Red terror cuts wide swathe

NEW DELHI/ VARANASI: The militants, who killed 17 Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) jawans in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, looted seven self-loading rifles and three AK-47 rifles, besides ammunition. State DGP V K B Nair rushed to the spot.

According to the IG, Varanasi zone, Dev Raj Nagar — who was camping in Naugarh area to monitor the combing operation — the incident took place around 7.30 am when the police party was on patrol.

Naxalites had placed the explosive under a culvert in the forest, about two km away from Chandraprabha dam. They set it off by remote control.

The explosion threw the police vehicle into the air and caused the culvert to cave in. The site of the explosion was littered with pieces of the vehicle.

The incident was viewed with concern in Delhi by home officials who said that the collaboration of the south-based PW and the MCC in the north have started paying dividends to the red ultras who have started consolidating and expanding the 'red corridor' from Nepal to Tamil Nadu.

The Centre appears bereft of a clear policy on how to deal with the naxalite problem affecting 11 states of the country and the Andhra government talking to armed naxalites has added to the drift.

These groups have been emboldened to extend their area of influence. Naxal groups which had struck roots in Bhojpur area of UP and Bihar, in part due to conditions of poverty and fuedal social systems, have further gained in strength.

After the merger the MCC has acquired better weapons and training from their PW comrades of the south. In return the PW gets the 'kattas' (local made arms and ammnunitions) manufactured by Naxalites in large quantities, a senior security official said.

He said the merged Naxalite groups have further enhanced their reach even beyond the porous borders of the country by linking with the communist extremists active in Nepal.

The three groups together had detonated a railway track in Bihar-UP border recently. They have spread their tentacles from Raxaul near Nepal border to Chapra, Champaran, Devaria and Gorakhpur not far from Varanasi.

The ambiguity of the authorities in this regard is evident from the fact that when home minister Shivraj Patil called for a special meeting to discuss the naxal problem, only chief ministers of Jharkhand, Andhra and Orissa attend it.

While We Were Sleeping - Some 31 personnel of the PAC Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) and from police posts in Chandoli and Mughalsarai were traveling in a convoy of two jeeps and a truck. The jeeps managed to pass the culvert, but as the truck crossed over, a landmine went off. However, none of the men died in the explosion. They were injured. The policemen in the jeeps fled in fear on seeing an estimated 50 to 150 Naxalites gunning for the survivors. The Naxalites then rounded up the wounded and killed each one by shooting them in the head.

Lethal combo, Maoist-Naxal nexus - NOVEMBER 20, 2004 - LUCKNOW: Recent intelligence reports of strong Maoist-Naxalite nexus has posed new threat to the internal security of India as a whole and that of five states— Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttaranchal, West Bengal and Sikkim—in particular. These states touch the Himalayan kingdom along a 1751 km border. The development means trouble in future and the Union government has taken a serious note of this, said Union minister of state for home Sri Prakash Jaiswal while talking to TOI on Friday night.

Central and state intelligence agencies have recently submitted reports on camps along the border to train suicide bombers and women, digging of trenches, procuring arms from People’s War Group (PWG) outfits in Andhra Pradesh and plundering of forest wealth from India. What had actually caught the attention of Delhi were reports suggesting ISI backing to Maoist through "friendly" business relations between the Habib Bank in Pakistan and Himlayan Bank in Nepal. Habib Bank is identified as a funding agency of the ISI.

Nepalese Army Clashes With Rebels in West; 26 People Are Killed - Nov. 22 - Nepal's army fought with rebels in the west of the Himalayan kingdom in a clash that killed at least 10 soldiers and 16 rebels, the military said.

At least 24 soldiers were wounded in the fighting that occurred yesterday at Panduan in the Kailali district, the unidentified military officials said, according to a report on the Nepalese government's Web site. The army said last week six soldiers were killed in a gun battle in Kailali.

The rebels, who follow the ideology of China's Mao Zedong, have been fighting to replace the monarchy with a communist republic since 1996. About 10,000 people have died in the conflict that has damaged Nepal's tourism-dependent economy.

Landmine blast kills five forest guards in Nepal - 23 Nov 2004 - Five forest guards were killed in Nepal when a landmine planted by Maoist guerrillas exploded under their jeep, police said on Tuesday, in new violence after 34 people died in clashes over the weekend.

A police spokesman told Reuters the guards died late on Monday in the Parsa Wildlife Reserve in Nepal's southern plains bordering India, some 150 km (94 miles) south of the capital Kathmandu.

"It was a massive explosion. They died instantly," he said.

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