Ram Kumar Ohri, IPS (Retd. IG, Arunachal Pradesh) has taught in Internal Security Academy of CRPF and in Bureau of Police Research and Development. He was also Secy of Assn . of Retd. IPS Officers. He has authored several books including 'The bell tolls', 'Tomorrows truncated India', etc.Backbencher’s Blog April 17, 2013
ISI Hand in Maoist-Naxal Attacks
Why Indian Government is Mum ?
- Ram Kumar Ohri, IPS (Retd)
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Time has come to question the studied silence of the Government of India about not waking up to the enormous evidence of linkages between the Maoist-Naxal insurgents and the Inter-Service Intelligence of Pakistan. Despite the rising tide of Maoist-Naxal attacks against India’s security forces, the worst of which was the infamous Dantewala massacre of 75 CRPF jawans on April 6, 2010, the Indian government has not shared either with the public, or with the ranks of Security forces, the untold story of the growing nexus between the ISI and the Maoists. Despite several instances confirming the mounting support of the ISI to the Maoists operating from the jungles and valleys of Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand, the Home Ministry appears quite reluctant to admit that the two sworn enemies of the Indian democracy are hand in glove in the strategic offensive unleashed by the ISI and Dawood Ibrahim against the Indian state in the heartland terrain of our motherland.
The well known strategic thinktank, Stratfor, had warned as early as 2009-2010 that the ISI of Pakistan was trying to forge an alliance with the Maoists in a bid to destabilize the Indian State from within. Ben West, a globally acknowledged tactical analyst, had written in a widely circulated article in 2010 that the “Indian Maoists, known as Naxalites, have been meeting with the outlawed Pakistan’s militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), according to the Director General of Police for India’s Chhatisgarh state”.1 It was further reported that at least two LeT operatives had attended a meeting of Naxalites sometime in April or May, 2010, at a secret location.2
The earliest proof of the dalliance of the ISI of Pakistan with Maoists can be traced to January, 2005, when in a fierce encounter with Chhatisgarh Police, the Station Officer of Police Station Ramchandra Pur (Balrampur district) was killed along with two Constables on January 8, 2005, by a detachment of well armed Maoists. The empties of nearly three hundred bullets fired by the Maoists were found at the site of encounter. Many empties had the markings of a Pakistani Ordnance factory, while some others had markings of production in the United Kingdom3 But most significant was the fact that several empties of the bullets fired by the Maoists were found to match with the empties recovered in New Delhi on December 13, 2001, after the notorious ISI-sponsored attack on the Indian Parliament. Unfortunately the important news fit for banner headlines, was published as a small item in The Asian Age, New Delhi, on January 11, 2005.
Even before the disclosure of the ISI- Maoist liaison by Stratfor in 2009-2010 about the formation of an axis between the ISI and the Indian Maoists and its elaborate publicisation by Wikileaks in 2012, the Intelligence Bureau had apprised the Home Ministry in October, 2009, about the growing links between the Maoists and the ISI.4 Their strategic intention was to establish a joint base in south India. A confidential report prepared by the Intelligence Bureau report in October, 2009, pointed out that in the previous year, nearly 500 Maoists had undergone “training under the SIMI in the Vagamon hills” on the Idduki-Kottayam border.5 Earlier when the central government renewed the ban on SIMI, the spokesperson of the central committee of the Maoists, late Raj Kumar alias Azad had pronounced that “this reiterates the government’s policy to continue its brutal war on Muslims”.5
It may be recalled that in October, 2010, two Muslim militants from Kerala were killed in Lolab mountains (Kashmir). They were believed to be part of a group of militants from Mallapuram in Kerala. It was further reported that a Kerala-based organizer of SIMI had visited Sopore to help the group in crossing over the border for training with Lashkar leaders.6
To many security experts and retired poilice officers it has remained a mystery that why this important chance discovery was not followed to its logical conclusion by our intelligence agencies ? Nor did it receive the much needed attention of the Ministry of Home Affairs. No one knows, why?
