Maoist rebels kill at least 49 Indian police officers

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Randeep Ramesh in New Delhi
Thursday March 15, 2007
Guardian Unlimited


Maoist rebels march during their ninth convention at an undisclosed location in the jungles of Indian state of Chattisgarh. Photograph: AP

Hundreds of Maoist rebels armed with guns, grenades and home-made bombs attacked a remote police station in the dense forests of eastern India, in a pre-dawn raid that left at least 49 police officers dead.

The attack, which began at just after 2am, took the police station in the state of Chattisgarh, nearly 1,500km (930 miles) south-east of New Delhi, "by total surprise" said one official.

Between 300 and 400 rebels attacked the camp in the jungles in the southern part of the state, throwing grenades and petrol bombs. After killing 15 state police officers and 24 security officers from a state-armed militia force, the guerrillas set fire to the post before escaping with a substantial arms haul.

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The Naxalites, as they are known, are part of a hidden war in the middle of India's mineral-rich tribal belt in central India. These hardline fighters are heirs of the revolutionary ideology of Mao Zedong. Chhattisgarh is the state that suffers most from Maoist attacks, accounting for about half of national casualties in 2006, according to the Asian Centre for Human Rights.

Unlike their ideological cousins in Nepal, the guerrillas are not prepared to consider swapping the bullet for the ballot box. Across a wide swath of India, from Andhra Pradesh in the south to the Nepalese border, there are reports of underground armies hijacking trains, mounting audacious jailbreaks and murdering local politicians.

Ajai Sahni, executive director at the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management told Reuters that the rebels have spent much of last year amassing an enormous cache of arms.

"This period has been a period of planning and of consolidation and you will now see the consequences," Mr Sahni said, adding that mass support continued to grow across the "red corridor". "You can expect a fairly abrupt escalation of violence over coming weeks and months," he added.

Last year the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, described the rebels as "the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country" but the Indian army has yet to called up to take on the guerrillas.

Instead, the army's jungle warfare units have been drafted to create village militias which can take on Naxalites in the villages. Last year, army commanders in Chhattisgarh told the Guardian that the Naxalite menace would be finished "in months".

Following today's raid, there was immediate speculation on India's news channels that the Indian soldiers would find themselves engaged in combat with the guerrillas, many of whom are barely out of their teens.

Like yesterday's battle in West Bengal, the issue is one of land. New Delhi would like big business to dig out the mineral wealth to fuel India's industrial surge and appears to be depopulating the forests in preparation for the sale.

In clearing villages they have created a well of deep dissatisfaction, which can be exploited by the Naxalites. Last year city brokers CLSA said in a note that a "lack of policy initiatives and the inability to win over the tribals, the largest stakeholder in the hinterlands where the Maoists hold sway, means the Naxalite movement is becoming stronger".