Maoist violence, a big headache for Orissa

Orissa government offcials have expressed their helplessness in curtailing the increasing Maoist related violence over the past few years.

Bhubaneswar: Officials of the Orissa government have expressed their helplessness in curtailing the increasing Maoist related violence over the past few years, which has become a major cause of concern for the state government.

The deadly attack by the rebels on Sunday on a motor launch in the district of Malkangiri is the latest in a series of violent incidents that the state has witnessed during the past three years, government officials said on Wednesday.

The Communist Party of India (Maoist) has influence in at least eight of the state's 30 districts. They are Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Gajapati, Sambalpur, Deogarh, Sundargarh and Mayurbhanj, reports IANS.

Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) Jana Shakti, another left wing extremist outfit, has made its presence felt in the mineral rich tri-junction areas of three districts—Keonjhar, Jajpur and Dhenkanal.

Fifteen out of 30 revenue districts of the state have been affected by Naxalite violence to some degree, a state government release said.

In 2005, there were 37 incidents leading to 21 deaths that included six extremists. In 2006, there were 43 incidents leading to 28 deaths including 20 extremists, the release said.

In 2007, there were 52 incidents leading to 22 deaths including seven extremists. Till May this year, there have been 18 incidents leading to 26 deaths including seven extremists, the release said.

On Feb 15 this year, the rebels attacked Nayagarh district armoury and a police training school simultaneously with a degree of military precision unseen before, the officials said. As many as 14 people including 13 policemen lost their lives in this incident.

“Initially the rebels were not using modern weapons and we were able to track them because they were using mobiles,” Malkangiri District Magistrate Satish Gajbhiye said. The district is a Maoist stronghold area.

He added that now they have many deadly weapons which they have collected through looting of
police stations and government armouries, besides using a more advanced communication
network.

“They have modern weapons such as SLR guns, light machine guns (LMG) and AK47s. Besides
having few rocket grenade launchers, they are also using explosives, land mines and claymore mines,” he said.

The Naxalites also have under barrel grenade launchers (UBGLs) which we came to know during
an operation in the Goshma forest where they hid after launching an attack in Nayagarh.

“The rebels are now using high frequency wireless sets and have reduced their use of mobile phones. Besides they have created a network for transmitting their messages through their supporters and villagers,” Gajbhiye said.

“The Maoists claim they are fighting for the poor, deprived and neglected sections of society. They are carrying out attacks on landlords and contractors,” researcher Richard Mahapatra said.

Orissa was shocked when the rebels attacked a motor launch which was carrying policemen in the Balimela reservoir, some 700 km from here on Sunday.

The launch had about 66 people on board and it sank after the attack. Of them, 61 security
personnel were from Andhra Pradesh, two were Orissa police constables and three were employees of the vessel.

“Of them, only 29 people have been accounted for so far, including two boat employees and the two Orissa constables,” the state's Director General of Police Gopal Chandra Nanda said.

Others are still missing on Wednesday despite a search by over 1,000 security personnel.