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Operation Lalgarh: Security forces make slow, but steady progress

	June 29, 2009

As the operation launched by the security forces to flush out Maoist extremists and their supporters from Lalgarh and surrounding areas in West Bengal enters the twelfth day today, June 29, a game of hide and seek is going on between them. After taking control of Lalgarh and Ramgarh, the security forces are trying to flush out the Maoists from the forests, where they have taken refuge.



On Saturday, June 27, the central paramilitary forces and the West Bengal Police took control of Maoist dominated Ramgarh after a heavy gun battle. The victory will enable the forces to focus attention on the seven kilometer stretch between Ramgarh and Lalgarh, and end Maoist domination there.



Armed Maoists stormed and torched an office of the All India Trade Union Congress in Ramgarh, barely thirty minutes before the security forces reached there.



While proceeding from Lalgarh to Ramgarh, the security forces defused a number of landmines.



A day earlier on June 26, there was a heavy exchange of fire between the security forces and the Maoists in areas adjacent to Lalgarh. The operation has been launched jointly by the West Bengal Police and Central paramilitary forces. On the other hand, the Maoists are backed by the groups fighting alleged police repression and atrocities.



As the security forces stated moving towards Lalgarh, they were forced to stop with the Maoists blowing up landmines. Apart from one or two landmines which went off, the security forces defused five to six landmines planted by the extremists.





Maoists taking refuge in forest areas



After firing at the security forces, the Maoist cadres have been disappearing in the adjoining forests. The security forces on their part have been conducting mine sweeping operations to clear road and forest paths of improvised explosive devices.



According to intelligence reports, from 250 to 400 trained Maoists are in the jungle, the so-called liberated zone. Their intention appears to be to delay, if not stop the security forces’ march.



There are, however, reports that the Maoist leaders have already fled the area and taken refuge in neighbouring Jharkhand. Insurgent commanders like M. Koteshwar Rao, who controls Maoist operations in three states, are believed to have long ago retreated to the safety of Jharkhand hills, where the police writ does not run.





Major battle will be after the operation ends



Observers say that the security forces may succeed in achieving the task of ridding the area of Maoist control. But this will be the easy part of the counter-terrorism operation. The real challenge will arise after the Special Forces are pulled out of the area. As the West Bengal police are under-staffed and ill-equipped, they may find the going tough in checking the Maoists from regrouping.



The task is all the more difficult as major political parties in West Bengal have been taking the help of Maoists in the past, whenever it suited them. It is significant that both the CPI(M) and Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress have been accusing each other of playing footsie with the Maoists from time to time. The Trinamul Congress says that the fact that the Left Front government in West Bengal did not ban the CPI Maoist, even when it had been banned by most neighbouring states, shows the unholy links between the two. The CPI (M), on the other hand, contends that the Maoists helped the Trinamul Congress during the Nandigram crisis, and even during the recent Lok Sabha elections. In this context, they quote the Maoist statement that the Trinamul Congress should help them now as they helped the party during the Nandigram and Singur incidents.





Chief Minister enforces ban on Maoists



In a significant development last week, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee moved away from his party, the CPI (M)’s no ban on Maoists position. Speaking in Kolkata on Tuesday, June 23, he said that the state had no option but to ban the CPI Maoist as the Centre’s ban order applied to the whole country. Just a day earlier, CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat had said that the Left wing extremist groups should be engaged “politically and administratively.’’



Bhattacharjee said that implementing the ban on the CPI Maoist was the state government business. He said the Centre had been insisting on the states raising their own forces to combat terrorism including that of the Maoist kind and talked of setting up a new combat force to counter terrorist activities.





Indicating the state government’s intent to act against the Maoists, CPI Maoist spokesperson Gour Chakraborty was picked up by the police in Kolkata on June 23. He was apprehended on the suspicion that he was a member of the CPI Maoist, a banned organization.







CPI Maoist a terrorist outfit: Home Ministry



On Monday, June 22, the Centre declared the CPI (Maoist), the unified organization of Left wing extremist groups, as a terrorist outfit. The Union Home Ministry banned the outfit under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Amendment Act, 2008, after the West Bengal and some other state governments continued to dither on banning the extremist group. The ban on the CPI Maoist comes in the wake of rising violence unleashed by the Left Wing groups in the country’s eastern and central regions, including the recent incidents in Lalgarh, where the extremists had virtually taken control of several villages.



Many Naxal affected states like Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have already declared various Left wing outfits as unlawful. The Union Home Ministry included the CPI Maoist in the list of banned organizations.



The Ministry of Home Affairs’ list of banned organizations includes Al Qaeda, Hizbul Mujahideen and pan-Islamic terrorist organizations.

The Ministry’s list already included CPI (Marxist-Leninist), People’s War Group, Maoist Communist Centre and their front organizations. All these outfits had come together to form the CPI Maoist in Sept. 2004.