In November, 2010, Ben West of Stratfor had pointed out that the Maoist-Naxals insurgents had acquired a vast and diverse assortment of foreign weapons, including rifles of .315 bore to .30-06 calibre . While referring to an article in 2009 India Daily News it was stated in an e-mail that one zonal commander of the Naxal-Maoist combine had spent within six months more than $70,214 constituting three quarters of the Unit’s budget on procuring weapons and armaments, while another $20,604 was spent on supplies.7 It indicated that the Maoists were flush with funds remitted mostly from abroad through hawala channels.
In his widely circulated article, Ben West had categorically stated that the Pakistani intelligence wing had established business relationship with Naxalites to sell them arms and ammunition and wanted to use the Naxal bases for anti-India activities. He reiterated that there was evidence that the ISI was providing weapons to Naxalites in exchange for money or for other services rendered.
It was learnt that mostly the anti-Indian outfits like ULFA, or the ostensible Shailen Sarkar (a member of the Bangladesh Communist Party), were being used as conduits for smuggling of weapons and transfer of money. The Naxalite arsenal consists of weapons manufactured in Pakistan, China, Russia, the USA, besides lots of weapons of Indian make. A large number of weapons were imported, while many had been collected by the Maoists through surprise attacks on India’s para-military forces, including the C.R.P.F. In terms of logistics the ties between the ISI and Naxals (take them as suppliers and consumers, as suggested by Stratfor) could become a booming business for the arms trade of Dawood Ibrahim and the ISI which has the additional potential of extending the former’s criminal network in Asia. The huge arsenal of Naxals was further supplemented by the production of hundreds of weapons in factories operating in the interior of the Maoist-controlled territory.
According to the Global Intelligence files accessed and released by Wikileaks in March, 2012, a source of Stratfor working in India (name withheld due to security reasons) had informed the Stratfor thinktank by e-mail that the Pakistan-based jihadi terrorists and their footsoldiers in India were desperately trying to set up more sleeper-cells in the hinterland with the help of Naxalites. Among other things, the ISI moles embedded across India further claimed that the areas dominated by Naxals “have enough Muslim population which would serve both the parties as a recruiting ground…..” 8 A careful study of the Global Intelligence Files of Wikileaks reveals the contours of a jointly launched war by the ISI and the Maoist-Naxal combine to dismember India and ultimately overrun India. Frankly, it looks like a subtle plot to Islamicise the sub-continent by using the Maoists as a strategic tool.
This critical information has now been available for nearly 15 months in the Global Intelligence Files of Wikileaks. Nobody can pretend that the Indian Intelligence Bureau is not aware of the all out efforts of the ISI to radicalize Indian Muslims by using the vast resources of Maoist-Naxal outfits.
The Wikileaks files reveal that the Naxals wanted to learn some new tactics of unleashing terror against the Indian state from their new found ally, the ISI. In August 2010, Stratfor’s India-based sleuth wrote to Ben West that Dawood Ibrahim’s men (who were a part of the Karachi Project conspiracy) were trying to regroup. He further informed Ben West in his mail that “Maoists/Naxals are no saints at all, but a bunch of criminal opportunists (they are no Chechen militants).” 9
According to Wikileaks, the Stratfor sleuth in India wrote back to Ben West that some reports on the possible Islamist-Naxal linkages indicated that in future both of them intended to “act hand in hand.” 10
Far more revealing, however, was what Koteshwar Rao @ Kishenji, a well known Maoist leader, had told to correspondent Snigdhendu Bhattacharya of an Indian newspaper published in English language. Perhaps Snigdhendu Bhattacharya was a correspondent of The Hindustan Times at that timeand the interview wasgiven by Kishanji nearly four years ago in June, 2009. Kishenji claimed in his interview that Maoists had developed a strong base in eight or nine States of India. Interestingly Kishenji had reportedly emphasized that he did not support the manner in which during the 26 /11 Mumbai massacre the Lashkar commandos had attacked the Victoria Station ( i.e., Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, or CST) of Mumbai where “most of the victims were Muslims”.11 At the same time, Kishanji openly emphasized as early as June, 2009, that the Islamic upsurge in India should not be opposed as it is basically anti-U.S. and anti-imperialist in nature.
