Hours ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Kanker assembly constituency, where he held an election rally on Thursday, Naxals abducted and killed three villagers of Morkhandi, a small forested hamlet in the area, accusing them of being ‘police informers’. The killings are being seen as the first Naxal attack in the Maoist-affected Bastar region this election season.
Meanwhile, the central security forces accessed Naxal literature and their documents which suggest that the Reds are expanding their base in and around the tri-junction of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh — known as the MMC belt — on the south-western part of Chhattisgarh. They call the area their ‘Vistar’ region, News18 has learnt.
“This region includes Bijapur, parts of Sukma, Narayanpur, Kanker and parts of Rajnandgaon which still remain an almost ‘liberated zone’ for Naxals. It is like a restricted region where security forces are yet to have their presence. The parallel rule of Naxals which the villagers call Janatana Sarkar (people’s government) controls these areas. They are well-funded and have a good number of sophisticated arms and ammunition,” said a senior CRPF officer who serves in the Bastar region.
Launching attacks on villagers, politicians, polling officials and security forces before elections, issuing threats to election officials by asking them to not report to the polling booths and distributing posters with vote boycott calls have been part of Naxalite strategies for long.
Even though Naxal-affected regions, including parts of Bengal, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, have now been peaceful as the number of incidents have dropped, Chhattisgarh’s Bastar continues to remain in the Red zone. As the state election and Lok Sabha elections inch closer, the activities of Naxals in the region keep increasing.
The southern part of Chhattisgarh includes Bastar division which has seven districts and 12 assembly constituencies. These continue to be on the edge due to the sporadic incidents of Naxal violence, particularly before elections.
Vishwas, Vikas, Suraksha — Ways to Win Over Tribal Villagers
Speaking to News18, P Sundarraj, IG, Bastar Range, said: “The Naxals generally try to prove their pseudo strength by attacking unarmed civilians and politicians who are on their campaign trail or security forces before polls. But the number of incidents is going down compared to past years. We have taken a Vishwas, Vikas and Suraksha approach to convince villagers that the government is on their side. The Naxals try to spread fake propaganda like roads are being built to give access to industrialists who will apparently snatch the rights of tribals. But these are lies and the villagers have started realising that.”
For Vishwas, the security forces are holding several community programmes in the most interior areas of Bastar to “bridge the gap between villagers and police”, he said, adding,” For Vikas, the government has built 1900 kilometres of road network into the Naxal hotbed villages to have critical access and for Suraksha, we have set up 55 security camps and four new police stations to fill in the security vacuum in sensitive areas of Sukma, Dantewada, Bijapur and Narayanpur.”
These three things have worked as a “game-changer” as the villagers are slowly getting exposed to education, and amenities, added the Bastar IG.
In the past five years, incidents of major Naxal violence took place during the campaign of the 2018 assembly elections and 2019 general elections. Police and security personnel and a journalist of Doordarshan were killed in Naxal attacks in 2018 days before the polls, while the first BJP MLA of Dantewada was killed in a mine attack while campaigning before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The last Naxal attack took place in April in Bastar in which 10 security personnel were killed. Of the 10, five were Naxals who had surrendered and were absorbed in the security force. The number of incidents and the frequency of attacks are, however, on the wane.
Terrain, Villagers’ Support Work as ‘Catalyst’
Around 200 Naxals surrendered over the last five years and around 150 of them were absorbed in police forces. The government formed the Bastar Fighters and the CRPF formed Bastar battalion which have a good number of jawans who were Naxals earlier and surrendered arms later. Majority of the personnel are local boys and girls.
Bastar division has also seen 2,000 kilometres of new road access across the remote and interior forest areas and camps of security forces have also sprouted with time. However, among the villagers, the fear of ‘Janatana Sarkar’ remains.
A 20-year-old Naxal literature titled ‘Policy program of Janatana Sarkar’, which was seized by security forces during raids at one of the hideouts in Chhattisgarh, read: “The struggle of the revolutionary masses of DK (Dandakaranya) fighting for the past two and a half decades is inseparable from the Indian New Democratic Revolution. They are weakening and destroying the exploiting state power in the village (local) level and establishing New Democratic Revolutionary power in the form of Janatana sarkars. They are becoming more and more enlightened in the process of the People’s War under the leadership of the proletarian Party and are gaining experiences.”
It added: “They are organizing new power at the village level and are determined to form it at the area level. In the light of the theory of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, the CPI(ML)[PW] adopted the fundamental program of the New Democratic Revolution. Depending on this SZC (Special Zonal Committee) is adopting the common minimum program for the janathana sarkar (JS) keeping the specific social conditions and the level of movement in view.”
The document in local language was dated June 2004. However, the content is still relevant, said another senior police officer who has been part of Chhattisgarh’s anti-Naxal forces.
“Our DRG (District Reserve Guard) is successful in carrying out several anti-Naxal operations. The DRG primarily consists of local villagers whom we trained and the Naxals who surrendered to us. They have knowledge of the terrain as the topography of these areas always favours them but seems to be a stumbling block for us,” said the officer.
Threats, Hit-lists Commonplace in Bastar
Threats through posters and letters are commonplace in Bastar region. The villagers often act as couriers while, at times, the Naxal groups drop hints and warnings on their own.
The candidates across parties who are fighting elections are always on the ‘hit list’, said Chaitram Attami, BJP’s Dantewada pick. “We live in villages and we are always on the hit-list. During elections, the areas become even more sensitive and attack-prone as the Naxals always call for poll boycott. We have our security with us but landmines (IED) are the most dangerous weapon here. However, we cannot sit idle at home so we go out every day and campaign,” said Attami who has been a leader of Salwa Judum, an armed militia built to resist the Naxals in 2005.
A senior officer in the chief minister’s office said, “The number of Naxal-related incidents have dropped. The government’s policies are focused on building confidence among villagers. The anti-Naxal unit gets inputs from local sources. Earlier, there was an information and Intelligence blockade. The situation has eased now. With the government’s pro-tribal policies, the villagers too now stand up against the Naxals.”