in search of RK

2010-11-16T08:21:00.001-08:00

Express News Service First Published : 16 Nov 2010 04:42:18 AM ISTLast Updated : 16 Nov 2010 11:08:03 AM IST

HYDERABAD/BHUBANESWAR: A day after the Orissa Police arrested Padma, wife of top Maoist leader Ramakrishna alias RK, the Andhra Pradesh Police on Monday denied speculation that her husband was also picked up.

A team from AP’s elite anti-Naxal force, Greyhounds, is in Koraput, where Padma was arrested, to gather information about the whereabouts of RK, the CPI (Maoist) central committee member and Andhra-Orissa-border (AOB) special zonal committee general secretary.

They were present during her interrogation basing on which a joint combing operation was launched along the Andhra-Orissaborder (AOB) to nab RK and his son Prithvi alias Munna, said to be a section commander in the newlyformed CPI (Maoist) central regional committee (CRC). The CRC is the third such unit of AOB and includes Srikakulam and Koraput divisions.

Though Padma didn’t reveal “operational” details, the police are believed to have collected vital inputs about RK’s movements in the forest areas of Parvathipuram, Bandhugaon and Narayanpatna. It was towards Narayanpatna that Padma was headed when she was arrested. Police sources said the Orissa team that nabbed Padma and a few others on Sunday came to know of their background only after interrogating them. “Had the Orissa police known their identities, they would have tracked them for some more time to get to RK,” a source said.

However, a police official of Orissa, on condition of anonymity, said beyond the point where Padma was arrested, movement was impossible without raising an alarm. There have been regular inputs about RK’s movements along the AOB, especially Narayanpatna and Malkangiri areas.

But, unlike the well-trained AP police, who use intelligence network to tail Maoist leaders for several days and hunt them down, their counterparts in Orissa do not appear to have gained a similar experience despite the heightened Maoist activity in the State, especially Koraput division. In fact, the police described the situation there as more or less similar to Dantewada.

“The Maoists there are operating through an organisation modelled on the lines of the Rytu Coolie Sangham that existed in AP in the past. The level of militancy is quite high,” a source said. Meanwhile, Padma and her associates have been remanded in judicial custody.

Greyhounds in Koraput in search of RK

2010-11-16T08:21:00.000-08:00

Maoists blow up police station in Orissa

2010-11-16T08:20:00.001-08:00

Stepping up their attack on police establishments and government structures, armed Maoists blew up a police station in Orissa’s Koraput district, police said today.

Around 30 heavily armed rebels raided the police station at Kakiriguma, about 40 km from here, around last mid-night and triggered a powerful explosion to blow up the structure, Laxmipur SDPO Y Jagannath Rao said.

Shouting slogans against the government and security forces, the ultras also torched a police jeep parked in the premises before disappearing into nearby forest, he said.

However, the Maoists did not harm anyone in course of their attack. The lone sentry manning the police station escaped as he reportedly fled the scene after sighting the marauding extremists.

Police reinforcement had rushed to the spot, while combing operation and patrolling intensified in the area to nab the ultras.

Keywords: Orissa, Maoists, Police station, Attack

Orissa: BSF extends helping hand to villagers in Malkangiri

2010-11-16T08:19:00.002-08:00

Report by Deba Prasad Dash; Malkangiri: Realising the paramount importance of the socio-economic issues that needs to be redressed at this juncture and to continue its mission of good will gesture in rural and Maoist infested areas of the Malkangiri district state, 107 Battalion of the Border Security Forces (BSF) deployed at Balimela were recently conducted Civic Action Programmes at various cut-off villages such as Mantriput, Rajalkonda, Chitrakonda, Balimela, Orkel, Gudmulgumma, Khirput etc.

This unique programme evoked good response from the tribal villagers who attened the camps held recently.They were distributed various items such as Note Books, Umbrella, School Bags, Uniform, Shoes, Geometry Boxes, Pens, Agricultural tools, Utensils, Stationary items, Electrical items, Sanitary items, Medicine etc to villagers.