Among other things, Kishanji had forecast that in the coming years “Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa will be the new storm centres in Indian politics”.12 He further claimed that “our strongest base” was in Chhatisgarh. The
Maoist militia in the State was more than one lakh strong, boasted Kishenji. He had further elaborated that the Maoist-Naxal combine has the “wherewithal to put up teams of 400 – 500 fighters, encircle hundreds of police and para-military troops and wipe out them.”13 No one knows why the Home Ministry slept over this crucial warning given four years ago by Kishanji threatening to step up their offensive in three sensitive States across India’s heartland. And that negligence by someone somewhere was responsible for the Dantewala massacre of 75 CRPF Jawans in April, 2010, in an ambush.
Giving an overview of their future plans Kishenji disclosed that the Maoists propose to concentrate especially in U.P. because they need support of the Muslim population in that State and wanted to concentrate on the trade union sector, too. According to him the Punjab was already a fertile ground for a Maoist revolution.13
The arrest of a notorious Lashkar-e-Tayeba’s Nepal-based head, Mohammed Omer Madani, by Delhi police in 2009 further reconfirmed th support of the ISI to Maoist-Naxal insurgency. The Global Intelligence Files of Wikileaks copiously refer to the following instances of growing ties between the Maoists and Lashkar-e-Tayeba operatives working in India:
i ) Madani had been instrumental in recruiting Indian youth for jehadi training in Pakistan. It was he who got Kamal Ahmed Ansari, an accused in the 2006 serial train bombings, to Pakistan.
ii ) The puzzle about superb sophistication of the improvised devices usedby the Maoists was solved as a result of the seizure of literature pertaining to the technical knowledge of IEDs being manufactured and used by Pakistani Jihadis.
iii ) A sum of Rs. four lakhs (about $8,500) had been transferred to Maoists.The intenton was to use the Maoists for carrying out to carryout terrorist attacks. Two ISI moles, Altaf from Dakshina Kannada district and VinayKumar from Hassan district of Karnataka were bein used for strengthening the links between the ISI and Maoists-Naxal insurgents.
In August, 2010, the arrest of six members of the Dawood gang by Bangalore police brought out the fact that after dominating the Mumbai underworld for several decades the ‘D’ company was making inroads into the southern States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. They had been in touch with at least two top Naxal leaders Vinay and Deviah of Bangalore, and this was done at the behest of Dubai-based Chhota Shakeel’s aide, Altaf. Around the same time the Hyderabad police also recovered tickets to Dubai and passports for travel which were allegedly arranged by the Dawood gang by transferring money to the tune of Rs. twenty lakhs. This was a follow up of the arrests made in Bangalore by the Karnataka police.
During interrogation of Madani several diaries were seized by the police. A study of the diaries kept by Madani gave a clear idea of the plans being made by the ISI to dismember India through Naxalite insurgents. Interestingly Muhammad Omer Madani had carried out an extensive research into the organizational structure and functioning of the Naxals for exploiting them further for the ISI’s nefarious designs.14
The police were said to be investigating some financial transactions of Madani through a well known money-transfer agency. It was further learnt that Omer Madani had also been receiving huge consignments of fake currency to fund terror activities in India. It is learnt that the intelligencies agencies have many more details about the collaboration of the ISI with the Maoists and Naxals, but somehow the Home Ministry is reluctant to make the truth public. May be due to its vote-bank strategy, or likely adverse effect on the bogey called Indo-Pak détente, the ruling political dispensation wants this important news to be kept out of serious public discourse.
The frequent references in the exchanged e-mails to the Maoist-ISI plans for concentrating on using the Muslim population in sensitive areas for targeting the Indian state could also be a reason for the reluctance of central intelligence agencies to share the information with the Indian public and the security forces involved in a ‘do or die’ struggle with Maoist-Naxal insurgents.
It is time to understand from the public display of the formidable firepower and substantial trained manpower accumulated during last eight years by the insurgents that due to the solid support of the ISI they will not desist from incessant killings and destruction of infrastructure in future. The repetitive plainspeaking of Koteshwar Rao @ Kishanji to the Maoist-Naxal campaign for radicalizing the Indian Muslims, as elaborated in the Global Intelligence Files of Wikileaks, is a loud warning which must not be ignored. It is crystal clear that the expanding fire of the Maoist-Naxal movement engulfing nine States of India is now fully supported by the ISI - just as the pro-Khalistan movement in Punjab was propped up in 1980s and 1990s. For all practical purposes, the Maoist-Naxal insurgency has emerged yet another war of a thousand cuts about which the Pakistani dictators have been warning us so often and brazenly, too.
