Maoist attack on India police kills 49
Friday, March 16, 2007
MAOIST rebels, also known as Naxalites, stormed a police camp in the troubled central Indian state of Chhattisgarh yesterday, killing 49 members of the police and tribal militia in one of the deadliest attacks by the insurgents in years.
Between 300 and 400 rebels attacked the camp surrounded by dense forest in the southern part of the state, throwing grenades and petrol bombs and setting fire to it before escaping with a cache of arms and explosives.
Chief Minister Raman Singh told the state legislature that among the dead were 15 policemen and 34 local tribal members recruited to a police militia.
The latest attack underlined the presence of the Naxalites in much of rural India where they have formed a "red corridor" stretching from the southern tip of India all along its southern, central and eastern forests and up to the border with Nepal.
Ajai Sahni, executive director at the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management said rebels have spent much of last year amassing an enormous cache of arms.
Last year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the insurgency was the gravest threat to India's internal security since independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
More than 700 people were killed in the insurgency last year.
India's security forces and intelligence-gathering in the worst-affected states remain ineffectual, said Sahni.
Maoists launched a violent movement in 1967 from a village in India's eastern state of West Bengal and say they are fighting for the rights of poor peasants and landless workers.Reuters
Between 300 and 400 rebels attacked the camp surrounded by dense forest in the southern part of the state, throwing grenades and petrol bombs and setting fire to it before escaping with a cache of arms and explosives.
Chief Minister Raman Singh told the state legislature that among the dead were 15 policemen and 34 local tribal members recruited to a police militia.
The latest attack underlined the presence of the Naxalites in much of rural India where they have formed a "red corridor" stretching from the southern tip of India all along its southern, central and eastern forests and up to the border with Nepal.
Ajai Sahni, executive director at the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management said rebels have spent much of last year amassing an enormous cache of arms.
Last year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the insurgency was the gravest threat to India's internal security since independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
More than 700 people were killed in the insurgency last year.
India's security forces and intelligence-gathering in the worst-affected states remain ineffectual, said Sahni.
Maoists launched a violent movement in 1967 from a village in India's eastern state of West Bengal and say they are fighting for the rights of poor peasants and landless workers.Reuters
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