Jungle ambush leaves 75 police dead in the bloodiest day of Maoist insurgency
By Jeremy Page, Delhi
Maoist rebels killed at least 75 paramilitary police in a jungle ambush in central India yesterday in their bloodiest attack on security forces since their uprising began more than four decades ago.
Up to 700 Maoists took part in the dawn attack on 82 members of the Central Reserve Police Force patrolling forests in the central state of Chhattisgarh. The rebels, known as Naxalites, used automatic weapons and landmines to attack the patrol, and surrounded reinforcements who rushed to the scene in the Bastar region — home to India’s largest iron ore mining company.
“It was a flash attack,” one of the seven troopers who escaped with severe injuries, told the Indo-Asian News Service from his hospital bed. “I saw scores of my colleagues in a pool of blood. Maoists were spraying bullets on us.” At least 17 of the troops were killed when the rebels blew up a heavily armoured anti-mine vehicle sent in to retrieve the wounded, the police said.
“Something has gone very wrong. They seem to have walked into a trap,” said P. Chidambaram, the Home Minister, who last year launched an unprecedented nationwide campaign against the Naxalites. “I’m deeply shocked. I’m sorry for those who’ve lost their lives. This shows the savage nature of the [Naxalites].”
G. K. Pillai, the Home Secretary, confirmed that seventy-five paramilitary troops had been killed, and seven more injured, and that the Maoists had captured all their weapons.
The attack highlights the growing threat from the Naxalites, who claim to be fighting for the hundreds of millions of poor farmers and landless labourers left behind by India’s recent economic boom.
Originally inspired by the communist ideology of Mao Zedong — and initially supported by China — the Naxalites took their name from the village of Naxalbari in West Bengal, where they started a peasant uprising in 1967.
They have since grown into a force of about 20,000 permanent armed cadres and 100,000 militia members who control a “red corridor” of dense forest stretching from the east coast to the border of Nepal.
Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, has described them as the biggest internal threat to India’s security.
Mr Chidambaram has vowed to defeat the Maoists within three years by deploying thousands of paramilitary forces to assist state police in Operation Green Hunt — the first nationwide campaign against the rebels. However, critics say that the campaign is doomed by a chronic lack of training, equipment, personnel and reliable intelligence.
B. Raman, a former counter-terrorism chief in India’s external intelligence agency, said that the attack was a “black day in the history of India’s counter-insurgency”, blaming the security forces’ poor training. “While the Maoists are trained to trek long distances by foot, the security forces tend to be road and vehicle-bound,” he said. “The time has come to think in terms of using helicopter patrols and spotter drones in our counter-insurgency operations in areas covered by jungle.”
Other security experts say that such tactics would be ineffective against a problem caused by the absence of state agencies — especially police — in the rural hinterland. India is one of the least policed countries in the world, with just 145 available police for every 100,000 people, compared with an international average of 270.
“This is like trying to irrigate the desert with dewdrops,” said Ajay Sahni, a security expert at the Institute for Conflict Management. “Where the State’s deployments are heavy, the Maoists will simply walk away. Where state forces are dispersed or their presence is eventually diluted, they will be selectively targeted in a campaign of attrition.”
The rebels already appear to be stepping up their activities against the government offensive. Maoist violence claimed 908 lives last year, the highest annual toll since 1971, according to the Home Ministry.
Until yesterday, the rebels’ bloodiest attack was one that killed 55 policemen, also in Chhattisgarh, in March 2007.