It is learnt that the Indian intelligence agencies have many more details of the collaboration of the ISI and some India-based Islamist outfits with the Maoists, but somehow the Home Ministry is reluctant to make the truth public. May be due to the compulsions of vote-bank politics, the ruling political dispensation wants this important news to be kept away from public discourse. According to a reliable source in an intelligence agency, in view of the fast approaching general elections, in the coming months the central government’s focus will remain on the right wing saffron terror story.
Unless the Indian government comes out clean with truth on the subject of the ISI-Maoist collaboration and decides to take the bull by horns, the Maoist-Naxal mayhem will continue to savage India. The situation has become more or less similar to what the ISI have been doing for decades in the Kashmir valley. Approximately eighty thousand policemen and security forces have been unsuccessfully fighting the well trained and heavily armed Maoist cadres across the Red Corridor. The massive attack on May 25, 2013, on the Parivartan Yatra organized by the Congress Party which resulted in 28 deaths should open the eyes of the myopic central government to the wide sweep of the Maoist menace. It is learnt that there is a huge demand of another 25- 30 battalions of para-military troops for strengthening the security operations. No one should think that the growing insurgency and reckless killings can be effectively curbed by mere recourse to idle talk about development of the area and its infrastructure by self-anointed intellectuals. The vast area controlled by the Maoist-Naxal cadres cannot be reclaimed without aggressively choking the supplies of arms and money being pumped in by the ISI and meeting the insurgency head on.
The politics of blaming the State governments for failure to prevent the depradations of Maoists backed by the ISI is a short sighted silly pastime which will do greater damage than good to our country. For example, can the central government ask the Farooq Abdullah government to single-handedly handle the Pak-supported militancy in Kashmir ?
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References :
1. Ben West, ‘Pakistan and the Naxalite Movement in India’
Security Weekly, Stratfor Global Intelligence, www.stratfor.com/weekly/20101117_pakistan_and_naxalite-movement_india.
2. Ibid.
3. A news item, ‘Remnants of Pakistani and British arms found at Naxal attack’ The Asian Age, New Delhi, p. 5.
4. Maoist-SIMI tie-up to create base in South India: IB [Source:news.rediff.com/report/2009/oct/28/why-the-maoists-are-joining-hands-with-simi.htm?print=true]
5. Ibid,
6. Praveen Swami, ‘Terror trail links Kashmir with Kerala’, The Hindu,October, 2008
7. Ben West, ‘Pakistan and the Naxalite Movement in India’, Security Weekly, Stratfor Global Intelligence, www.stratfor.com/weekly/20101117_pakistan and_naxalite- movement_india.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10.Ibid.
11.Ibid
12.Ibid
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
Latest Maoist attack: Wage war now or perish in Canarytrap by R S N SINGH 5/6/13
Wherever Maoists make inroads, they rob the soul of that area. India’s soul is being desiccated by the imported ideology and violence of the Maoists.
Once captured, Mahendra Karma was stabbed more than 70 times by Maoist women cadres. A boy wielding a wireless set during the ambush was no more than ten years in age. The leaders and planners were some diabolical Andhrites.
This level of brutality and dehumanization of tribal women and children is a result of sustained indoctrination and psychological campaign by the Maoists in their liberated zones. In these zones, not a soul owing allegiance to the Indian State is present. Mao’s photographs have replaced local deities and morning prayers in schools that remain functional have been supplanted by revolutionary songs, wherein children are exhorted to kill those Indian citizens who come in the way of establishment of a Maoist state.
Being Indian means death
Anyone suspected of being loyal to the Indian State is subject to most grisly murder in full public view. Following one such murder in Malkangiri district in Orissa, the local Maoist leader ate the flesh of the victim in front of the villagers to drive terror so that they did not even dream of being loyal to the Indian State.
This author was told by the Collector of the Gaya district in Bihar that on the eve of one Independence Day, the Maoists had issued a diktat that only black flags will be hoisted in the schools. In one particular school, a class seven girl student could not bear the anti-national sight, and in a fit of patriotic rage, she tore down the black flag and hoisted the national flag. She and her family have been missing since then.
