Statement on Ranibodli counteroffensive operation

Communist Party of India (Maoist)

Central Committee

March 16, 2007

PLGA's heroic tactical counteroffensive in Chattisgarh is a fitting answer to the brutal state-sponsored terrorist salwa judum campaign!

Revolutionary violence by the oppressed is the only means to defeat the counter-revolutionary violence of the ruling classes!!

The daring tactical counteroffensive operation carried out by the PLGA led by our Party, the CPI(Maoist), on March 16 on a police base camp in Ranibodli in Bijapur district in Chattisgarh in which 55 policemen including 39 Special Police Officers (SPOs) were wiped out is an inevitable consequence of the brutal reign of terror unleashed by the state and central governments in the name of salwa judum. For almost two years since June 2005, the BJP government in Chattisgarh and the Congress-led UPA government in the Centre had sponsored a counterrevolutionary terrorist campaign of mass murder, torture, and arrests of thousands of the adivasi peasantry, gangrapes and murder of hundreds of women, destruction of thousands of houses, foodgrains, and all property of the adivasis, killing or taking away thousands of cattle, forceful evacuation of tens of thousands of people from almost eight hundred villages and issuing threats and intimidation to anyone suspected of being a member of revolutionary mass organization or sympathetic to the Maoists in Dandakaranya, particularly in Dantewara, Bastar, Kanker, Bijapur and Narayanpur districts. Over 5000 youth were inducted into a state mercenary armed force, paid monthly salaries, and pitted against the native adivasis who are fighting for land, livelihood and liberation under the leadership of the CPI(Maoist).

The police, who are scared to fight the Maoists by themselves, use this local mercenary armed force as cannon fodder in the fight against the Maoist movement. The Naga and Mizo Battalions were specially brought in along with a huge CRPF and other special police forces to Chattisgarh who had been committing the most barbaric and inhuman acts against the adivasi population. Over 800 villages were razed to the ground; more than 50,000 people were uprooted from their homes; at least 500 people were murdered in the past two years; hundreds of adivasi women were raped; property worth hundreds of crores of rupees was looted or destroyed by the armed thugs. All these cruel attacks against an entire population are meant to establish peace of the graveyard and clear the way for the unhindered loot by rapacious hawks like Tatas, Ruias, Essars, Mittals, Jindals and imperialist MNCs. Over one lakh rupees worth of MOUs were signed by the Chattisgarh government with these corporate comprador big business houses to drain the rich mineral and forest wealth of the state. At the behest of these day-light robberers, adivasi dalals like opposition leader of the Congress, Mahendra Karma, Home Monister Ramvichar Netham of the BJP and others have been leading this counter-revolutionary war against the adivasi population.

The heroic resistance by the adivasi masses led by CPI(Maoist) had pushed the reactionary rulers to utter desperation. Their much-trumpeted objective of wiping out the revolutionary movement led by Maoists by June 2006 had not only miserably failed but, on the contrary, they themselves are being wiped out by the PLGA and Bhumkal miltia led by the CPI(Maoist). Hence, they had deployed an even larger central force which is now more than 13 battalions, recruited 10 additional battalions of state forces, and inducted even minors of 14 years of age into their mercenary police force. KPS Gill, notorious for the mass murders of youth in Punjab, was specially appointed as advisor to the Chief Minister. A carpet security system is initiated with police camps in close proximity in order to strike terror among the people. In the past five months alone over a hundred adivasi men and women were murdered by these police-mercenary armed gangs. Plans are afoot to deploy the Indian army and to resort to aerial bombardment of the villages and PLGA locations.

We, on behalf of the CC, CPI(Maoist), once again warn the state and central governments that our Bhumkal Sena and PLGA and people will carry out attacks on a much bigger scale if the murder campaign in the name of salwa judum is not disbanded immediately. We declare that the sole responsibility for such needless loss of lives of hundreds of policemen and SPOs lies squarely on the shoulders of the state and central governments. Large-scale armed retaliation by the adivasis led by our Party is inevitable if the atrocities on the adivasi people continue in the name of salwa judum. Like George Bush who can only think in terms of using more brute force to control the fire of national liberation in Iraq, the Indian ruling classes too can only think of sucking in more and more repressive forces in order to suppress the people's war and grab the mineral wealth of Dandakaranya. However, they will only end up in further escalating the civil war in Dandakaranya. The people of Dandakaranya and our PLGA will certainly fight back the Indian army too if the ruling classes deploy it in Dandakaranya.

We do share the grief of the families of the dead policemen and SPOs but we are being compelled to wipe out the police and mercenary gangs who are obeying the orders of the ruling classes and their imperialist mentors to suppress the revolutionary movement for looting the wealth in the state. We appeal to the jawans of the central forces, particularly the Naga and Mizo battalions, to disobey the orders of the rulers and to withdraw from Chattisgarh. Already over 500 are suffering from falciparum malaria and almost 30 had died of this disease while several were forced to commit suicide under mental distress. We appeal to the SPOs who are being pitted against the adivasi people to quit the mercenary force as they are fighting an unjust war against their own brothers and sisters in the interests of the reactionary rulers. We call upon the democratic organizations and individuals and the vast masses of the country to condemn state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism on the adivasi people of Dandakaranya, to demand immediate disbandment of salwa judum and the mercenary SPO force, to fight for the withdrawal of the notorious central forces from the region, set up a judicial enquiry into the killing of over 500 adivasis by the police-salwa judum mercenary combine, to pre-empt the government's plans to deploy the Army, and to restore basic human rights of the people. The brutal repression by the state will only beget greater armed resistance of the people. Those who preach non-violence to the Maoists should first fight for the above-mentioned demands to put an end to state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism.

Azad,

Spokesperson,

Central Committee,

CPI(Maoist)