Maoists blow up mobile tower in Orissa
2010-07-11 17:20:00 Suspected Maoists blew up a mobile tower control room of a private telecom company in Orissa's Malkangiri District on Saturday night.
Official sources on Sunday said the rebels blew up the control room using landmine blast at Nilakamberu village in a bid to disrupt the communication network in their stronghold.
It has been reported that the Maoists then fled into the forest area raising slogans against the Central Government and the security forces.
Over the last two weeks, the ultras have blown up a school building, a panchayat office building and a godown in the district.
The attack follows the killing of Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad.
Andhra Pradesh police reportedly killed Azad in an encounter in the Jogapur forest area of Andhra Pradesh's Adilabad District early on Friday morning last week, while he was attempting to cross into neighbouring Maharashtra.
Azad was a member of the central committee of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) and carried a reward of 1.2 million rupees on his head.
Azad, who did his MTech in Warangal, was linked to the Maoist movement for more than 35 years and used to write articles for magazines on Maoist ideology.
There are reports that Azad was assigned the task of revising the Maoist movement in India. (ANI)
India is 'losing Maoist battle'
India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says his country is losing the battle against Maoist rebels.
Mr Singh told a meeting of police chiefs from different states that rebel violence was increasing and the Maoists' appeal was growing.
The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of the poor.
They operate in a large swathe of territory across central India, and in some areas have almost replaced the local government.
More than 6,000 people have been killed during their 20-year fight for a communist state.
'Going up'
"I have consistently held that in many ways, left-wing extremism poses perhaps the gravest internal security threat our country faces," Mr Singh told a conference of Indian police chiefs in the capital, Delhi.
"We have discussed this in the last five years and I would like to state frankly that we have not achieved as much success as we would have liked in containing this menace."
The prime minister said that despite the government's best efforts, violence in Maoist-affected areas was going up.
The prime minister admitted that the Maoists had growing appeal among a large section of Indian society, including tribal communities, the rural poor as well as sections of the intelligentsia and the youth.
Mr Singh said a more sensitive approach was necessary in dealing with the Maoists.
"Dealing with left-wing extremism requires a nuanced strategy - a holistic approach. It cannot be treated simply as a law and order problem."
The rebels operate in 182 districts in India, mainly in the states of Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal. In some areas they have virtually replaced the local government and are able to mount spectacular attacks on government installations.
Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | South Asia | India is 'losing Maoist battle'
Maoists kill 75 police in central India attack
Tue, Apr 6 2010
By Sujeet Kumar
RAIPUR, India (Reuters) - Maoist rebels killed at least 75 police by setting off explosives and firing from hilltops around dense forest in central India on Tuesday, in one of the worst attacks by the insurgents in years.
The ambush by more than 700 Maoist fighters in Chhattisgarh state highlights the strong rebel presence in large swathes of India, especially remote rural areas left out of the booming economy.
Recent attacks on police have raised questions over how well prepared security forces are to tackle the Maoists, especially during a counter-offensive by security forces this year.
"Something has gone very wrong," Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said. "They seem to have walked into a camp or a trap."
Police said the Maoist rebels, who control several areas rich in mineral resources, had retreated into the forest in the Dantewada district of the Bastar region, home to government-owned iron ore miner NMDC Ltd, the largest in India.
Tuesday's attack left mining operations unaffected, but mining officials were rattled.
"There is an absolute panic," S.P. Himanshu Kumar, the deputy general manager of NDMC, frequently attacked by Maoists.
Reinforcements trying to collect the bodies came under fire by the Maoists who had surrounded the area. Two Indian Air Force helicopters were used in a rescue operation.
"This is a big disaster and it shows the paramilitary forces are obviously not trained to tackle the Maoists' rebellion and they don't seem to have enough intelligence," said retired Major General Ravi Arora, editor of Indian Military Review.
Maoists regularly attack rail lines and factories, hurting business potentially worth billions of dollars in mineral-rich and often remote regions. They extort more than $300 million from companies every year, the government says.
"The growing activities of Maoists in Bastar in Chhattisgarh are threatening iron ore mining," said Ashok Surana, head of a leading industrial body, Mini Steel Plant Association.
"The iron ore miners fear that the authorities might end up ceding control of Bastar's ore reserves in five years if the dominance of the area by the insurgents is not checked urgently."
TAKEN BY SURPRISE
The Congress-led government has been accused of failing to deal with the insurgents, and the security issue could be important in several state elections over the next two years.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the Maoists as the gravest threat to India's internal security, and voiced his "shock" at Tuesday's attack. The rebels carried out more than 1,000 attacks last year, killing more than 600 people.
The rebels number between 6,000 and 8,000 hardcore fighters in nearly a third of India's 630 districts. While they have made few inroads into cities, they have spread into rural pockets in 20 of 28 states.
Tuesday's attack echoed a similar ambush in February, when Maoists caught police off guard in a daylight attack in the state of West Bengal, killing at least two dozen police.
On Sunday, rebels triggered a land mine blast that killed 10 police in the mineral-rich eastern state of Orissa.
Maoists have stepped up attacks in response to an offensive that began late last year in several states, which officials say has for the first time weakened the decades-old movement.
The government has offered peace talks to the Maoists on condition the rebels abjure violence. The Maoists say they want the government offensive to stop first.
Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and landless labourers and are trying to expand their influence in east, central and southern India. Thousands have been killed in the insurgency since the late 1960s.
