MAOIST GROUPS STEP UP VIOLENCE IN EASTERN INDIA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KOLKATA 000162

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA/INS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PTER PGOV IN
SUBJECT: MAOIST GROUPS STEP UP VIOLENCE IN EASTERN INDIA

KOLKATA 00000162 001.2 OF 002



1. (SBU) Summary: Over the past two weeks, there have been
daily attacks on police and political party leaders in the
Western part of West Bengal, primarily in and around the town of
Lalgarh. Leaders of these attacks appear to be members of the
Communist Party of India - Maoist (hereinafter referred to as
Maoists, otherwise known as Naxalites),but local villagers are
also involved. Maoists have also increased attacks on police
personnel in the adjoining state of Jharkhand. In addition to
an increase in attacks, Maoists have stepped up their public
presence by conducting press conferences and public rallies.
The Government of West Bengal appears to be paralyzed and unable
to effectively counter the Maoist attacks. The West Bengal
Police and Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) started
operations in Lalgarh on June 18. Maoists have called for a two
day strike in West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and Andhra
Pradesh to protest the police action. End summary.

Maoists Increase Violence and Public Outreach


2. (SBU) In the past two weeks, Maoists have significantly
increased public activities and violent attacks in the East
Indian states of Jharkhand and West Bengal. On May 31, Maoists
organized their first public rally since 2004 in the town of
Banspahari, located in the West Midnapur district of West
Bengal. According to media reports, around 300 Maoists wearing
olive green fatigues and carrying guns and automatic rifles
gathered in Banspahari and moved through the tribal settlements
of Belpahari, Shilda, Binpur (in West Bengal) and Chakulia (in
neighboring Jharkhand state) and returned to Banspahari,
covering a distance of 40 KM. According to media contacts on
the site, the police and the district administration did not
enforce the law that bans carrying of lethal arms in public.


3. (SBU) On the same day, contacts report that Maoists held
another rally at in Lalgarh in West Midnapur district. which is
about 250 KM west of Kolkata. According to post contacts,
between 6,000 and 10,000 people attended the event, which was
reportedly organized by Sashadhar Mahato, a Maoist "squadron
leader." A man known as Bikash reportedly addressed the rally.
Bikash is rumored to be the head of the Maoist zonal committee,
covering the West Bengal districts of Purulia, Bankura and West
Midnapur.


4. (SBU) Media reported that on the night of June 13, ten
people died in a gun battle between the Communist Party of India
- Marxist (CPI-M) and Maoist supporters in Dharampur village in
West Midnapur. Dharmapur is 11 KM west of Lalgarh. CPI-M zonal
committee secretary Anuj Pandey told the media that three of the
dead were CPM workers and that nine others are missing.
According to a journalist in Lalgarh, about 300 West Bengal and
CRPF personnel living in camps in and around Lalgarh did not
intervene and withdrew from their camps. According to West
Bengal Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia,
the police were withdrawn from the camps because they were
unable to procure supplies locally because villagers were
refusing to sell provisions to the police.


5. (SBU) On June 15, after villagers from Lalgarh demolished a
CPI-M leader's residence and attacked deserted police camps,
both the print and electronic media showed Bikash, without his
face being shown, holding a press conference with an automatic
rifle slung across his shoulder, claiming complete political
domination over Lalgarh and its adjoining areas. Bikash also
reportedly claimed that his party was supporting local tribals
who had so far formally denied their Maoist links.


6. (SBU) Jharkhand's Home Secretary, J.B. Tubid, told PolFSN
that on June 10, Maoists killed 11 security personnel in a
landmine blast near Chaibasa in West Singbhum district in
Southern Jharkhand. The policemen were returning after raiding
a village. Journalists told PolFSN that on June 12, Maoists
killed nine policemen and injured 10 others during an attack on
a bank and a subsequent landmine blast in Bokaro, in Central
Jharkhand. Contacts said that on June 16, Maoists ambushed and
killed four policemen in Palamau district in Western Jharkhand.
Six policemen were injured in the gun battle. The policemen
came under attack while they were patrolling the hilly terrain.


7. (SBU) Kanojia told PolFSN that Lalgarh is now under Maoist
control and they are attempting to prevent the Maoists from
expanding beyond Lalgarh. He said police action in Lalgarh and
its surrounding areas will be a disaster since the Maoists are
using villagers as human shields. He said there are a large
number of women and even children who are confronting the
police. Kishan-ji (aka Koteswar Rao) a senior Maoist leader,
gave a telephone interview to local Bengali media outlets on
June 18, claiming that they have never used children and women

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as human shields, and never will. He said that women have
joined the movement in huge numbers and will remain.

Government Response


8. (SBU) According to Kanojia, the GOWB is divided about how to
respond to the Maoist activities in West Bengal. The consensus
among post contacts is that the near-collapse of
CPI-M-controlled administrative machinery after the recent
general elections has emboldened CPI-M's detractors to show open
defiance. In Lalgarh, this show of defiance and acts of
violence against anything CPI-M is hampering the state's
capacity to respond. At the administrative level, the state
police and district administration are unwilling to meet the
challenge as the police do not want to risk the collateral
damage and the administration has lost the people's support.


9. (SBU) Most contacts in Jharkhand believe that the state
administration has also become too weak and corrupt to take on
the Maoists. Analyst and editor of daily Prabhat Khabar
newspaper Mr. Harivansh (please protect) told PolFSN that the
law and order situation in Jharkhand has become worse under
President's Rule, which was imposed in January 2009. In
discussions with PolFSN, J.B. Tubid continues to claim that he
has adequate resources to combat the Maoists.


10. (SBU) According to Kanojia, the central government has sent
an additional five companies (numbering about 3,000 personnel)
of CRPF to join West Bengal's local police and existing CRPF
personnel (six companies) in and around Lalgarh. This doubles
the number of CRPF deployed in the three districts of Bankura,
Purulia and West Midnapur. These additional forces first
engaged Maoists in Lalgarh on June 18. Contacts confirm that
CRPF are also deployed in Jharkhand. It appears from media
reports and conversations with police officials that that
central and state security agencies are working closely
together. The Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram stated in news
interviews that the GOWB must take the lead in any police
action.

Comment


11. (SBU) While Maoists have conducted attacks on police in
Jharkhand on a weekly basis for the past several years, the
recent uptick in Maoist violence in West Bengal is unusual. The
CPI-M led GOWB has been paralyzed since the Tatas withdrew its
small car factory from Singur in October 2008 and are even more
so after their poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections.
Indian National Congress (INC) politicians are questioning
whether the CPI-M can effectively run the GOWB until 2011 when
state assembly elections are to be held, and are asking publicly
whether the current government should step down. All India
Trinamool Congress (AITC),however, is staying quiet, letting
the INC take the lead in public criticism of CPI-M.
Chidambaram's insistence that the GOWB lead any police action in
Lalgarh forces the CPI-M to either admit that they cannot
control the Maoists or take forceful action that could result in
significant casualties. In either case, IATC and INC would
benefit politically. The opposition may be using this latest
outbreak of Maoist violence to force the CPI-M to step down,
resulting in early state assembly elections. This would benefit
AITC since it would give less time for its emotional and erratic
leader Mamata Banerjee to make a major blunder (something for
which she is famous) and would allow the party to take advantage
of the current anti-CPI-M wave in the state. While post has not
seen any evidence of AITC/Maoist cooperation, the possibility of
tacit support for each other cannot be ruled out.
PAYNE