Aiming at extending a helping hand to the poor tribal villagers residing in the interior and remote areas, the C' Coy, 107 Battalion was organized a multipurpose camp in Despahi Primary School and Sisu Mandir and Govt High School premises at Chitrakonda recently and 107 Battalion BSF Offg Commandant Raj Kumar, Assistant Commdant R.Sekhar, Chitrakonda Tehsildar D.Gopal Krishnan,IIC R.Chhatria and distributed various school items of worth Rs. 25,000/- to 50,000/- on the occasion.

The BSF officials with the support of the local officials there sorted out certain problems on the spot and wrote to the concerned officials to take up the issues. The local people appreciated the good will activities of BSF 107th Battalion and highlighted the role of BSF in insurgency areas.

During Civic Action they used to interact with villagers along with State Govt authorities such as Tehsildar, Inspector-in-Charges of various police stations, Block Development Officers, Junior Engineers etc to sort out the various problems of villagers. The BSF has plans to organise such good will programmes at various places in Chitrakonda area for the welfare of the poor tribal villagers, said the BSF officials. The programme is aimed at to improve education and life standard of poor villagers in cut off areas, they added.

Maoist leader in Bihar sentenced to 10 years imprisonment

2010-11-16T08:19:00.001-08:00

Published: Tuesday, Nov 16, 2010, 19:27 IST
Place: Banka | Agency: PTI

A local court today sentenced a Maoist leader to 10 years imprisonment for looting arms and ammunition from police in 2007.

The fast track court judge SC Srivastava also slapped a fine of Rs50,000 on Arvind Kumar Yadav alias Raju Da Yadav for looting four rifles and ten cartridges from policemen Turki More in Banka district on November 23, 2007.

The looted arms were later recovered from Chirauta village under Belhar police station area, according to the prosecution.

Two suspected Naxalites arrested in Jharkhand

2010-11-16T08:17:00.001-08:00

Press Trust Of India
Dhanbad/Gumla, November 16, 2010First Published: 20:51 IST(16/11/2010)
Last Updated: 20:52 IST(16/11/2010)

Two suspected Naxalites were arrested on Tuesday in different districts of Jharkhand. A suspected Naxalite was caught during a routine check in Sadar police station in Dhanbad when the police caught him and allegedly found a note which read "Boycott Panchayat elections". The police were

interrogating him to know which extremist group he belonged to.
The polling to rural bodies begins on November 27 and will be held in five phases.

Another suspected activist of People's Liberation Front of India was caught at a place in Gumla's Ghargra police station, Gumla district police chief N K Singh told newsmen there.

He said the Naxalite was identified as Lalit Oraon and 'confessed' that he belonged to the banned PLFI outfit.

A country-made double-barrel gun was seized from him, he said.

Six Naxalites have been arrested in Gumla this month.

Commandos set to take charge soon

2010-11-15T21:54:00.001-08:00

TNN, Nov 15, 2010, 09.44pm IST

Tags:National Security Guards|Karnataka Police Academy

MYSORE: The elite commando force, which has been constituted by the state to counter terrorism, will start functioning shortly, said home minister R Ashoka. He was speaking on the sidelines of laying of the foundation for the administrative block of Karnataka Police Academy on Monday.

He said the force has been formed on the lines of ( National Security Guards) NSG to tackle terrorism and naxal issues in the state. A total of 300 police personnel drawn from different wings are trained in various aspects.

As we cant wait for security forces from the Centre during emergency situations, we have made special arrangements to deal with the future security challenges in Karnataka, Ashoka said, adding that a brigadier-level officer (retired) of the Indian Army will head the commando group for three years.

FOCUS ON CONSTABULARY
My first priority is to improve standards of constables and head constables, who are chiefly responsible for maintaining law and order in the state, the minister said, replying to a query. Besides this, they will also focus on providing education to their children and adequate ration to the families. On the occasion, the minister disclosed plans to increase the number of police quarters by three-fold.

NAXAL MENACE
Ashoka also warned the Naxalites saying the police force is ready to take stringent steps against naxals if they do not shun violence. The government is committed to rehabilitate those who desist from naxal activities by providing jobs and shelter to them. In a democratic set-up, people have the opportunity to protest peacefully, but if anyone takes the path of violence, they will be dealt with an iron hand, the minister stated.

