Indian security forces are reclaiming territory from Maoist rebels for the first time in the decades-long insurgency, capitalizing on better intelligence and pressure by troops, a senior official said on Friday.
The Maoists, described by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the country’s biggest internal security threat, started their armed struggle in West Bengal’s Naxalbari town in 1967 and have expanded their support among farmers by tapping into resentment at the government’s pro-industry policies.
They have spread into rural pockets in 20 of India’s 28 states and the movement has hurt business potentially worth billions of dollars in mining industries in central and eastern India.
However, the government says it has taken back the momentum ever since it launched an offensive against the rebels late last year, reclaiming some areas in the mineral-rich states of Orissa and Jharkhand and neighboring Bihar and West Bengal.
“We are getting ground level intelligence from within the Maoist cadres for the first time,” U.K. Bansal, India’s internal security chief, said in an interview.
Bansal, the special secretary for internal security, said troops were getting information from villagers and some rebels about the location of their comrades and their plans.
“There are fissures within the organization which are helping us penetrate and reclaim territories,” Bansal said.
The rebels carried out more than 1,000 attacks last year, killing more than 600 people, and disrupted movement of coal and bauxite in eastern and central India worth millions of dollars.
They also extorted about US$307 million from companies in east and central India last year, home ministry officials say.
However, Bansal said troops had scored successes with dozens of rebels captured and forces reclaiming rebel strongholds.
Indian police killed four rebels on Friday, including a senior rebel commander in a gunbattle in the eastern state of West Bengal and reclaimed several villages held by the rebels.
“In Orissa state there have been a lot of surrenders in the last few months, we are slowly making headway everywhere,” Bansal said.
At least 100 Maoist rebels have surrendered or been arrested in the past six months from various parts of the country, home ministry officials say.
Facing pressure from central troops, the rebels offered a 72-day ceasefire last month, a proposal dismissed by the government as a ruse to regroup.
Bansal, however, said it would be a long battle to completely overpower the Maoists as the rebels had modern firepower at their disposal, mainly looted from police armories.
Last month, the rebels killed 35 people in back-to-back attacks in two eastern Indian states, including a daylight attack on a police camp that raised a storm of criticism over India’s ability to tackle the threat.
About 8,000 to 10,000 Maoist fighters are still not involved in actual gun battles with troops, officials have said.
“We have just started to make inroads, it will take a long time as we are talking about 20,000 [Maoist] fighters here,” Bansal said.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS