NAXALITES KILL OVER THIRTY POLICEMEN IN WESTERN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MUMBAI 000291

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PINS PTER ASEC IN PINR
SUBJECT: NAXALITES KILL OVER THIRTY POLICEMEN IN WESTERN
CHHATTISGARH

REF: A. NEW DELHI 1359

B. KOLKATA 162

C. KOLKATA 164

D. 08 KOLKATA 148


1. (U) Summary: On July 12, at least thirty state security
personnel were killed by suspected Maoist rebels in the central
Indian state of Chhattisgarh. The attacks, amongst the worst to
hit the insurgent-ridden state in years, occurred in three
stages over the course of the day in the rural Manpur-Mohalla
district, ninety kilometers west of the capital Raipur, and just
across the eastern border of neighboring Maharashtra. Included
in the causalities was the district Superintendent of Police
Vinod Kumar Choubey, the highest ranked officer killed in the
more than twenty years of violence in the state. Over the past
few months, India has witnessed a sharp increase in the number
and severity of Maoist attacks, with the state of West Bengal
having been especially hard hit. These repeated attacks are
leading political opponents and observers to question the
ability of state governments to competently tackle this
challenge. End Summary.




2. (U) According to Deputy Inspector General of Police Pavan
Deo, the police official in charge of the state's anti-Naxalite
(Maoist) operations, the attacks began when two Chhattisgarh
Special Armed Forces (SAF) personnel were gunned down outside
their rural police training camp near the village of Madanwada.
Upon hearing word of the attack, the district's Superintendent
of Police, Vinod Kumar Choubey, accompanied reinforcements to
investigate the incident. He and his men were hit by a
succession of landmine explosions when they arrived at the
scene, and were subsequently ambushed by nearly two hundred
well-armed insurgents. Twenty three security personnel were
killed in the ensuing fighting; an additional five who had been
dispatched earlier were later killed while trying to enter the
area through an alternative road. In all, at least 30 policemen
have been confirmed dead and more than ten have been
hospitalized. There is speculation that an additional thirteen
policemen are still unaccounted for, but police officials have
refused to confirm or deny the reports until rescue operations
are completed. The Central Reserve Police Force - a national
police force sent to Chhattisgarh specifically to combat the
Naxalite threat - has ordered six hundred of its security
forces, equipped with mine detection kits and rescue equipment,
to secure the area and pursue the assailants.




3. (U) According to security experts, the Maoist insurgency,
which grew out of a rural uprising in West Bengal in 1967, has
spread to more than half of India's 28 states. These rebels,
known as "Naxalites," operate across the "red corridor"
stretching from the Nepal border to West Bengal, and through
central India into the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. The
Government of India (GOI) estimates that there are up to 20,000
insurgents operating nationwide, in more than 180 of the
country's 611 districts. Chhattisgarh has been one of the
strongholds of the Maoist insurgency in the last two decades,
and this year has been a particularly bloody one in the state.
According to new sources, this week's attack brings the total
number of Maoist-inflicted deaths to over 150 in Chhattisgarh
alone since January. In June, eleven police officers were
killed in a similar attack in the Bastar region, and in April,
Naxalite forces planted a landmine near a polling station for
the national elections, killing five. In neighboring
Maharashtra, the increase in violence has been drastic. There
has been 54 Naxal-related deaths this year, compared to fourteen
in 2008. The most brazen attack of the year came on May 22,
when sixteen police officers, including five policewomen were
killed. As in Chhattisgarh the Naxalites ambushed a police
caravan that had been lured into the jungle to remove trees
blocking a major road.



4. (SBU) Comment: While the Indian security forces are
mindful of the threat presented by the Naxalite forces, this
type of ambush style attacks seems to be on the rise. Security
officials and political leaders in Chhattisgarh claim to be
changing tactics - including the use of police trained at the
state's counterinsurgency and jungle warfare school, but such
new tactics have yet to appear. The state governments of
Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh recently held a
strategy session to better coordinate a response to the
Naxalites, but insurgents are able to move relatively freely
throughout the sparsely populated - and sparsely governed - hill

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and forest regions that border these states, eluding such
efforts. The Maoists have repeatedly been able to ambush large
police forces, using the same tactics, provoking finger pointing
and accusations that the police - and the state governments that
direct them - are incompetent and ill-prepared to face this
challenge. End Comment.
FOLMSBEE