Aiding in this savagery and criminalization of innocent people of India are characters such as ‘a drug addict fiction writer turned activist’, criminals in garb of saffron, professors drawing huge salaries from the State, students owning cars and enjoying educational and hostel facilities hugely subsidized by the State, and social workers with names to mislead their religious denomination. One such social worker has been carrying out vasectomy operations on young Maoist cadres in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra so that they can sleep with women cadres without consequences. The Maoist leaders adopted this course because a large number of their armed cadres were abandoning the terrorist path in favour of settled family life. The Maoist leaders have, over a period of time, created such terror that women have no option but to become tools of violence and sex in the service of male cadres. Villages are being terrorized to ‘donate’ at least one child from each family to the cause of Maoist terror.
Those who refused to compromise the modesty of their wives and daughters, the future of their sons, and the honour of their Gods, made escape from the ‘liberated zones’ and formed the ‘Salwa Judum’. The slain Mahendra Karma, who supported the ‘Salwa Judum’ was also a tribal, and chose to rescue the people from the Maoist terror, was a Congress leader. In his struggle, he received little or no support from his own party. The over-ground Maoists in Delhi, who economically thrive on extortion money of the Maoists and have been provided adivasi servants and maids went on an overdrive to discredit ‘Salwa Judum’, which means ‘peace march’. It did not occur to the right quarters that the members of Salwa Judum had left their homes, hearth and their lands to escape terror.
Who is responsible?
Mr Manmohan Singh, Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Rahulji on their visit to Chhattisgarh after the massacre in Dantewada in which 27 people were killed furiously inquired as to ‘who was responsible’. Agitated the senior most civil servant of the state bluntly retorted to Rahulji: “I am responsible”.
The responsibility actually lies with Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Mr Manmohan Singh, in that order. The defining symbol was Binayak Sen. To allow the European Commission members to attend the trial of Binayak Sen (accused of aiding the Maoists) in Raipur was nothing but criminal collusion with Maoists. His appointment as member of a Health Committee of Planning Commission dispelled any doubts regarding this collusion. The nexus between international forces and elements in the Indian government in furthering Maoism was obvious.
Foreign support and Religious catalyst
While the regional support frame work of the Maoists is well known, its European support structure has either been dismissed or ignored. The Maoists Communist Party, Manipur in a press release on 09 December 2011 revealed the support by various ultra-leftist outfits based in Philippines, Malaysia, European countries and Canada. The various ultra-leftist outfits aiding and abetting the Maoists in India are Association for Proletarian Solidarity, Italy (ASP), Communist Party of Philippines (CPP), Maoists Communist Party of France (MCPF), Partito Comunista maoista (PCM) Italia, Party of the Committees to Support Resistance for Communism (CARC), Revolutionary Communist Party, Canada (PCR-RCP), and Struggling Socialist Union, Italy (SLL). This explains the visit of a delegation from the European Commission to witness the trial of Binayak Sen. This also explains the kidnappings (allegedly staged) of two Italians Paolo Bousco (58) and Claudio Colangelo (61) . Paolo has been trekking in Orissa for many years. Both the Italians had gone to Orissa jungles despite travel advisory by their government. Both were abducted from the Kandhmahal area where most Maoist terrorists are Panna cast Christians and the Maoist discourse in the region has strong Church and anti-Hindu elements.
Christian evangelical organizations world over have thrived in insurgency. Their tacit support to LTTE in Sri Lanka and Maoists in Nepal is well documented. In fact conversions, which was banned in Nepal is now like wild fire.
In April 2012 nine French tourists were deported from Bihar as their activities in the interior of the State betrayed Maoist links.
These ultra-leftist groups have been conducting meets in Europe in support of Peoples War in India being waged by the Indian Maoists. These are attended by the Maoists leaders, sympathizers and benefactors of the Indian Maoists.
The anti-national Tribal discourse
The bogey of Maoist insurgency being tribal problem is propagated by vested interests to at the behest of foreign funded NGOs and evangelical organizations. It is a deliberate untruth with anti-national motives. The Maoist menace has consumed 230 districts spread from Kerala to the Nepal border. Of these not more than 20 percent are tribal majority districts. In Jharkhand, which has 24 districts, no more than three have tribal majority population. The same is the case with Orissa. Thirty-two districts or Bihar are impacted by Maoist terror, not a single has tribal majority. The causality figures over the years given below, reflects the spread of the Maoist problem.
