Maoist rebels kill 53 police in Central India

Here's the link

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070315...s_070315141315

Bad news.

I must travel to Chhattisgarh on my next journey to India, in fact I want to stay in the tribal areas not less than ten or twelve days moving around ????

Jorge

There was huge uproar from all tom dick and Harry party and various social activist over the death of 15 people in police firing in Nandigram. Surprisingly there is hardly any reaction over the killing of 50 policemen in Dantewara in Naxal attack. Demographic profile (note: central minority commission is sending a team there) of those killed in Nandigram is very lucrative for our politicians. I guess its ok with them for 50 policemen to die. It’s interesting to see Medha phatkar in Calcutta. I guess she is suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder to oppose development anywhere.

Is very difficult to understand from Europe how it works in India when you talk about politicians and how they play politics, is another way and another world, probably better.

The fact in this case is that since last month is the third terrorist attack in Chhattisgarh and not far from the area I want to visit more or less around Jagdalpur (Bastar district).

Jorge

Dr Barai... which, anywhere in the world, is likely to be the more newsworthy...

1. Armed insurgents kill policemen. Sad, indefensible, but that is what they do.

2. Police kill citizens who are demonstrating against the government taking their land to have a factory built on it.

If I was a newspaper editor with any sense of social concience whatsoever, and I had to take the decision which of those two to give the biggest headline, I'm afraid No.2 would get my vote every time.

But the either/or question does not really apply: they have, contrary to the impression you give, both been front-page news.

Just back from a 4 day drive through Maoist territory of Chattisgarh along with fellow Imers RoopeshKohad and PVS_Praveen. We had absolutely no problem with maoists. The cops were all from special branch...no police stations...just stockades and barracks with sandbags, three layered wire fencing and plenty of guards in watchtowers with sub machine guns.

We were stopped and searched many times. The cops manning the road check points were all very young and almost illiterate -Salwa Judum is in full force. Salwa Judum is a government program (somewhat criticized) of arming local youth to resist Maoist influence. It means "defensive war" in the local language.

Villages en route were small, poor and cheerful. Most of the occupants seem to be the special forces. But quite a few villages had construction activity in full swing. Lot of signposts exhorting the locals to resist Maoists, to conserve the forests, to go to school etc. Lot of schools too.

More in the Chattisgarh sub-forum

Note to moderators: Please separate Chattisgarh from Madhya Pradesh and provide it with its own sub forum. Chattisgarh is a fantastic off beat destination waiting to be discovered and I have collected a lot of info.

For all the information I've got, it seems that this "Salwa Judum" people with gun machines in their hands are even more dangerous than the Naxalites. What do you think???


Jorge

It is very hard to gauge the dynamics of a movement (Naxal Vs. Salwa Judum) in such a small trip that too for one which is highly unreported in mainstream media. Still, whatever literature I read and whatever we saw and experienced, it seems Salwa-Judum is not very effective and it has been created more for brownie points and washing one's hand from involvement by pitting one section of locals against the other one by politicians. They have armed young men probably teenager or in early twenties who don't have any employment who now want to throw their weight around. There is lot of propoganda slogans around like "Salwa Judum Jindabad" (Long live Salwa Judum) and few others. A movement really interested in bringing a change would not indulge in such practice. Locals have been put into militia camps, guarded by police-SJ combine. I would put it this way - Naxals threaten your life, Salwa Judum probably your freedom.

They seem to be less experienced than the Greyhounds of the neighboring Andhra Pradesh. We encountered one set of greyhounds at Khammam on our way to Bhadrachalam at night. I thought they were more intimidating in the way they checked us out. But they were strictly business-like and let us off immediately once we showed some identity and allowed them to go through our luggage and the boot of the car. In comparision, the Chattisgarh armed corps were less cautious, less alert and more of a nuisance!

roopesh_kohad, rangss,

Thans for the info and congratulations for the pictures.

Jorge