India: Number of Maoist attacks increased in 2016

New Delhi: Despite the government announcing plans to curb Left Wing Extremism (LWE) within the next few years, statistics tell a different tale—the number of attacks and deaths across the country went up last year.

Data collected by the home ministry shows that the number of deaths due to LWE in Bihar went up from 17 in 2015 to 28 in 2016; in Jharkhand from 55 to 84 and in Chhattisgarh from 96 to 105 over the same period. Across India, 221 peole were killed in 2015, as opposed to 269 people in 2016.

On Sunday, home minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the LWE situation in Jharkhand on a visit to the Central Industrial Security Force’s (CISF) eastern command headquarters. While Singh said that cross border violence and LWE were proving to be stumbling blocks to growth, he added that strategies were being formulated to stanch the proliferation of LWE in India.

“Violence has no place in a democracy. LWE groups should abjure violence and let India progress. Certain anti-India forces do not like to see India growing and so they resort to violence and terror. However, we are constantly reviewing the situation in the LWE affected regions and it is something we hope to curb within the next two or three years,” home minister Rajnath Singh said in Ranchi.

According to home ministry documents, “Between 2010 and 2015 more than 2,000 civilians and 800 security personnel had been killed by Maoists in various parts of India.” However, home ministry officials also added that while Maoists target tribal communities the most, they brutally torture and kill those tribals they suspect are “police informers.”

The government has given a call to the LWEs to come for talks. This plea has been rejected by them, since they believe in violence as the means to capture state power. This has resulted in a spiraling cycle of violence in some parts of India. The poor and the marginalised sections like the tribals are bearing the brunt of this violence,” said a senior home ministry official on condition of anonymity.

While several paramilitary forces—such as the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)—are stationed in some of the LWE-affected areas, security personnel said that the lack of cash, brought on by demonetisation, had made the LWE cadres more volatile.

“Demonetisation had made the Maoists more desperate. They had begun to target tribals and villagers through whom they would extort money. If someone stands up to them, they are shot. So people live in fear in these areas. The Maoists also target infrastructure projects from which they can extract funds,” said a senior BSF official, requesting anonymity.

Source : http://www.livemint.com/Politics/oa3OchLcc88Fahttxwti2J/Number-of-Maoist-attacks-increased-in-2016.html