Maoist violence dips this year

Maoist violence has shown a decline this year with the country recording 552 incidents in which 192 people, including 59 security personnel, were killed till June 15. During the corresponding period last year, 811 incidents of Maoist violence and 231 killings were reported, including 79 of securitymen.

Since 2008, a total of 3,852 people were killed in 9,789 incidents of Maoist violence across the country.

The attacks on economic targets like rail, pipelines, roads and telephone towers also showed a decline this year with the Maoist-infested states witnessing 106 such incidents as against 146 during same period last year. The Home Ministry statistics also showed that there was a decrease in the number of arrests of Maoists from 838 last year till mid-June to 676 this year. The surrendered Maoists this year accounted for 139 as against 191 last year.

This year, the bulk of naxal incidents and killings took place in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh as in previous years. Till June 15 this year, 188 incidents and 76 killings were reported in Jharkhand as against 278 and 90 last year during the same period.

Chhattisgarh, which witnessed a dastardly attack on a political convoy killing over 25 people, including top state Congress leaders on May 25, recorded 173 incidents (197 last year) and 69 killings (60) till June 15. “We lost more than 25 politicians to local brand of terrorism in May. We have to be on the ground and there is no alternative. One has to note that whenever naxals want to do something spectacular, they precede it by a bandh so that they can dig the road and plant explosive devices. “If we are not seeing this pattern, we are not wise enough to understand them. If they plant the device during the bandh, we can remove it after the bandh when we get access, we should go and disarm them,” Chhattisgarh Governor Shekhar Dutt said at a seminar on Homeland Security in Delhi on Tuesday.

According to official statistics, out of the 133 civilians killed, 58 were police informers. The figures for the past six years show that 1,114 police informers out of 2,704 civilians were killed in Maoist violence.  There were 65 attacks on police, including landmine, this year as against a total of 75 last year. Fourty-nine naxals were killed in encounters this year, which includes a total of 813 in the past six years.

Following the May 25 naxal ambush in Chhattisgarh, Home Ministry has issued a new set of guidelines making it mandatory for Road Opening Parties to carry binoculars during sanitisation exercise ahead of VIP travel in Maoist-hit areas.

States    No of incidents

Jharkhand             188 (278)*
Chhattisgarh         173 (197)
Bihar                            98 (100)
Odisha                        38 (105)
Maharashtra           36 (73)
Andhra Pradesh    14 (39)
Madhya Pradesh      1 (8)
West Bengal                1 (5)
Uttar Pradesh             0 (1)
Others                            3 (5)

*Figures in bracket are for 2012