ADMINISTRATIVE BLOCK AT KPA
Briefing reporters about the new establishment at KPA, Ashoka said the administrative block is coming up at a cost of Rs 2.69 crore. The two-storeyed building will have a total built-up area of 24,000 sqft. A community hall will also be built in the area at a cost of Rs 2.7 crore. The government wants to make the police training academy a model centre in the country. We have set aside Rs 13 lakh for a basketball court, Rs 63 lakh for a hostel and seminar hall, Rs 2 crore to repair building blocks at KPA, Rs 3 crore to procure advanced training equipment and Rs 1 crore to purchase arms and ammunition, the minister stated.

The Karnataka Police Academy will shortly start implementing rainwater harvesting on its premises, he said.

Read more: Commandos set to take charge soon - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mysore/Commandos-set-to-take-charge-soon/articleshow/6931597.cms#ixzz15QE5NZ4n

India 15th on terror risk list

2010-11-15T21:53:00.001-08:00

November 16th, 2010
DC Correspondent

London, Nov. 15: India has been categorised as an “extreme risk” nation in the index of global terror risk led by Somalia.

Somalia experienced 556 terrorist incidents, killing a total of 1,437 people and wounding 3,408 between June 2009 and June 2010. It dropped from 4 to 1 in this year’s index to become the world’s terrorism hotspot.

Risk of terrorist attacks in India may be lower than that in Top 5 extreme risk terror-hit nations — Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Occupied Palestinian Terrorities — but it is still in the 15th place in a global ranking that annually assesses the frequency and intensity of terrorist incidents in 196 countries.
“India experienced a total of 749 terrorist incidents between June 2009 and June 2010. This compares to 775 terrorist attacks between June 2008 and 2009, a year previously. Levels of terrorism in India have thus remained constant and the country’s ranking has remained in the extreme risk category,” the index explained.
India experienced a significant number of mass-casualty attacks — 127 attacks resulted in 100 or more fatalities.

India is facing threat from Islamist violence and from the Naxalites, who claim to be fighting for greater social justice for India’s rural poor, the report on the index explained.

The Naxals were believed to have been behind another train derailment in May 2010 in West Midnapore district in West Bengal. The derailment killed 148 and injured 200 or more people.

Wife of wanted maoist along with 3 cadres arrested in Orissa

2010-11-15T21:51:00.001-08:00

Video: Asian News International (ANI)

Kishenji's death news a ploy to dilute anti-Naxal ops'

2010-11-15T21:50:00.001-08:00

Press Trust Of India
Jamshedpur, November 14, 2010First Published: 22:34 IST(14/11/2010)
Last Updated: 22:36 IST(14/11/2010)

Jharkhand police on Sunday said the recent poster, recovered in West Bengal, alluding the death of CPI (Maoist) leader Kishenji could be a ploy of the outfit to dilute the operations against the rebels. "I do not not rule out the possibility that it could be a Maoist ploy to divert the ongoing

operation," DIG (Kolhan) Navin Kumar Singh said.
Had he been died, it would have attracted reactions within the outfit like it did when its top-ranking leader Azad was killed in an encounter in Andhra Pradesh, Singh said.

The poster recovered from Lalgarh police station area on Friday referred Kishenji as 'Saheed' (Martyr).

"One of the Maoist politburo members, who was arrested in West Singhbhum district recently, has not said anything on Kishanji during interrogation," he said.

The DIG, who led anti-Naxal operation for five days in Saranda forest of West Singhbhum in September where an encounter took place, denied that Kishanji was present there.

A second-ranked Maoist leader Prasant Bose alias Kishan'da was present and leading his men against the securitymen, he said.

High Alert For Naxal Bandh Call

2010-11-15T21:49:00.001-08:00

High alert has been sounded on the Andhra-Orissa border following a bandh call by Naxals over arrest of their leader's wife.

15th Nov, 2010: Following the 2-day bandh call issued by Maoists in protest against the arrest of top Maoist Ramakrishna's wife Padma by the Orissa police in Koraput district on Sunday, a high alert has been sounded on the Andhra-Orissa border regions, and Superintendents Of Police of Vizianagaram, Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam districts were asked to be on their toes.