Revolutionaries or Dacoits?
In 1989, the former Indian Air Force Chief, Air Chief Marshal Dennis La Fontaine, who had chosen to settle in rural Andhra Pradesh, was robbed of his pistol by the Maoists. In fact, he was tied up with the chair and he remarked whether they were revolutionaries or dacoits? Twelve years down the line, i.e. in November 2001, he was again robbed of another pistol. Comparing the two incidents La Fontaine said: “The confidence of the teenagers this time was much higher because they were better armed.” In 1989, he maintained: “That seemed a ragtag bunch while this one came in jungle fatigues, boots and caps.” The State, however, did not show any resolve to tackle the menace of Maoism in the intervening years.
Even more recently one Group Captain RK Prasad, had to cough up Rs.10 lakh for the release of his brother, kidnapped by the Maoists in Jharkhand. The Air Force Officer ran from pillar to post in desperation, met the Governor and the DGP of Jharkhand, but time was running out given the Maoists deadline on which his brother’s life precariously hung. He literally had to beg all quarters to arrange the demanded sum. Incidentally, the Group Captain was one of the officers coordinating the air effort at Air Headquarters during 26/11.
Decisive moment
If the Indian State fails to be impelled by the latest massacre in Dantewada, it may well be prepared to dissolve itself from being a liberal and a democratic state. The Dantewada massacre only signifies the extent of subversion of democracy by the Maoists. Can there be free and fair election in the fear ridden Dantewada region? The same question needs to be applied in all the 230 districts affected by the Maoist insurgency. These districts constitute one-third of India. Election time is the biggest extortion bonanza for the Maoists. The Maoists have been manipulating voting patterns by selective use of boycott call. One Chief Minister aspirant of a state allegedly paid 300 crores to the Maoists in the last elections. Another political party in Jharkhand owes half its 15 seats to the Maoists. An MP from Jharkhand was shown on television to be soliciting the favour of a Maoist leader during the elections. A speaker of a state legislative assembly is known to have truck with the Maoists.
Revolutionary objectives notwithstanding, the Dantewada massacre therefore was part of political manipulation and extortion of politicians before the impending Lok Sabha elections. The targeted killing clearly indicates an insider involvement of the Congress party. The Maoists otherwise are known to resort to indiscriminate firing whenever they spring an ambush. The politicians who became victim of the Maoists, by all reckoning, were seemingly lured into the trap by assurance during backdoor talks with the Maoist leaders.
In Jharkhand, Orissa and Maharashtra, a large number of Panchayats have been electorally captured by the Maoists by sheer intimidation. Indian money flowing through the Panchayats is being utilized by the Maoists to acquire weapons and bolstering their fighting capability.
The Maoists therefore have subverted all levels of democracy, i.e. panchayats, state legislatures and now the parliament.
Indians have to be rescued
It is again a criminal neglect of the Indian State that it has failed to rise up to the dying imperative to rescue people who are hostage to Maoist terror. They deserve the same freedom as rest of India including over-ground Maoists. Their children too deserve a secular, liberal education. They too deserve to be weaned on stable families and childhood innocence. Instead they are being forcibly recruited and trained for violence. Maoists have destroyed about 300 schools. Teachers have run away due to Maoist terror. Those who remain are forced to follow violence loaded ideological syllabus prescribed by the Maoists. They too deserve to enjoy the entertainment and information provided by the television. They too deserve to communicate with their near and dear ones. The Maoists have in all destroyed more than 200 communication towers. Only days before the Dantewada massacre they attacked the Doordarshan station in Jagdalpur.
The Collector of Dantewada told this author that his efforts to take electricity to the poor in the region under the Rajiv Gandhi Vidyutikaran Yojna has been frustrated by the Maoists, as they destroy the pylons because they feel that electricity would bring television, which in turn will bring awareness. They too deserve the schemes of the State to impact on their lives. The Maoists do not allow that for fear of losing their control and influence, and even if some of them are selectively allowed, it is much in diluted form after filtration. The Maoists are therefore thriving on tax-payers money.
Above all inhabitants of Red Corridor have done nothing to deserve medieval dispensation of justice which ranges from decapitation to flogging by Maoist ‘Jan Adalats.’
