Naxalites active in an area

By IOL South Asia Correspondent

NEW DELHI, November 20 (IslamOnline) - Throwing a big challenge to the police and the state security apparatus, a Leftist extremist outfit called People’s War Group (PWG), in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, blew up Tummala Cheruvu railway station in Guntur district of the state in the early hours of Wednesday, November 20, with the help of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Guntur district is about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Andhra Pradesh state capital of Hyderabad in south India. PWG cadres are more commonly known as 'Naxalites' in view of their birth in Naxalbari area of West Bengal.

Their influence stretches from Andhra Pradesh in south India to Orissa, Bihar and West Bengal right up to the Nepalese borders. In large tracts it is the PWG which rules on the ground.

The blast was so intensive that the signaling and communication systems in the railway station were entirely shattered.

Before carrying out the operation, the extremists ordered all the staff and waiting passengers out of the area. No human casualties have yet been reported.

The state police said that a group of PWG extremists raided the railway station between Pudagurallu and Nadikudi section in the wee hours (about 2 am) and detonated IEDs causing a massive blast which destroyed the railway station almost completely. The railway traffic movement on Hyderabad-Guntur line has been diverted.

The extremists retaliated as they were protesting the recent Chendarajupalem encounter in which three of their cadres were gunned down.

During the last 48 hours, this is the third incident which the PWG extremists have successfully carried out.

On Monday night, November 18, a State Road Transport Corporation bus was blown up in Warangal district killing at least 20 people and injuring 16 others. The blast occurred in a remote area in a dense forest of the district.

According to reports, the bus was blown to smithereens after the PWG extremists used a remote control detonator near Chintagudam village in a forest area. The village, about 150 kms from Warangal town, is considered a stronghold of Naxalites.

Naxalite monument of its cadres killed in a police massacre

Gouthan Sawang, deputy inspector general of police, said that the injured have been shifted to a government hospital at Warangal, nearly 200 kms north of the state capital Hyderabad.

The victims were returning to Eturu Nagaram after attending a weekly village market in Tupakulagudem. Forty passengers were traveling on the bus when the landmine blast took place.

The incident has only come as a momentous tragedy since the PWG extremists thought that they were targeting the police, their arch foe, but the victims turned out to be the poor tribesmen, the rebels' traditional supporters.

In a similar incident, the same day in Guntur, PWG extremists blew up a district official's office at Karampudi, causing damage to the building and loss of computers and office records.

The extremists planned the landmine blast in retaliation for the killings of five PWG cadres who were killed after a fierce encounter with the police in a nearby Ilapur forest area last week.

People’ s War Group, which is popularly called Naxalites, is a leftist guerrilla outfit holding allegiance to the ideology of Mao Zedong, Communist China’s revolutionary leader.

For over two decades, the PWG has been carrying on a relentless campaign since 1981 against corrupt police and politicians. Mostly rich landowners and police are targeted by the Left extremists since they accuse them of colluding to exploit landless farmers and rural laborers.

Five southern states, as well as some states of northern and eastern India, have become the hub of PWG activities. So far, more than 10,000 people have been killed since the campaign began.

Several state governments have already banned the PWG. In the state of Andhra Pradesh where the outfit is more active, the ban has been in force since 1992 barring a year-long reprieve in 1995.

Meanwhile, in yet another development in the eastern state of Bihar, another leftist guerrilla outfit called the People’s Guerrilla Army (PGA), has warned the state police of dire consequences. In a recent e-mail message sent to a Patna-based newspaper, the Central Military Commission (CMC) of PGA has said that henceforth it will “attack the enemy” (read police). PGA is a military wing of the People’s War.

The e-mail has appealed to PGA “warriors” and asked them to “leave no opportunity to attack the enemy,” and “attack the enemy if he dares enter a guerrilla zone.” According to the message, the PW has built seven guerrilla zones in the country — in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and the Kaimur area of Bihar — and was in the process of forming guerrilla zones in Jharkhand and West Bengal.

“In guerrilla zones, we must rally people in a big way, and we must turn every village and forest area into a battlefield. We can utilize every opportunity to hit at the enemy only if we can depend on the people’s militia,” the message said.

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