Cong criticizes CPI (M) double-speak on Maoists



The Congress has criticized the Left Front Government in West Bengal, and especially the CPI (M), for what it called the reluctance to implement the ban on CPI Maoist in the state. Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari was commenting in New Delhi on State Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s statement that he would implement the Centre’s ban on the extremist outfit in his own way. He said the caveat introduced by the Chief Minister was an example of the double-speak of the CPI (M). He said: “On the one hand, the West Bengal Government seeks the help of the Central government to act against the Maoists, but on the other hand, it is not ready to take the basic steps it should. The West Bengal government should have designated the CPI Maoist as an illegal organization under the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1908.’’ He said selective implementation of the Centre’s law would lead to constitutional chaos.







Talk of dialogue, but conflict continues



Both the State government and the CPI Maoist have been saying that they are ready for dialogue, but it appears that their protestations are only for namesake. On June 22, Maoists’ spokesperson Gour Chakraborty said that the Maoists might consider declaring a ceasefire in the Lalgarh area if the Government ‘cooperated’ with the outfit.



On the other hand, the state government appealed to the Maoists to lay down arms and come forward for talks. But the Maoists rejected the appeal and warned that the ban on the outfit “will only expose the government further and embolden the people to take up greater responsibilities.”



A statement by the CPI Maoist Central Committee circulated in Kolkata said: “So far, the imposition of the ban on Maoists by the Centre and various states has rather increased people’s support to us and miserably failed in reining in the revolutionary struggle.”







CPI (M) using Centre: Mamata



Railways Minister and Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has said that there is no need to support the CPI (M) on the Maoists issue. She reportedly gave expression to her views during a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on June 25. She said later: “I told my feelings about Lalgarh to the Prime Minister. I asked him if we did not have any information on what was happening there.”



Calling the Lalgarh siege a “face-saving formula of the state government”, Mamata Banerjee said the entire episode had been orchestrated by the West Bengal government to provide “oxygen to CPI (M) cadres” after having lost the people’s mandate.



Mamata Banerjee said that the central forces were committing atrocities on the people. She said that the Centre had been “trapped” by the state government into making the central paramilitary forces available for joint operations in Lalgarh.



The Trinamul Congress chief said that the Maoists were created by the Marxists only. She said: “It is a CPI (M)-sponsored baby. I told the Prime Minister dissident Marxists are Maoists.”



The Congress on its part has said that any misunderstanding with the Trinamul Congress leadership that may have arisen over the Centre’s decision to help the West Bengal government to combat violence will be sorted out through discussions. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said he would be talking to Mamata Banerjee to clear her misgivings on the matter.







Maoists strike as Home Minister visits Orissa



Ahead and during Union Home Minister P.Chidambaram’s visit to Orissa last week to review security preparedness, the Maoists unleashed violence at several places. They blew up a railway building, damaged three mobile phone towers and blocked roads in Koraput district.



Chidambaram, who also visited Kandhamal area, which witnessed anti-Christian violence last year, appealed to people living in relief camps to return to their homes. He assured them full protection and security.







Maoists' bandh partial



A forty-eight hour bandh called by CPI Maoist in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Bihar had partial impact at the start of last week. The Maoists successfully enforced the bandh in their strongholds in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, but there was not much impact in Orissa and Bihar. The bandh was against the security forces operation in Lalgarh.





India has largest number of local terror outfits



With the Government banning the CPI Maoists, the number of banned indigenous terror groups operating in the country has gone up to 27. This makes India home to the largest number of domestic terrorist organizations. Apart from the domestic outfits, there are seven trans-national terror groups which are banned in India. Apart from Al Qaeda and the Sri Lankan LTTE, the others are Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Al Badr, Jamat-ul-Mujahid and Hizbul Mujahideen. These are all Pakistan-based terror outfits fighting against the security forces in Kashmir.





Maoists trying to set up urban bases



Reports say that the Maoists are trying to enlarge their area of influence outside the forests of the so-called Red Corridor that run from the Nepal border down to Andhra Pradesh. Evidence of this comes from their attempt to set up urban bases in the national capital Delhi, and other major cities. A report says that the Maoists are also trying to influence policy-makers, human rights groups, media, cultural, dalit, women and youth organizations.



A Chandigarh newspaper referring to inputs from intelligence agencies says that Maoist/Naxalite affected areas now include certain parts of the national capital region and adjoining states. At some places, Maoist activists have been teaching new recruits how to fire guns and make bombs and landmines.



Intelligence sources say that of the total 231 districts in 13 states, targeted by the Maoists to achieve their goals, three are in the national capital region. The Maoists’ ultimate aim is to seize power in Delhi by 2050.



In the NCR, the Maoists are trying to recruit people in universities and in economically poor areas.



Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been repeatedly talking of internal security threats and recently described the Naxalite problem as the single largest threat to India.