The Orissa police arrested Padma when she visited the Andhra-Orissa border to meet her husband Ramakrishna, also known as R K. R K is suffering from high fever.

Along with Padma, the police also took into custody a casual labourer of the Guntur Municipal Corporation named Antony, his wife Eswari, and one Punni, and seized some incriminating documents from them.

The arrestees were produced in Koraput court on Monday, and were remanded to 14-day police custody.

Meanwhile, the police also intensified combing on the Andhra-Orissa border, and deployed helicopters to patrol the Maoist- infested areas. The helicopters are scouring the forests to identify the Maoists dens, according to sources.

The police is taking the assistance of paramilitary forces and Central Reserve Police Forces in their combing operations to arrest Maoist leader Ramakrishna and AOB chief Maoist Surender. The government has already announced a reward of Rs. 12 lakh on the Maoist's head.

Courtesy: INN

Karnataka to have special Commando Force

2010-11-15T21:48:00.001-08:00

BY Team Mangalorean Mysore

Mysore, Nov 15: Karnataka will soon constitute a special commando force to face any challenges from anti-social elements, Home Minister R Ashok said today.

Speaking to newsmen here, he said the special commando force with 300 members was given special training to handle all kinds of situation, including terrorist and naxal activities, besides communal clashes. People with special skills have been selected to the force, trained under the National Security Force and Central Reserve Forces.

He said a retired top Army official had been taken on contract basis for three years to oversee the entire force, he added.

Referring to naxal activities in the state, he said the department had taken necessary steps to prevent naxal activities.

"We are taking all possible steps and keeping a strict vigil on naxal movements. The government's main aim is to curb all activities including the naxal and terrorist activities," he said.

He said it was decided to increase intelligence system in the naxal-infested areas besides mounting strict vigil. The government was also planning bring in a change in the life of naxals who had surrendered before the police with complete rehabilitation to bring them into the mainstream. If these measures fail then the police would take its own course of action against any kind of naxal movement in the state, he warned.

Karnataka to have special Commando Force

2010-11-15T21:48:00.000-08:00

Centre has planned Anti-Naxal Funds audits

2010-11-14T22:22:00.000-08:00

The Centre has planned audits to find out whether state governments have properly used funds given to them for combating Maoists.

A request for proposal (RFP) for a comprehensive study of fund use has recently been floated by ministry of home affairs.

The organisation that gets selected to do this work would have to get ground-level feedback about the utilisation of central funds.

Under the central reimbursement scheme, Maoist-affected states are paid for the costs incurred on anti-Maoist operations. This includes money spent for paying compensation to civilians, setting up of village defence committees, rehabilitation of hardcore, underground Maoist cadre, propaganda and logistics for fighting Maoists forces.

The study will check the speed of fund use, the security environment created by the states for optimum utilisation, and the effect the anti-Maoist scheme has had on the morale of security forces.

The central scheme has been running for the past eight years in the Maoist-affected states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

A total of 81 districts across nine states are covered under this scheme. Andhra Pradesh and Bihar have 15 districts each for which the Centre dispenses money. Three districts from Maharashtra - Chandrapur, Gadchiroli and Gondia also get cover.

As per the RFP, “All districts in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal will be reviewed whereas in the remaining states the study would be required to review just 50 % of districts.

Two women Maoists surrender in Orissa

2010-11-14T22:20:00.000-08:00

2010-11-14 22:20:00

Two women Maoists surrendered with arms before the State police in Orissa's Kendujhar District on Sunday.

Savita Munda, one of the Maoists, said that she took the decision of quitting the ultra group due to being subjected to harassment in the Maoist camp.

"We thought that Maoists are attached to a noble cause. But after working with them for 14 years, we have realised that they have given up their ideology. They are now involved in other kinds of activities. Leaders, who are outsiders, conduct these activities. They come here and take the money. They used to harness us both physically and mentally," said Munda.

She also surrendered a country-made pistol and cartridges.

According to police officials, Munda was an active member of the Gorilla squad and was involved in various violence activities, including murder.

