MAOISTS IN ORISSA AMBUSH COUNTER INSURGENCY UNIT AND

UNCLAS KOLKATA 000193 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PTER MARR KCRM SOCI PGOV ASEC IN SUBJECT: MAOISTS IN ORISSA AMBUSH COUNTER INSURGENCY UNIT AND BELIEVED TO HAVE KILLED 39 PARAMILITARY POLICE ¶1. (SBU) Summary: On Sunday June 29, 36 commandos from Andhra Pradesh's elite counter-insurgency Greyhound force were missing after Maoist rebels ambushed a boat carrying the group on the Balimela reservoir in Orissa's remote Malkangiri district. Also missing were three Orissa police escorts. Although the Orissa administration has not pronounced them dead officially, the Orissa Home Secretary told post that all the 39 were presumed dead. Twenty-six Greyhound men escaped the ambush and swam two miles before being rescued. Loss of 36 highly-trained commandos is a setback for the efforts to fight against the Maoist insurgency in eastern India. End Summary. ¶2. (U) The June 29 Maoist ambush on the Greyhound unit took place at around 10:30 in the morning on the Balimela reservoir in Orissa's Malkangiri district. The virtually inaccessible terrain - known as the "Cut-off Point" - is about 450 miles Southwest of Orissa's capital Bhubaneswar. A 60-member Greyhound company, along with a team of Orissa's Special Operations Group (SOG) had gone to a village called Patparmetla, located about 50 miles from the district headquarters town of Malkangiri, to conduct patrolling operations against Maoist rebels. After the exercise, the SOG group started back towards Bhubaneswar by road. ¶3. (SBU) The Greyhound group took a boat and was heading towards Andhra Pradesh, moving along the Balimela reservoir. On the way, the boat had to pass through a narrow gap with hills on either side. As it was passing through this narrow point, the boat came under heavy gunfire from automatic weapons. Grenades were also lobbed at the group. The Greyhound forces retaliated. Unconfirmed reports from Bhubaneswar indicated the boat capsized after it was hit by rockets fired from rocket-launchers. Orissa Home Secretary Tarun Kanti Mishra told post that there was no use of rockets but that there was heavy automatic gunfire. The boat capsized in water depths of about 100 ft. ¶4. (SBU) Contacts raised questions to Post as to how such a trained counter-insurgency group could be trapped in an ambush. Apparently, the group had gone into a cluster of villages which the Maoist rebels had declared a "liberated zone." Prior to the operation, no helicopter was deployed, the area was not sanitized and the group had no local guide to escort it out of the Cut-off area. Orissa's Malkangiri district is a tri-junction with Chhattisgarh in the West and Andhra Pradesh in the South - all known Maoist strongholds. ¶5. (SBU) The rugged terrain makes the Balimela reservoir a difficult area to access. Contacts in Bhubaneswar said that the Greyhound group was desperate to get back to their base as they had run out of food and water and could not source supplies locally as the locals were sympathetic to the Maoists. Contacts, quoting private conversations with Orissa Police officials, said that the Maoists intercepted the Greyhound group's radio conversation about the group's movement, bearings and lack of food and water as the personnel continued to talk over unsecure frequencies. ¶6. (SBU) COMMENT: The loss of counter-insurgency personnel will be a setback for Orissa and Andhra Pradesh's efforts against the Maoists. While the Orissa Police and the state administration are tightlipped about the circumstances of the massacre, the Balimela ambush clearly shows that the rebels have the capacity to effectively integrate local intelligence and firepower to destroy in a single engagement a sizeable security unit. JARDINE