After policemen massacre, many calls for changes to government policies
New Delhi (AsiaNews) – More details are emerging about the violent attack perpetrated by Maoist rebels against a police post in Bijapur district in Chhatisgarh’s Bastar region in which 55 police officers were killed and another 11 injured. Increasingly it appears the action was not the work of a local group but of an organised force.
On the site of the attack rings of landmines left by the rebels made the rescue operation difficult; the wounded had to wait among the torn bodies of their colleagues killed by grenades.
The incident began around 2 am when some 400 rebels launched an attack against the fortified police post. After lighting the area with portable generator sets they lobbed grenades and set the place ablaze with petrol bombs against the 75 men. The ensuing gun battle lasted three hours, but “the policemen were forced to come out from the shelter after it caught fire, and were subsequently” shot, a police source said.
Of the 55 security men who died in the attack, 39 were ‘special police officers’ or SPOs, i.e. members of a civil militia called Salwa Judum launched a year and a half ago to fight the Maoists. This militia is constituted by tens of thousands of Tribals and is used mostly in the anti-Maoist campaign.
By the time reinforcements arrived, the Maoist rebels had melted into the deep jungles of Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, taking with them the camp’s weapons, after laying landmines around the camp.
Yesterday’s attack was the worst the rebels carried out in Chhattisgarh since the state was formed on November 1, 2000. Known as Naxalites, the rebels showed their capacity to field hundreds of fighters.
Several senior police officers suggested a total overhaul of the state government's policy for dealing with them.
“The Naxalites are not a local militia. They are working more on the line of a military wing of any well trained organisation. Keeping this in mind, police and the state government need to change their strategy,” one officer said.
The Chhattisgarh’s Chief Minister, Raman Singh, came under heavy criticism.
Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil pledged military reinforcements and greater means to counter such actions.
The Maoists, who have fought a 30-year insurgency, claim to be fighting for the rights of landless farmers and neglected tribes.
In these areas, government officials are so terrified that they don’t travel in government vehicles for fear of attacks and even the most heavily-armed cops hunker down in barricaded compounds after dusk.
The rebels have a strong presence in 8 of the state’s 16 districts and have become so powerful in some that they run their own parallel administrations and justice systems.
They target both police and those civilians they see as collaborators or helpers of the state.
The SPOs are largely drawn from local tribes who guide security personnel in the dense forest and help identify the guerrillas.
According to official reports, the Naxalites were involved in 1,187 violent incidents in the state over the past 22 months that left at least 676 people dead.
.png)
11/07/2016 16:06
