India: More Guerrilla Actions in several Territories
Featured: Maps of the States that form the Indian State. Source: Maximilian Dörrbecker (Chumwa).
In this last week new actions of the Maoist guerrillas in India have been known. There have been several injured members of the repressive forces of the Indian State. These actions are in the framework of the People’s War led by the Communist Party of India (Maoist) (CPI (Maoist)). We have previously reported on other actions.
The first of these actions occurred on Tuesday 12th of September in the West Singhbhum district, State of Jharkhand. On the afternoon an improvised explosive device [IED] exploded near a paramilitary camp of the Indian State. The Maoist guerrillas placed the explosive very close to the barracks without being seen, in the agricultural fields of the camp. They achieved to sabotage the agricultural production of the camp because they caused serious damage to a tractor and destroyed much of the harvest. Local media themselves mention that there has been a great police and paramilitary deployment in the area, but this has not prevented the guerrillas from being very active and generating numerous problems to the Indian State.
The next action took place on Wednesday 20th of September in the Sukma district, in the State of Chhattisgarh, where another IED exploded injuring a paramilitary of the Indian State. It happened when a paramilitary battalion went out to initiate a search mission. The explosion took place in an area that local media describe as “strategically important”: the road between Aranpur (Dantewada) and Jagugunda (Sukma). In this area there is a great guerrilla presence. Proof of this is, as we already reported, that in Dantewada the greatest guerrilla action in the last two years took place when a great explosive blow eliminated 11 soldiers from the Indian State. The last action took place on Friday, 22nd of September in the district of Bijapur, also in Chhattisgarh. An IED exploded and injured another paramilitary when he was coming back from a search operation.
The CPI (Maoist) has also denounced the abuse suffered by the people due to the mining projects in the district of Gadchiroli, State of Maharashtra, on Tuesday 19th of September. It has denounced this through pamphlets that have been distributed, pointing at a Minister from Maharashtra as a direct responsible. The complicity of his family has also been denounced, because they are payed by the large mining companies operating in the area, such as Lloyd Metal and Energy Ltd. These companies are carrying out several metallurgical mining projects in the area. Additionally, these companies now want to establish a large steel industrial plant. The Maoists denounce that these projects only are useful to exploit the inhabitants of the area, create great pollution and destroy the nature and the environment.
On Monday 11th of September there was a protest in the Sukma district, in Chhattisgarh with dozens of inhabitants protesting against a fake encounter that ended with the death of two of their neighbors. In these fake encounters, the repressive forces of the Indian State kidnap residents of a village, accuse them of being Maoist or collaborating with Maoists, and execute them. After doing this, the Indian State agents report to the local newspapers that they have eliminated several guerrillas in a new gunfight or confrontation with Maoists. The Indian State uses these fake encounters to apply white terror policies on peoples such as Adivasi or on peasants and workers of areas that support Maoists. The Indian State also uses these fake encounters to improve their statistics and create the image that repression against the People’s War is working well. These fake encounters have been widely denounced by those who struggle against the Indian State’s repression and its forces. The CPI (Maoist) itself has declared that at least a third of the alleged casualties of Maoist guerrillas announced by the Indian State are false. These casualties would be actually due to diseases, old age and fake encounters such as the one mentioned before.