Economic subversion
Just as democracy, economic development in the Red Corridor is being prevented or subverted by the Maoists. Mahesh and Sarita, a couple dedicated to the upliftment of Sabdo village in Gaya district of Bihar were brutally gunned downed by the Maoists in 2004 because they dared to bring unprecedented economic development through peoples’ participation. Their achievements were hailed by leading Indian dailies. Their lives were snuffed by the Maoists because they saw their influence being eroded. No infrastructure development is allowed by the Maoists in the’ liberated zones’ and in other areas only those contractors are allowed who are ready to pay abnormal amount of extortion money. The extortion industry of the Maoists by conservative estimates is 20,000 crores. Illegal mining also fetches several thousand crores.
In fact the Dawood gang has been trying to get into the illegal mining business through the Maoists. They have also made forays into opium cultivation and drugs. Corporates have no choice but to purchase peace with the Maoists. India’s economic sovereignty too is being subverted the Maoists. The economic drain due to the Maoist terror can be gauged from the fact in Maharastra alone which has just three Naxal affected districts of Gadchiroli, Bhandara and Gondia crores are spent by the government on VVIP security which also includes members of human rights commission. Each VVIP is provided three tier security by 550 personnel as per Home Minister RR Patil. If this cost was to be extrapolated on the entire Red Corridor its magnitude would be overwhelming.
In Maoists, inimical powers have found a willing tool to pursue their agenda of stunting India’s growth.
Anti-nationals and China’s proxies
This press release of 5 May 2009 of CPI(M) Central Committee on developments in Nepal should dispel all doubts regarding the Maoists being China’s proxies. The press release says: “US imperialism and Indian expansionism are particularly perturbed over the growing influence of China over the region, consolidation of China’s grip over Sri Lanka, and fear that the government in Nepal is moving closer to China. And it is this fear which is common to both India and the US that has pushed these powers to oust the government led by Maoists in a bid to install a regime loyal to them… it (Indian Maoists) pledges all support to the Maoists in Nepal in their fight against Indian expansionism”.
How did Indira Gandhi deal?
Only a few years ago the Maoists had called for a railway bandh. Consequently more than two dozen trains between Mugalsarai and Calcutta were cancelled. The East-West railway communication in India came to a naught. This is pure recipe of disaster during a full-scale war with China or Pakistan or both, for the danger it poses for inter-theatre movement of men and material. This threat to the integrity of the country by the Maoists is not new. The Naxalbari movement grew rapidly between 1969 and 1971. In 1971, the war clouds were hovering over India and India’s eastern theatre had become strategically sensitive. Given the China-Pakistan strategic partnership and China-Naxalite links, Mrs Gandhi realized the need to tackle the Naxals immediately and with a firm hand she announced in Parliament that the Naxalites would be fought to the finish.Accordingly, Operation Steeplechase was launched from July to August 1971 by the army and police in West Bengal and the bordering districts of Bihar and Orissa. There were 1,400 arrests in Andhara, 2000 in Bihar, 4000 in West Bengal and 1000 in Kerala. Several leaders were killed. This clearly indicates that even then the Maoists movement was pan-Indian in nature and had little to do with demands of development and local grievances.
If Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh have some love for Mrs Indira Gandhi, beyond exigencies of politics, they are advised to dust the records of that period and read it.
How did Sardar Patel Deal?
At the time of Independence, the communist movement in Telangana was as or even more cruel and violent than the Maoist insurgency of today. In their bid to capture India, the communists under the banner of Andhra Mahasabha had ‘captured’ and liberated 3000 villages in the districts of Nalgonda, Warangal and Karimnagar. The communists were certain that with the help of China and the Soviet Union, they would be able to humble the nascent Indian nation-state and establish their one-party rule. It was then that Sardar Patel diverted a part of the Indian Army engaged in Operation Polo for integration of Hyderabad to deal with the communists in Telangana. More than 2000 communists were killed and the so-called ‘liberated’ areas were reclaimed by the Indian State. This bold measure by Sardar Patel made the communists realize the futility of violence and compelled them to enter electoral politics.
