Govt tries to crush rebels nearing capital

India is pouring thousands of paramilitary forces into its Maoist-infested heartland against an insurgency which has seen the rebels reach the outskirts of New Delhi.

With violence by the Naxalite rebels on the increase, the Government has resolved to take them on in their own territory in the hope of crushing an uprising which has the support of large numbers of its poorest citizens.

Government forces made the first forays in the offensive, dubbed Operation Green Hunt, on Saturday, but the rebels, forewarned by weeks of preparations, appeared to have dispersed into the forests.

An estimated 6000 people have died in the insurgency in the past 20 years, prompting India's Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to describe it as the gravest threat to India's internal security.

The Naxalites claim to be fighting for the poor, mainly tribal people against those seeking to deprive them of the land they rely on. Naxalites are believed to have a strong presence in at least 180 of India's 626 districts and are a major threat in the "Red Corridor", which runs through eight states from Bihar in the northeast down to Andhra Pradesh in the south.

Recently there has been an upsurge in violence, including attacks on school buildings. In some places lessons have continued, with children obliged to share their building with heavily armed men.

In the Naxalite stronghold of Bastar, in Chhattisgarh, an estimated 247 schools have been blown up.

Human rights groups have urged the rebels to abandon attacks on schools.

"The Maoists have been committing crimes that will hurt the people they claim to speak for," said Meenakshi Ganguly, from Human Rights Watch.

"Destroying infrastructure like roads, communication towers or school buildings might seem like an attack on the evil state, but for the villager, already denied most benefits of development, it means a longer time to get to crucial services."

In the past month more than 3000 members of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force have been moved from the state of Jammu and Kashmir to Chhattisgarh as the Government beefs up its forces.

The Naxalite problem has sparked intense debate within India in recent months with a tacit admission from the Government that the failure to protect the rights of tribal people has helped fuel the insurgency.

Singh has acknowledged the "systematic exploitation and social and economic abuse" in tribal areas.

"More could be done; more should be done," he said.

Last month a leaked security document revealed that the Naxalite presence now extends to the outskirts of New Delhi, with rebels in the city of Faridabad, 25km south of the capital.

Large swaths of the country are now no-go areas for the security forces.

Rahul Sharma, superintendent of police for Dantewada district, acknowledged that 40 per cent of his area was in Naxalite hands.

"It is a full-blown war and the Naxalites are migrating from guerrillas to a conventional army," he said.

Despite the seriousness of the threat, the Government has ruled out using the Army.

THE NAXALITES

Formed: 1967.
Beginnings: A network of extremist ideologues and youthful recruits in the village of Naxalbari outside Calcutta (Kolkata). Two of the main factions merged in 2004 to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
Reach: Now present in 20 of India's 28 states, concentrated in a so-called "Red Corridor" that runs through the dense, mineral-rich forest belt from the Nepal border to the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
Fighters: An estimated 10,000-20,000.
Violence: More than 2000 Indian security forces and civilians have died in communist rebel violence since 2005. Rebels have ambushed police, destroyed schools and abducted government officials. They blew up a key train track in Jharkand state on November 19. In October, they commandeered a New Delhi-bound express train in West Bengal for several hours and ambushed a police patrol elsewhere, killing at least 17 troops.

- OBSERVER