Indian Police Hunt for Maoists Who Killed 17 Police

Source: Bloomberg

By Bibhudatta Pradhan

Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Indian police combed forests for Maoist rebels who killed 17 security personnel and beheaded an informer in the western state of Maharashtra, as top officials consider a stepped up offensive against the guerrillas.

Authorities have deployed “additional security forces for a large scale operation” against the rebels blamed for yesterday’s attack, S. Jaya Kumar, superintendent of police for the state’s Gadchiroli district, said by phone. Nearly 200 insurgents opened fire on a 40-strong police team, triggering a four-hour gun battle, Kumar said. The officers had traveled to the remote border with Chhattisgarh state for a routine exercise.

Yesterday’s violence came five days before elections to the state assembly in Maharashtra, home to India’s financial capital of Mumbai, and a day after Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said there will be no talks with the Maoists until they lay down their guns. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called the guerrillas, who roam in a dozen of the country’s 28 states, the greatest threat to internal security.

Singh yesterday chaired a meeting of the cabinet committee on security to discuss a plan to take on the insurgency. Security forces will work to help civil administrations gain control over Maoist-affected areas, Home Secretary G.K. Pillai told the CNN-IBN television network.

The government is not contemplating the use of air force helicopters for any offensive operation against the Maoists, Pillai said. It will deploy about 70,000 members of the federal security forces to back up state police, the Times of India newspaper reported, citing a government official it did not name.

Banned Group

Maoists, also known Naxalites after the village of Naxalbari in West Bengal state where impoverished villagers staged an uprising against landowners in 1967, have waged a campaign of violence against the government, police and landowners for four decades. Attacks killed 503 civilians and security officers this year up to July 15, according to the federal government. Of those, 59 died in Maharashtra.

Security forces will confront the Communist rebels until they lay down their guns and agree to talk, Chidambaram said on Oct. 7. India banned the rebel group and more than a dozen suspected front organizations on June 22, granting police powers to arrest people even if they don’t engage in violence.

Maoists are now targeting vital economic infrastructure and transport links. Yesterday’s beheading followed that of a police inspector this month in Jharkhand state. Naxalites have killed political leaders and tried to disrupt the general elections in April and May by attacking poll officials and voting booths.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bibhudatta Pradhan in New Delhi at bpradhan@bloomberg.net.