Red Heat

In their most decisive campaign yet, Naxalites are preparing to unleash a new wave of terror by targeting political leaders and disrupting elections. S S Jeevan reports

Somewhere deep inside the forests of Dandakaranya in Andhra Pradesh, top leaders of the dreaded People’s War Group (PWG) met in mid-December last year. This was the time when news of early Lok Sabha elections was making the rounds and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had almost decided to cash in on the attempt on his life. The meeting was urgently convened to counter the Andhra government’s intense combat operations as well as the Union government’s strong support to Orissa in curbing Naxalites. But what ultimately emerged out of the discussions took even many veteran comrades by surprise.

In its latest strategy to “annihilate the class enemies”, the top leadership decided to selectively target the TDP-BJP and spare the Congress. They renewed their fatwas on political leaders like Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and Naidu and vowed to actively prevent candidates from contesting. Possibilities of blowing up government buildings also came up for discussion. The leaders then took stock of their growing areas of influence outside Andhra, making crucial changes in their power structure wherever necessary. They also unanimously decided to support the separate state of Telengana. A new wave of terror was being meticulously planned.

Intelligence officials are taking no chances with this latest development. Recently, Naxals shot dead several activists of the TDP, including P Shankar Reddy in Medak just two days after he returned from the United States. Between 1999 and 2002, Naxals killed as many as 74 political functionaries, including 43 belonging to the TDP. In the same period, 122 policemen lost their lives, mostly in landmine blasts. Naidu is believed to be on the PWG hit list ever since the state police killed three of its leaders including Nala Adi Reddy in an encounter in Karimnagar district in December 1999.

Intelligence failure
Officials in Andhra Pradesh are gearing up to thwart the PWG’s latest threats, but the problems they face are too many. The ban on the PWG exists only in Andhra Pradesh but not in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa where Naxals are active. Naxals often slip into neighbouring states after committing a crime. In some cases, Andhra has taken the extreme step of getting clearance of the Chhattisgarh and Orissa governments to send the Andhra police to chase militants across the border.

The creation of the Special Security Force (SSF), known as the Greyhounds, has helped the state to take on the militants to some extent. But Naxals have always been a few steps ahead of the police. In the case of the attack on Naidu on the way to Tirupati, police had failed to detect a well laid-out trap, which would have involved considerable digging by the side of the road. What is disturbing is that the spot is barely a kilometre from the Alipiri gate police station and on a road where some 30,000 pilgrims pass by every day. Analysts say that the police machinery has been unable to infiltrate the PWG cadre. It has little grassroots intelligence and banks heavily on a poor network of informers, often fixing responsibility on them after the attacks. Efforts to share and exchange information among the Naxalite-infested states have also come a cropper. Though police chiefs of these states meet occasionally, they have made little headway in devising a long-term strategy.

A recent confidential note from the home department reveals how intelligence bodies were focussing excessively on ruling party (TDP) requirements and that most documentation done by the intelligence had little or no analytical content. Some ruling party legislators concede privately that the intelligence machinery in the state is used to keep a watch on them rather than the militants. Worse still, the recent spate of attacks targeting the industry is becoming an embarrassment for Naidu, and a disincentive for investments in the state. In the recent past, Naxalites have attacked several businesses including blasting a Coca Cola bottling plant in Guntur and a milk foods factory owned by Naidu in Chittoor district. Naxals also blew up two export-oriented units in Medak district not far from Hyderabad and destroyed an instant coffee powder processing plant of Tata Coffee in Toopran. This has forced many companies in the state to review their own security in the state.

Rich harvest
But Andhra isn’t the only state bearing the brunt of Naxal violence.. Starting from a small village in West Bengal 35 years ago, the Naxals today control an area two and a half times that of Bangladesh. While the PWG was always active in Andhra, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Orissa, its recent inroads in the south is worrying security forces. Their pockets of influence has spread to Shimoga, Kodagu, Hassan, Chikmagalur in Karnataka and Erode, Namakkal, Sivaganga, Madurai, Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu. The outfit also has significant presence in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. According to intelligence reports, their counterpart in Bihar — the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) — has helped them form a “revolutionary corridor” that stretches across the border into Nepal. Reports also reveal that MCC and PWG have established links with the LTTE and Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence to receive arms and training. Gone are the days of crude bombs and country-made pistols, Naxals are said to be now operating with sophisticated weapons like AK 47s and AK 57s, besides being proficient in landmine operations. Despite security forces mounting an offensive over the years, PWG cadres have continued to swell. The outfit primarily relies on a large reservoir of school dropouts of the poorer families in villages and small towns. It has capitalised on the disadvantaged communities in rural areas who are yet to be touched by development machinery. It also banks on its vast network of sympathisers who act as recruiting agents.

For instance, in Jharkhand, the police stumbled on a unique recruitment drive in the Parasnath Hill range of Dhanbad district. Here the MCC was forcing tribal parents to send at least two of their children to makeshift schools where they are taught to use guns. Reports also suggest that for the first time the MCC has recruited, apart from poor Dalit and tribal youth, young girls who are fully trained to use sophisticated arms. “It is a long-term plan that seems to be working,” admits a senior police official. The Central government, meanwhile, has a counter plan. The Planning Commission is busy evaluating its Rs 1,980 crore Rashtriya Samvikas Yojana, a 100 percent Centrally-funded programme, for 132 backward and extremist-affected districts (read Naxalite-affected). The programme aims to focus on agricultural growth, better forest management and to create employment. The urgency stems from intelligence reports pouring in from the home ministry that Naxalites were getting ready to disrupt elections in Andhra, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Orissa — states where the NDA prospects are brightening. The Commission has also issued full-page ads in national newspapers to showcase its seriousness in curbing Naxalite activities. How determined the government is, will be known only if the elections in these states are not scarred by Naxalite violence.

New Indian Express, February 29, 2004