Bibhu Prasad Routray
Straits Times (Singapore), December 18, 2010
http://admpreview.straitstimes.com:90/vgn-ext-templating/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=3492ad62ac4fc210VgnVCM100000430a0a0aRCRD&vgnextchannel=0162758920e39010VgnVCM1000000a35010aRCRD
EIGHT people were killed late last month in the eastern Indian state of Bihar when a homemade bomb exploded.
Security personnel had found the bomb earlier, known as an improvised explosive device (IED) and thought to have been planted by Maoist radicals, then left it in a field to be defused later. As curious civilians flocked towards the unguarded bomb, it went off. Only one day before, two policemen were killed when the IED they had dug out exploded.
These are not isolated incidents. Similar episodes have been reported in other states, such as Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal, where Maoist insurgents are active. Security personnel have been killed while lobbing stones at IEDs, trying to move them on motorcycles or simply inspecting them.
These incidents cast doubt on the ability of India's security forces to score a decisive win over the Maoists, present in one-third of the country.
Because of the poor standards and huge vacancies in most of the state police forces, the anti-Maoist operations have been led by the country's paramilitary forces. But though better trained and armed, they too are buckling under the pressures of the conflict.
Late last year, New Delhi launched Operation Green Hunt, a multi-theatre counter-Maoist operation involving 70 battalions of paramilitary forces.
The bulk of these came from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), which was established in 1939. CRPF personnel have been involved in counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir as well as in the north-east of the country.
Following the Kargil war with Pakistan in 1999, a recommendation to make the CRPF the main strike force for counter-insurgency operations was accepted in 2000. Since then, enormous funds have been made available to the CRPF to increase its size and capacities. But there is no indication that the CRPF, which has grown to 210 battalions from two in 1939, is anywhere close to being a force devoted to counter-insurgency.
In 2008, the government set up a 10-battalion anti-Maoist unit within the CRPF called the Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (Cobra).
For a year, it underwent specialised training in counter-insurgent and guerilla warfare and was then deployed. The operational achievements of Cobra are a secret. But it is too small a unit to make a significant impact on rebels as widespread as the Maoists.
Continuous engagement seems to have taken a toll on the unit. Recently, a Cobra member deployed in Chhattisgarh fled the force after killing a civilian, disfiguring his face and planting his official identity card on the dead body in a bid to fake his own death.
In April and May, the CRPF lost over 100 personnel in Maoist ambushes. A single attack in Chhattisgarh wiped out an entire company, demonstrating serious training and command inadequacies.
Since then, the CRPF has gone on the defensive and centralised its operations.
Clearance from the regional headquarters in Kolkata, which takes at least a day to receive, has been made mandatory before personnel can act on an intelligence lead and launch an operation. Even a day's delay is too long when dealing with an opponent as mobile as the Maoists.
The CRPF's losses are partly linked to the weak or non-existent intelligence apparatus within the state police forces and the poor operational camaraderie between the two.
Frequent verbal duels have been reported between the CRPF and the police authorities. To iron out the differences between the forces and improve their joint operations, the Ministry of Home Affairs instructed several states in July to set up unified command structures. Five months on, these have yet to be created.
No one expects the war against the Maoists to be won in a hurry. But with its haphazard and ad hoc policies, New Delhi appears to be making a difficult task harder than it needs to be.
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