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| India-Pakistan |
| Some element of failure in Naxal operations, admits Home Secretary |
| 2010-04-06 |
| NEW DELHI: The government today ruled out use of air power in the fight against Naxalites and admitted obviously some element of failure in the operations led to the killing of 75 security personnel in Chhattisgarh today. In a brief statement, the Home Secretary said that there were some element of failure in the operation. "Preliminary reports indicate that the CPI(Maoists) had planted pressure bombs in surrounding areas where the security forces might take cover. As a result of this bulk of the casualties have taken place," he said. Pillai said all the 82 personnel who had participated in the operation have been accounted for and none has been captured by the Maoists. Elaborating on goverment stategy to take on the Naxals, the home secretary said, "I don't think we need to use air power at the moment (in the anti-naxal operation). We can manage with what we have. Our strategy is unfolding and we should be able to manage without air power," Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai told reporters here. However, he made it clear that the air power will be used only for evacuation and for mobility of troops. Pillai called the Maoists "murderers" and said the government's resolve was strengthened and it would continue to tackle the Maoist menace as planned. The home secretary said the CRPF personnel returning to its base camp after two days of operations when the early hours of this morning it came under fire from hill features just about four kilometres from its base camp. "As of now 74 CRPF personnel, including a Deputy Commandant and an Assistant Commandant and a Head Constable of state police force have died. Seven injured have been brought to Jagdalpur," he said. He said those who have gone from the base camp -- to rescue the attacked team, also came under fire. "One of the helicopter which has been dispatched to bring in the injured personnel also came under fire from the Maoists," he added. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #2 Both. Sections of the media/intelligentsia romanticize the Maoists. Last week the author Arundhati Roy wrote a series of articles from one of their camps very sympathetic to their cause. The newspaper columnist Praful Bidwai has just said that dozens of tribals die every week so 70 policemen dead is no big thing. Photographs of the police patrols tell the sad story: pot-bellied cops with assault rifles wandering the forest. No bulletproof vests, no tactical radios, no backup of any kind. The Indian government will not send in the army or airforce. The last time IAF aircraft bombed Indians was during British rule. They will not use airpower or heavy artillery. KPS Gill (the badass Sikh policeman who crushed the Khalastanis) is very critical of the entire operation. They need someone like him in charge. Only local police, well trained and equipped, can deal with the maoists. Only they will have the local contacts and the sheer ruthlessness to eradicate the maoists and their aboveground supporters. Gill was a real SOB in his time. When the terrorists abducted the families of his men, the families of the Sikh terrorists disappeared. Only police can fight this sort of dirty war. |
| Posted by: john frum 2010-04-06 12:56 |
| #1 John, is this a failure of the Indian government / state governments to take the Maoists seriously enough, or a failure of strategy? |
| Posted by: Steve White 2010-04-06 12:25 |