Indian troops hunt for Maoist rebels
NEW DELHI: Thousands of troops searched through the densely forested stronghold of Maoist rebels in eastern India yesterday for those who ambushed a convoy of ruling party officials and supporters, killing 25, police said.
The attack in Chhattisgarh state showed that the Maoists still have the ability to strike, even at heavily guarded convoys, despite claims by the government that it has greatly weakened a guerrilla insurgency it termed the nation’s greatest internal security threat.
“There are hills, rivers and dense forests and the population is very sparse. Searching these areas is very difficult,” said Ram Niwas, a top state police official.
The federal government rushed in 2,000 paramilitary troops to reinforce the 30,000 troops already stationed in Chhattisgarh to combat the rebels, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
Officials from the National Investigation Agency, established after the 2008 Mumbai attack to fight terrorism, have also been flown in to lead the investigation.
The ambush Saturday came after a relative break in Maoist violence. While smaller skirmishes have occurred over the past three years, the Maoists’ last major attacks in Chhattisgarh were in 2010, including their bloodiest ever attack, in which they ambushed a paramilitary patrol and killed 76 troops. A month later, they triggered a roadside bomb under a bus carrying civilians and police, killing 31 people.
Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management, said the violence declined over the last three years because the government stopped actively attacking the rebels. He said the Maoists were conserving their resources, and had not lost their capabilities.
Niwas, however, said security forces remained in “constant battle mode” and had not been complacent.
In rural villages deep in areas like Bastar, where the attack took place, the government is completely absent. There are often no schools or hospitals, and electricity and safe tap water are unheard of. Thousands
The attack in Chhattisgarh state showed that the Maoists still have the ability to strike, even at heavily guarded convoys. The govt rushed in 2,000 paramilitary troops to reinforce the 30,000 troops already stationed in Chhattisgarh.
die each year of malaria.
Because the areas are rich in natural resources like minerals, many tribal people have been forced off their land to make way for mines and other industries.
The Maoist insurgency feeds on the anger of the tribes who have been excluded from the nation’s economic surge.
The insurgency began in 1967 as a network of leftwing ideologues and young recruits in the village of Naxalbari outside Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state. The rebels, who took the name Naxalites, are now estimated to have 30,000 fighters and have pledged to violently overthrow the Indian government.
They control vast swathes of the so-called Red Belt in central and eastern India, where troops and officials rarely venture. The rebels are thought to operate in 20 of India’s 28 states.
Saturday’s ambush, which targeted Congress party politicians returning from a campaign event with the indigenous tribal community, appeared to be a warning to officials to stay away from the marginalized groups from which the Maoists draw their support.
The victims included Mahendra Karma, a Congress official who founded the much-criticized Salwa Judum militia to combat the rebels. The Salwa Judum had to be reined in after it was accused of atrocities against the tribals it claimed to be protecting. LONDON: Three people arrested over the grisly murder of a soldier in London have been released on bail, British police said yesterday, while the two main suspects remain in hospital.
Detectives are trawling through CCTV footage, social media, forensic evidence and intelligence reports relating to the hacking to death of 25-year-old Lee Rigby near a barracks in Woolwich by two Islamists.
They have arrested a total of nine people, but have yet to formally interview the prime suspects because of the men’s injuries sustained in police gunfire at the scene.
Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, both British Muslim converts from Nigerian Christian families, remain under armed guard at separate London hospitals.
They are “in a stable condition and will be formally interviewed when it is possible to do so”, Scotland Yard said yesterday.
Three men arrested on Saturday on suspicion of conspiracy to murder have been bailed. Another man arrested for the same offence on Thursday was also bailed, while another remains in custody.