March 23, 2007	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 3, 1428

RAIPUR (India): India faces an uphill struggle to eliminate a growing Maoist insurgency due to inept police, well-trained rebels and villagers who are wary of authorities after years of land seizures and government neglect.

The rebels’ massacre of 55 police and tribal militia last week, one of the deadliest in decades, underscored the strength of rebels that the government had for years dismissed as a bunch of ragtag radicals confined to remote forests.

“The insurgency has reached a critical point,” said Ram Vichar Netam, home minister of the central state of Chhattisgarh where up to 4,000 rebels, armed with grenade launchers, landmines and automatic weapons, operate in one of their strongholds.“They have a lot of power and resources and are directly challenging the government and targeting forces regularly,” Netam added.

Police say up to 20,000 armed Maoist rebels operate in about half of India’s 29 states after four decades of campaigns, forming a “red corridor” from southern India to Nepal’s border.

It was in the southern forests of Chhattisgarh that Maoists, known as Naxalites, attacked the police base.

The attack showed how well-trained rebels can wreak havoc, and the slaughter came despite authorities giving anti-insurgency training over the last year to hundreds of police.

Around 20 to 25 Maoist squads, totalling some 500 rebels, gathered from neighbouring states for the attack with a level of coordination that even impressed some police.

The rebels staked out the outpost for days, gathering intelligence and ensuring villagers said nothing, police said.

Police were caught by surprise. Many of the tribal militia only had 80-year-old rifles.

UNPOPULAR MAOISTS: “This is one of the gravest issues that India faces,” said Ajai Sahni of the Institute for Conflict Management, a New Delhi think-tank.

Sahni said Maoists were now involved in mainstream political struggles, like the opposition by thousands of farmers in many states to land acquisition for low-tax industrial zones.

“People who say they are restricted to remote forests fail to understand their long-term strategy. They are consolidating their territories to capitalise on national issues like land seizures and caste conflict,” said Sahni.

Maoists are unpopular among many villagers for killing civilians, especially community leaders. Some 50,000 tribal people have fled to refugee camps in Chhattisgarh.

Some of them have formed an anti-Maoist movement, the Salwa Judum, with the help of the Chhattisgarh government.

But rebels have benefited from the lack of coordination between different state governments, and are able to evade pursuit by melting away across state borders, as in March’s attack.

The central government has refused to use the one national tool at its disposal – the military.

“The states say the problem crosses 15 states so the national government should be involved. The national government says it is a state problem,” said Brigadier B.K. Ponwar, a counter-intelligence officer.

Facing unpopularity from villagers, Maoist leaders agreed this year to stop targetting civilians and focus instead on killing politicians and police, intelligence officials said.

Suspected rebels shot dead a lawmaker in March in what may be a sign of such a change in tactics.

Many attacks could be stopped if villagers who oppose the Maoists were willing to act as informers for the police. But mistrust reigns after years of government land grabs and neglect in some of India’s poorest rural regions.

Ponwar recounted how a colleague visited a village near a rebel region. An elderly villager said he was the first official to visit since a British officer came – meaning before India’s independence in 1947.

“Information at the grassroots level is not arriving at the government,” said Netam.—Reuters