India: Maoists trying to expand activities to newer areas

The Maoists are trying to extend their “movement” to new areas and they stepped up their activities along the shared borders of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, a government dossier said today.

The most deadly of the Naxalites’ formations — the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), operating along the southern border flank of Chhattisgarh, is behind this move.

“In order to extend their movement to newer areas and deflect attention of the security forces away from the Dandakaranya region, the CPI (Maoist) has stepped up activities at the tri-junction of Chhattisgarh-MP-Maharashtra.

“They plan to develop the area into a new zone for which a vistaar core commiteee has been formed,” it said.

“The DKSZC has reportedly sent around 60 People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) cadres to participate in political and organisational work,” the agenda paper placed by the Union home ministry during today’s meeting on Naxal issues with various states said.

It said, in a similar fashion, other inter-state boundaries like along West Bengal-Jharkhand, Odisha-Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh-Jharkhand have also seen activities of the CPI (Maoist) for “consolidation and expansion”.

It said 2016 witnessed maximum Naxal violence incidents in the states of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh who together accounted for 68.5 per cent of the total incidents and 69 per cent of the deaths.

“Bihar followed by Odisha and Maharashtra accounted for 12.3 per cent, 8.2 per cent and 6.9 per cent of the incidents respectively. Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana together reported less than 4 per cent incidents,” it said.

Chhattisgarh, it said, despite being the “core area” for Maoist activities recorded a decrease of 15 per cent in incidents of violence in 2016.

“The year 2017 (upto April 15) has also seen an overall 23.3 per cent (377 to 289) decline in number of violent incidents so far as compared to the corresponding period of 2016,” it said.

However, three major attacks leading to “a large number of causalities to security forces personnel and loss of weapons and equipment has somewhat altered the situation in public and media perception,” it added.

It indicated the recent Naxal ambushes in Chhattisgarh that killed 37 CRPF personnel and one in Odisha that killed eight police personnel, in the last few months.

The paper said the splinter groups of the Maoists, who have no ideological linkage with the CPI (Maoist), contributed to 51 per cent of the Left Wing Extremism related violence and for 58 per cent of the deaths in the affected states in 2016.

The ministry specifically asked Jharkhand to “deal” with these groups.

It also asked states like Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal to hold regular meetings of the Unified Command on anti-Naxal operations and suggested others to create such a mechanism at “the earliest”.

It asked the ministry of Defence to “reconsider” a proposal of setting up army establishments in the LWE-affected areas and provide slots for training of the special police forces of these states at the famed counter-insurgency and jungle warfare school at Vairengte in Mizoram.

Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhopal/maoists-declare-new-grb-zone-on-red-corridor-mp-demands-choppers-for-ops/articleshow/58583423.cms