"One of the arrested is Savita Munda, who is 20, she was the member of Kalinga Nagar Sub-Divisional Committee of the Maoists. She was an active member and was involved in various violent activities in Orissa. She was also a part of Nayagarh violence, various loots, murders and has been appointed by Maoist leaders," said Yaswant Jethua, Deputy Inspector General, Kendujhar.

Initially, the Maoists contended they are fighting for the cause of poor and weaker sections of the society whereas over the past two decades, they have turned extremely violent. (ANI)

AP police find incriminating documents at Hem Pandey's house

2010-11-14T22:17:00.002-08:00

Rakhi Chakrabarty, TNN, Nov 15, 2010, 04.03am IST

NEW DELHI: A raid by Andhra Pradesh police at the Shastri Nagar house of journalist Hem Chandra Pandey, killed along with Maoist spokesperson Azad in an encounter in Adilabad forest, yielded piles of Maoist literature, documents, CDs and letters.

The contents of the CDs couldn't be read though. They seem to be encrypted, said sources. The bound volumes were meant for internal circulation among the CPI-Maoist members. The AP police team seized 68 copies of Maoist financial policy, 210 copies of the banned outfit's cadre policy, 66 copies of Maoist strategy and tactics, 63 copies of `Political Resolution', 103 copies of `Peoples War: Political Organ of CPI-Maoist' and 246 copies of `CPI-Maoist: Ideology and Preface'.

Around 500 copies of `Shahari Kaam ke Baare Mein' in Hindi, detailing Maoist activities, strategy and propaganda in urban areas, came as a revelation. There were also 46 copies of the English version of the document. Documents on Maoist war strategy and field manual and the People's Liberation Army are expected to provide insights about the outfit.

In addition, sources claimed, the AP police team found documents on anti- personnel mines and a document detailing `How to use handgun' during the raid at the second floor apartment where the Pandeys had rented on February 7. Pandey was killed in the encounter on July 2. His wife Babita alias Binita Pandey left the house on July 2 and hasn't returned since.

Babita said, "I had told the landlady to rent out the apartment if she wanted and keep my stuff with her." She plans to file a writ petition in Supreme Court seeking a probe into the encounter where Pandey was killed.

Armed with a search warrant from Delhi's Tis Hazari court, the AP police broke open the lock of the apartment. Raj Bala, landlady of the A-96 house where the Pandeys lived, her son Vikas and neighbours were taken as witnesses by the AP police team before they entered the two-room apartment.

Speaking to TOI, Pankaj Gupta, a neighbour who was also a witness, said, "The AP police team broke the lock to enter the apartment in front of me. I was present throughout while the police searched the house."

Slamming the raid, Pandey's wife Babita on Sunday said, "This is a malicious propaganda by Andhra police to hide the fact that they had killed my husband." She said this was an attempt by the AP police to harass her. "Without taking my permission, the police raided our house and now they are showing the seizure of objectionable things from the house," she said.

She denied she had given a wrong address to the AP police when she had gone to claim Pandey's body. An AP police officer claimed Babita gave them the Shastri Nagar address only after she was questioned on September 30 at Swami Aginivesh's Delhi office.

About the documents found in her house, she said, "Hem was deeply interested in literature and politics. The claim that there were secret documents in my house is completely baseless."

Read more: AP police find incriminating documents at Hem Pandey's house - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/AP-police-find-incriminating-documents-at-Hem-Pandeys-house/articleshow/6926534.cms#ixzz15KTUD06F

Clue to kidnapped cop found in Maoist camp

2010-11-14T22:17:00.001-08:00

TNN, Nov 15, 2010, 03.50am IST

PURULIA/MIDNAPORE: The duo abducted by the Maoists Partha Biswas and Saumyajit Basu might have been kept captive at the Mugurma camp in Purulia's Ayodhya hills till recently.

Two days after an encounter between the Red rebels and security forces at Mugurma left two ultras dead, an official document belonging to Biswas, a State Armed Police inspector on deputation to the Intelligence Branch, was found among the materials seized by the police from the abandoned camp. The paper bore the signature of the Purulia SP, with the date October 13, which was nine days before Biswas and his friend Basu went mysteriously missing during a trip to Ayodhya hills.