Conclusion
The war is on. In this war the adversary has a deadly cocktail of ideology, foreign support, religious agenda, armed cadres, criminal financing and terror. It would be anti-national to treat it as a law and order problem. The assault is now on Indian democracy and the unity of India. Let us unite and fight because now in question is the very air-of-freedom that we are breathing. We have been churning PHDs for several decades now on left-wing extremism. No more PHDs and no more seminars.
The Maoists have struck nexus by forging links with insurgent organizations in Northeast, with the ISI, terrorist organizations in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and with the Dawood gang. Together Maoists and some of these outfits have formed a ‘strategic united front’. Combined, these inimical forces pose unprecedented destabilization process of India.
The war has to be fought by a combination of the Army, the Central Armed Police Forces and the state police forces on a pan-India basis. Each of these organizations has different capabilities to deal with the given level of threat and violence. The Maoists strongholds and ‘liberated zones’ with bunkers, mines and embedded explosives on avenues and roads can only be tackled by the Army. Nowhere in the world have insurgencies been operationally overcome without the Army. The expansion of the police forces and the CRPF amounts to ‘reinforcing failure’. It is none of their fault. Their training, orientation and primary role is different. In the Red Corridor they can be successful only in those areas where the threat is of the proportion of ‘law and order’ and not internal security. Moreover, police officers are trained to be managers of ‘law and order’ and not ‘leaders in combat’. Meanwhile, the Indian Army needs to revise its threat perception. This is an era of sub-conventional conflicts and so is the Maoist insurgency. Sardar Patel and Mrs Indira Gandhi had realized this long ago.
Wage war now or perish!
(RSN Singh is a former military intelligence officer who later served in the Research & Analysis Wing. The author of two books: Asian Strategic and Military Perspective andMilitary Factor in Pakistan, he is also a columnist for Canary Trap)
ISI has links with naxals, says West Bengal DGP
PTI New Delhi, October 18, 2012Pakistani intelligence agency ISI is having close liaison with some pro-naxal overground organisations through banned SIMI in West Bengal and helping them to instigate people against the government, a top police officer of the state said on Thursday.
Addressing a meeting of chief secretaries and police chiefs of nine Maoist-hit states, West Bengal DGP Naparajit Mukherjee said he had information that several pro-Maoist overground outfits have joined hands with some elements of banned SIMI, which have close links with ISI.
These elements have held several meetings jointly in 3 districts of West Bengal, including Murshidabad, staged protests against alleged violation of human rights and have been instigating people against the government, Mukherjee is learnt to have told the meeting.
The senior police officer said ISI was having direct links with these elements.
This is for the first time that a senior officer has come on record blaming ISI for helping naxals carry out anti-government activities.
The meeting was chaired by Union home secretary RK Singh and attended by chief secretaries and DGPs of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and representatives of Uttar Pradesh.
The high-level meeting discussed the draft policy for dealing with any Maoist-created hostage crisis. The policy suggested the government should not release hardcore naxals and those convicted for serious offences like murder and waging a war against the state.
The policy, for which opinion of the states were sought, favoured formation of dedicated team of negotiators and a back-up plan like armed intervention through commando operation if talks fail.
Constitution of a Special Investigation Team to probe violence perpetrated by Maoists, monitoring of trials of important cases, implementation of development programmes on the lines of Jharkhand's Saranda and implementation of Forest Right Act also came up for discussion.
The Centre has already written to naxal-affected states to reconstitute the Unified Command structure with the chief minister as its head and hold its meeting at least once a month.
The meeting also had a discussion on the draft policy for tackling any crisis arising out of Maoists using civilians as human shield.
The policy advocates maximum precaution to avoid collateral damage, collection of better intelligence about extremists as well as the human shield, deployment of adequate security personnel and knowledge of topography of the area before launching any operation to resolve the crisis.
Use of non-lethal weapons and night vision device were other two key suggestions advocated in the draft policy to deal with the human shield crisis.
Several innocent lives were lost in the recent past when naxals used human shield for their safety as security forces tried to end the crisis.
Recruitment of youth in paramilitary forces from naxal-hit areas and review of the fortification of isolated police stations are others issues to be discussed.
The meeting unanimously resolved that the Integrated Action Plan, through which the Centre is carrying out special development projects in 82 worst naxal-affected districts, should be continued in the present form in the next five year plan also.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/ISI-has-links-with-naxals-says-West-Bengal-DGP/Article1-946794.aspx