2010-07-11 17:20:00 Suspected Maoists blew up a mobile tower control room of a private telecom company in Orissa's Malkangiri District on Saturday night.
Official sources on Sunday said the rebels blew up the control room using landmine blast at Nilakamberu village in a bid to disrupt the communication network in their stronghold.
It has been reported that the Maoists then fled into the forest area raising slogans against the Central Government and the security forces.
Over the last two weeks, the ultras have blown up a school building, a panchayat office building and a godown in the district.
The attack follows the killing of Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad.
Andhra Pradesh police reportedly killed Azad in an encounter in the Jogapur forest area of Andhra Pradesh's Adilabad District early on Friday morning last week, while he was attempting to cross into neighbouring Maharashtra.
Azad was a member of the central committee of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) and carried a reward of 1.2 million rupees on his head.
Azad, who did his MTech in Warangal, was linked to the Maoist movement for more than 35 years and used to write articles for magazines on Maoist ideology.
There are reports that Azad was assigned the task of revising the Maoist movement in India. (ANI)
India is 'losing Maoist battle'
India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says his country is losing the battle against Maoist rebels.
Mr Singh told a meeting of police chiefs from different states that rebel violence was increasing and the Maoists' appeal was growing.
The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of the poor.
They operate in a large swathe of territory across central India, and in some areas have almost replaced the local government.
More than 6,000 people have been killed during their 20-year fight for a communist state.
'Going up'
"I have consistently held that in many ways, left-wing extremism poses perhaps the gravest internal security threat our country faces," Mr Singh told a conference of Indian police chiefs in the capital, Delhi.
"We have discussed this in the last five years and I would like to state frankly that we have not achieved as much success as we would have liked in containing this menace."
The prime minister said that despite the government's best efforts, violence in Maoist-affected areas was going up.
The prime minister admitted that the Maoists had growing appeal among a large section of Indian society, including tribal communities, the rural poor as well as sections of the intelligentsia and the youth.
Mr Singh said a more sensitive approach was necessary in dealing with the Maoists.
"Dealing with left-wing extremism requires a nuanced strategy - a holistic approach. It cannot be treated simply as a law and order problem."
The rebels operate in 182 districts in India, mainly in the states of Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal. In some areas they have virtually replaced the local government and are able to mount spectacular attacks on government installations.
Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | South Asia | India is 'losing Maoist battle'
Maoists kill 75 police in central India attack
Tue, Apr 6 2010
By Sujeet Kumar
RAIPUR, India (Reuters) - Maoist rebels killed at least 75 police by setting off explosives and firing from hilltops around dense forest in central India on Tuesday, in one of the worst attacks by the insurgents in years.
The ambush by more than 700 Maoist fighters in Chhattisgarh state highlights the strong rebel presence in large swathes of India, especially remote rural areas left out of the booming economy.
Recent attacks on police have raised questions over how well prepared security forces are to tackle the Maoists, especially during a counter-offensive by security forces this year.
"Something has gone very wrong," Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said. "They seem to have walked into a camp or a trap."
Police said the Maoist rebels, who control several areas rich in mineral resources, had retreated into the forest in the Dantewada district of the Bastar region, home to government-owned iron ore miner NMDC Ltd, the largest in India.
Tuesday's attack left mining operations unaffected, but mining officials were rattled.
"There is an absolute panic," S.P. Himanshu Kumar, the deputy general manager of NDMC, frequently attacked by Maoists.
Reinforcements trying to collect the bodies came under fire by the Maoists who had surrounded the area. Two Indian Air Force helicopters were used in a rescue operation.
"This is a big disaster and it shows the paramilitary forces are obviously not trained to tackle the Maoists' rebellion and they don't seem to have enough intelligence," said retired Major General Ravi Arora, editor of Indian Military Review.
Maoists regularly attack rail lines and factories, hurting business potentially worth billions of dollars in mineral-rich and often remote regions. They extort more than $300 million from companies every year, the government says.
"The growing activities of Maoists in Bastar in Chhattisgarh are threatening iron ore mining," said Ashok Surana, head of a leading industrial body, Mini Steel Plant Association.
"The iron ore miners fear that the authorities might end up ceding control of Bastar's ore reserves in five years if the dominance of the area by the insurgents is not checked urgently."
TAKEN BY SURPRISE
The Congress-led government has been accused of failing to deal with the insurgents, and the security issue could be important in several state elections over the next two years.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the Maoists as the gravest threat to India's internal security, and voiced his "shock" at Tuesday's attack. The rebels carried out more than 1,000 attacks last year, killing more than 600 people.
The rebels number between 6,000 and 8,000 hardcore fighters in nearly a third of India's 630 districts. While they have made few inroads into cities, they have spread into rural pockets in 20 of 28 states.
Tuesday's attack echoed a similar ambush in February, when Maoists caught police off guard in a daylight attack in the state of West Bengal, killing at least two dozen police.
On Sunday, rebels triggered a land mine blast that killed 10 police in the mineral-rich eastern state of Orissa.
Maoists have stepped up attacks in response to an offensive that began late last year in several states, which officials say has for the first time weakened the decades-old movement.
The government has offered peace talks to the Maoists on condition the rebels abjure violence. The Maoists say they want the government offensive to stop first.
Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and landless labourers and are trying to expand their influence in east, central and southern India. Thousands have been killed in the insurgency since the late 1960s.