Two days back, an encounter broke out at the Maoists' Mugurma camp in Ayodhya hills. After two of their comrades fell to the security forces' bullets, the remaining ultras fled. They left behind blankets, diaries, bags, posters and Maoist literature.

For the last two days, the district police were busy with the preparation for chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's public meeting at Balarampur on Sunday afternoon. Finally, when they were rummaging through the contents of the bags on Sunday, they found the document.

The family members of the missing duo have sat on a dharna at Metro Channel, met chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee separately and made repeated appeals for the safe return of the two. But there has been no trace of the duo so far.

"The finding has reconfirmed our suspicion that Maoists were behind the abduction," a senior officer said.

Later on Sunday, in Shirshi village near Midnapore town, two supporters of the Maoist-backed People's Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) were found dead. PCPA has blamed the murders on the CPM. Nibaran Singh and Sushil Mahato, both hailing from Beldanga, were shot dead.

Read more: Clue to kidnapped cop found in Maoist camp - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Clue-to-kidnapped-cop-found-in-Maoist-camp/articleshow/6926626.cms#ixzz15KTK7lXM

Maoist strike shuts down two Orissa districts

2010-11-14T22:16:00.001-08:00

Indo-Asian News Service
Bhubaneswar, November 15, 2010First Published: 10:40 IST(15/11/2010)
Last Updated: 10:42 IST(15/11/2010)

A one-day strike called by Maoists saw buses staying off the roads and shops downing shutters in two districts of Orissa on Monday, police said. The Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) called for the strike in Malkangiri and parts of Koraput district after four of their cadres were gunned

down by police Nov 4. The incident took place in Karlakuta village of Malkangiri, about 600 km from here. Maoists have claimed that the four killed were innocent villagers.
Both private and government bus operators kept their vehicles off the roads as a preventive measure, a senior police officer told IANS.

"Fearing attacks, shops have also downed their shutters in several places," he said.

"Security has been beefed up across the region. Additional forces have been deployed in strategic locations. No untoward incidents have been reported from any places so far," he added.

Maoists blow up bridge in Bihar

2010-11-14T22:14:00.000-08:00

Aurangabad: Maoists blew up a bridge near Karma Lahan village in Bihar's Aurangabad district, police said.

The ultras triggered a dynamite blast blowing up the bridge late last night, the police said, adding, no casualty was reported.

A combing operation has been launched against naxalites in the area, they said.

Purulia`s Ayodhya hills a safe haven for Maoists’

2010-11-14T22:11:00.000-08:00

Balarampur (WB): West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today said the Ayodhya hills in Purulia district have become a safe haven for Maoists and asked police to remove the ultras from hideouts there.

"Maoists are hiding in the jungles of Ayodhya hills. From there, they are carrying out killings in Balarampur, Arsha and Jhalda. I have asked the police to weed them out of the Ayodhya hills and to ensure that they cannot stay there," he said at a public meeting here. Bhattacharjee`s directive came as Intelligence Branch officer Partha Biswas and NGO worker Soumyajit Basu, who were kidnapped from the hills on October 22, were yet to be traced.

He claimed that Maoists had killed 42 CPI(M) activists at Balarampur, Baghmundi and Arsha in the recent past and of these, 23 were killed in Balarampur alone.

"I have received letters from school girls who have complained that they were afraid to go to school because they were being threatened by Maoists on their way. Shall we tolerate this? We shall have to resist them at all costs," Bhattacharjee said. Referring to the kidnapping of Biswas and Basu, the Chief Minister said, "Maoists have kidnapped them. Today is November 14, but still there is no trace of them. We are trying our best to rescue them alive."

Accusing Maoists of trying to usurp power in the state and the Centre, the chief minister said his government would not allow the ultras to raise their heads.

"I have asked the police to see that Maoists cannot raise their heads in Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore," he said.

Calling upon the people to unite against Maoists, Bhattacharjee said the ultras cannot face the united resistance of the people just as the Naxalite movement dissipated in the face of public resistance.

"Let us pledge that we will not allow Maoists to raise their heads. The government will stand by you with all its power," he told the gathering.

Bhattacharjee charged the Trinamool Congress with holding the hands of Maoists as it was unable to defeat the Left Front politically.

