India's home minister Tuesday condemned an attack by Maoist rebels on a military outpost in eastern India that killed 24 soldiers and injured three.
The attack by the Naxalites on a paramilitary outpost near a rural market in the eastern state of West Bengal inflicted one of the highest number of casualties in a single-day on the Indian security forces battling the rebels, officials said. The severity of the attack underscored the challenges facing the ruling Congress party-led government in taming the rising insurgency. The attack Monday was "another outrageous attempt by the banned organization to overawe the established authority," Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said in a statement. He called on Indian citizens to condemn the violence and to help end "the menace of Naxalism, and bring development and progress to the people in the conflict zones." In the past, Mr. Chidambaram has said the government is ready for talks with the rebels should they give up the use of violence. A top Maoist leader who called local media late Monday to claim responsibility for the attack, said his group was ready to start talks with the government if it ended its offensive against the rebels. The latest attack showed the audacity and change in tactics by the Naxalites, even as the government has ratcheted up its offensive against the insurgents over the past year. "It was the first kind of attack with so much planning and firepower that we witnessed from them," said Pandey Santosh, additional superintendent of police for West Medinipur. A group of 100 armed Maoists in plainclothes mingled with the local market crowd Monday, then laid siege to the makeshift paramilitary camp there, where about 60 paramilitary personnel were resting after the day's patrol. "They threw grenades from all sides before the forces could think of retaliating," Mr. Santosh said. He said the insurgents sped off in motorcycles and vans before disappearing into a nearby forest. In recent years, the Naxalites, who advocate the overthrow of the Indian government, have made significant inroads in the center and south of the country. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called Naxalism the biggest internal-security challenge India faces. The government has deployed an increasing number of security forces to fight the Naxalites and regain territory lost to them. The death toll in the insurgency rose 36% to 1,125 in 2009, compared with the year earlier, according to India's Ministry of Home Affairs. Last week, Mr. Chidambaram said it was possible the trend of rising casualties would continue this year, too. Medinipur is one of the three districts of West Bengal with a heavy Naxalite presence. West Bengal is the home to the Naxalites. The movement derives its name from the Naxalbari village in West Bengal, where it began as a peasants' uprising in the late 1960s. WSJ / 16 Feb Nearly 50 rebels on motorcycles encircled the camp of the Eastern Frontier Rifles (ERF) at Silda village on Monday and started firing on it. More fighters joined the assault on foot, firing from automatic weapons. More than 6,000 people have died during the rebels' 20-year fight for communist rule in many Indian states. The Indian government recently began a major offensive against the rebels in several states. Indian Prime minister Manmohan Singh has described the Maoist insurgency as India's "greatest internal security challenge". The rebels now have a presence in 223 of India's 600-odd districts. *Landmines* The camp was overrun by the Maoists after the troops put up brief initial resistance, district magistrate of West Midnapore district NS Nigam told the BBC. "The Maoists then burnt down the camp and planted landmines on the entire length of the road leading to the camp. Reinforcements with night vision and anti-landmine vehicles reached the camp late at night," Mr Nigam said. At least 24 bodies have been recovered from in and around the camp and some of them are badly charred, he said. The government has launched a major offensive against the rebels The seriously injured troops were being taken to the state capital, Calcutta, for treatment. Officials said at least 12 soldiers were still missing. It took four hours for reinforcements to reached Silda as there were landmines planted on the entire stretch of the road. Police officials leading the reinforcements that reached Silda late at night said many of the paramilitary troops were shot dead by the rebels as they tried to escape the fire. West Bengal's police chief Bhupinder Singh said there were nearly 50 ERF troops in the camp when the attack took place. The Maoists pulled out of Silda after looting a huge amount of weapons from the camp's armoury. Chief of the rebels' military wing, Koteswara Rao - alias Kishenji - claimed responsibility for the attack. He said this attack was the beginning of "Operation Peace Hunt", the Maoist answer to the government "Operation Green Hunt" launched against the Maoists recently. "We are looking for peace but we are forced to fight and kill the poor troops of the government forces. We will mourn the death of those killed but the government is responsible for their death," Kishenji told the BBC by phone from an undisclosed location. The Maoist leader warned of more such attacks unless Operation Green Hunt was stopped. Earlier this month Home Minister P Chidambaram held a meeting of four Maoist-affected states - West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa - in Calcutta. He threatened to intensify Operation Green Hunt if the rebels did not start talks by abjuring violence. The Maoists said they would agree to talks if four of their senior leaders now in jail were released and Operation Green Hunt was halted. The government has not responded to that conditional overture. BBC / 16 Feb 2010
