Chhattisgarh Naxal attack exposes govt, security and intelligence

by Parivesh Mishra The Naxal attack on a Congress rally that killed 21 people, has effectively punctured the myth that in the jungles of Southern Chhattisgarh the state government is engaged in a keen battle with the Maoists. The truth is the government is not present in Bastar. Nor is the state. The area except the district headquarters and the national highway has been abandoned. If an incident takes place towards the evening, no rescue team can be expected to leave their well guarded camps before the next daybreak as no force moves out at night. And they move only on foot. This is done under the “official policy”. [caption id=“attachment_816313” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI[/caption] This situation turned fatal for Congress leaders when the will to provide security also became doubtful. The attack also puts question marks on the elaborate sophisticated and costly intelligence and security set up that the police has acquired and put in place over the years. Besides helicopters, it includes a drone. The Additional Director General Police in charge of intelligence had no answer as to why the ambush party of 500 plus armed men could not be detected in time. Even worse is the fact that this sort of assembly was not even foreseen in spite of reports that the Maoists had met ten days back before deciding to attack the leaders during the yatra. The area has seen a large Army and Air Force presence over the years. The Army’s central command has been sending troops for training in this area (and perhaps to scare away the Maoists). Every major attack on the forces and every meeting of the state government with the centre has seen a massive infusion of aid to the existing fighting capability on the ground. Yet, when the congress leader VC Shukla (and many others) fell on the road after being hit by bullets, he was lying on the road for over two hours losing blood. The media was the first to reach and help him. It was turning dark and no security was able to reach the spot till then. Mahendra Karma, former leader of the opposition and founder of the controversial Salwa Judum militia, was always on the hit list of the Maoists. Karma who started his career as a communist leader,  was a member of lok sabha in 1990s, had escaped four earlier attempts at his life. In the meantime over a dozen of his family members were killed. A third attempt on his life was made in November last year when his team was ambushed at four kilometers from Dantewada. Karma was in the fourth car of the motorcade. The front portion of the car including the engine was blown off but Karma had escaped serious injuries. Congress state leader Nand Kumar Patel who was also killed in the attack had a history of being a target as well. As the home minster of the state his helicopter was fired on during Congress rule. In July 2011 his motorcade was ambushed in Gariaband district when the congress leaders were returning after a party function. The mines killed one party worker and injured some others, but senior leaders including Patel had escaped.  Nand Kumar Patel was on the hit list of the Maoists due to his stint as home minister in Ajit Jogi’s first government. Uday Mudliyar, the ex-MLA from Rajnandgaon comes from a district which has been infested with the Maoists. His threat profile should have alerted the police too. That these leaders are a part of the yatra was well publicized information. The route also had been never a secret. The police neither thought it fit to advise precautions to the travelers nor made efforts to provide security. Except for Karma who had bene provided Z category security with a well armed team of four gunmen, other leaders like Nand Kumar Patel and BC Shukla just had PSOs armed with revolvers. When the cars were showered with bullets, these revolvers yielding PSO proved to be of no help.