"Maoists are not only killing CPI(M) workers. They are also killing those belonging to the Forward Bloc, the CPI and RSP. As the Trinamool Congress cannot defeat the Leftists politically, it stands to gain if activists of the Left parties are killed," Bhattacharjee alleged.

PTI

Mobile courts to be introduced in naxalite prone areas

2010-11-14T22:10:00.000-08:00

AGARTALA: Mobile courts would soon be introduced in Panchayats, specially in Naxalite infested areas, to instill confidence among the people about the availability of justice, Union Minister for Law and Justice M Virappa Moily today said.

Inaugurating a new High Court building for Tripura here, Moily said, "We have trouble in Naxalite infested areas and have decided to introduce mobile courts which will dispose off cases within six months. This will instill confidence among the common people".

The mobile courts, he said, would function like gramin nyayalayas which would dispose off cases within six months.

There would be one mobile court for five/six panchayats, Moily said.

Every panchayat would be sanctioned upto Rs 18 lakh for construction of a court building, he said.

Gramin Nyayalaya (rural courts) were functioning well in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the minister said.

Claiming that Indian Judiciary was independent and best in the world, Moily said, it however needed modern reforms with introduction of modern technology so that it could deliver verdicts faster.

No case should be pending for more than three years, he said.

The Law minister said Judicial Standard and Accountability Bill would be placed in parliament in the next month to make judiciary more transparent.

Replying to a question, he refused to comment on spectrum scandal or Telecom Minister, A Raja saying the case was pending in the Supreme court .

Weed out Naxals, Buddha tells police & people

2010-11-14T22:09:00.000-08:00

Express News Service Posted online: Mon Nov 15 2010, 07:01 hrs

Balarampur : In a strong message to the Maoists, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Sunday directed the police to weed out the Naxals from Purulia’s Ayodhya Hills, which he said has become the safe haven of the ultras.
“The Maoists are hiding in the jungles of Ayodhya hills. From there, they are carrying out killings in Balarampur, Arsha and Jhalda. I have asked the police to weed them out of the Ayodhya hills and to ensure that they cannot stay there,” Bhattacharjee said at a rally in Balarampur in Purulia.

Last month, Intelligence Branch officer Partha Biswas and NGO worker Soumyajit Basu were abducted by the Maoists from the Hills. The chief minister also referred about th duo saying, “We are trying our best to rescue them alive.”

He said both had gone to Ayodhya Hills to teach the locals a novel and eco-friendly way of cooking. “But the Maoists mistook them as police spies and abducted them,” he added.

“I have received letters from schoolgirls who have complained that they were afraid to go to school because they were being threatened by Maoists on their way. Shall we tolerate this? We shall have to resist them at all costs,” said Bhattacharjee and added that the Naxals have killed more than 44 people in Balarampur, Baghmundi and Arsha in the recent past.

Accusing the Maoists of trying to usurp power in the state and the Centre, the chief minister said his government would not allow the ultras to raise their heads. “I have asked the police to see that Maoists cannot raise their heads in Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore.”

“Let us pledge that we will not allow Maoists to raise their heads. The government will stand by you with all its power,” he told the people who had gathered to listen to him.

Bhattacharjee said the Left Front staunchly opposes violence and bloodshed and wants peace to be re-established in the state. “But how that will happen, is up to the people to decide,” he said.

The chief minister accused his political rival, the Trinamool Congress, of “holding the hands of Maoists as it was unable to defeat the Left Front politically”.

“Maoists are not only killing CPM workers. They are also killing those belonging to the Forward Bloc, the CPI and RSP. As the Trinamool Congress cannot defeat the Leftists politically, it stands to gain if activists of the Left parties are killed,” he added.

Bhattacharjee took a dig at Trinamool saying “They are shouting that they will provide jobs. But where are the jobs going to come from? We don’t say anything. We believe in doing, and we are constantly doing.”

He also argued against the Trinamool claim that the Maoist-affected districts like Purulia have been neglected by the Left Front government in the last 34 years.

“There was no development in these areas during the Congress regime. The Left Front government has developed agriculture over here. We are working hard to provide more employment to this area’s people under the NREGS,” he said.