Friday, July 22, 2011

Maoists ‘looking to expand’ in North Chhattisgarh

RAIPUR, July 22, 2011.



Recent attacks lend credibility to the insurgents\' claims of expanding influence



On Wednesday, suspected cadres of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) detonated a powerful Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and killed four Congress party workers as Chhattisgarh State Congress president Nand Kumar Patel\'s road convoy whizzed past.



Police officers said that Maoist cadres subsequently surrounded a trailing vehicle in the convoy and injected the wounded with pain-killers when the guerrillas realised that they had attacked civilians as opposed to a police convoy. "By then they had already killed four people," said the Assistant Director General (ADG) of Police, Ram Niwas.



Sources confirm



The incident occurred about 170 km from State Capital Raipur and adds to a growing body of evidence that the guerrilla army is seeking to link isolated pockets of influence along the Chhattisgarh-Orissa border. Sources in the Chhattisgarh Police and the CPI (Maoist) confirmed that the rebels were exploring ways of expanding their area of influence.



A "Maoist corridor" along the Chhattisgarh-Orissa border could conceivably allow Maoist companies, based in strongholds in Chhattisgarh\'s southern districts of Dantewada and Bijapur, to gradually expand into the northern districts of Raigarh, Mahasamund and Surguja while bypassing well-policed central districts such as Raipur and Bilaspur.



Facilitating movementof cadres, weapons



To be sure, the two zones are separated by a distance of more than 700 km, but police sources said the corridor could facilitate the movement of cadres, weapons and supplies. In October last year, the Chhattisgarh Police killed six Maoists in Mahasamund in an operation. At the time, police sources said the fighters were part of a Maoist company sent all the way from Dandakaranya (South Chhattisgarh).



"We have heard of the linking-up project for some years now," said a senior police officer, drawing attention to an incident in May this year in which 9 police officers were killed in a Maoist ambush in the same broad area as Wednesday\'s attack. "They strike in Chhattisgarh and then retreat across the border into Orissa," the officer said.



IED explosion



In an interview, Mr. Ram Niwas said that Wednesday\'s IED explosion occurred about 45 km from the Orissa border and was probably conducted by members of a Maoist local guerrilla squad based in Gariyaband area of Raipur district. "These are thickly forested areas that lie contiguous to each other so you could say they are automatically linked up," he said.



Last month, a police patrol encountered a small party of Maoists in Raigarh district. While there were no casualties on either side, The Hindu reported police claims that Maoists had set up a Bargarh-Mahasamund Divisional Committee that straddled Orissa\'s Bargarh district and Chhattisgarh\'s Mahasamund district.



In a telephone conversation this month, a senior Maoist commander confirmed his party\'s interest in North Chhattisgarh. "Something is going on in Raigarh district," he said, asking not to be quoted as the Central Committee was yet to formally announce the creation of a new divisional committee.



Land dispossession



"We are looking to raise the issue of land [dispossession] in a big way," he said, suggesting that the party could expand its presence amongst peasants dispossessed by the rapid acquisition of land for coal mines and power plants in North Chhattisgarh. "We are trying our best, but I don\'t how successful," he said.



Maoist representatives have admitted that the guerrillas have been unable to establish Bastar-style operational zones in North Chhattisgarh. Police officers have attributed this to factionalism amongst members of the erstwhile Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) — a splinter movement based out of Bihar and Jharkhand. The current CPI (Maoist) was formed in 2004 when the MCC merged with the CPI (People\'s War) to form a unified Maoist party committed to overthrowing the Indian government.



Big gap, says Usendi



"We have a big gap in North Chhattisgarh," said Maoist spokesperson Gudsa Usendi in a recent interview, "We used to have a separate North Chhattisgarh committee but it was disbanded when we suffered heavy losses. We now have a Bihar-Jharkhand-North Chhattisgarh committee that looks after that area."



Mr. Usendi also confirmed the presence of Maoist reconnaissance squads in Raigarh, but declined to offer more specific information. "Right now, there are a number of different groups operating in the Raigarh-Mahasamund area," he said.



The guerrilla army is seeking to link isolated pockets of influence along the Chhattisgarh-Orissa border



Plan for a "Maoist corridor" along that border bypassing well-policed districts such as Raipur, Bilaspur


News From: http://www.7StarNews.com

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