No air raids on Maoists: Centre
Monday, January 1, 2007
No air raids on Maoists: Centre
Bhubaneswar : Union home secretary V K Duggal here on Thursday ruled out aerial operations against Maoist rebels."The issue of air support has been misunderstood. It is not meant for pursuing Naxalites. The Centre is willing to extend air support, but for dropping forces, food, medicines, evacuation of the injured et al," Duggal said after a two-day coordination meeting of 13 Maoist-hit states that began here on Wednesday.
Duggal, who presided over the meeting, lauded police action to "neutralise" Maoists, whom he described as " misguided youths," in 2006. He also appreciated the Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh and described it as a "people's movement."
Duggal pledged all possible Central help to the states and announced an additional assistance of Rs 100 crore for equipment and weaponry. "The Centre will help, but all states have to be self-equipped. They have to fill up police vacancies and provide effective training to their personnel," he said. senior bureaucrat agreed that activities of Naxalities like killing and extortion were akin to terrorism, but chose not to put the terrorist tag on the them. He kept on calling them "misguided youths".
He said, "We have deliberated on this. It is a very difficult choice. We prefer to call them Naxalites," he said.
Duggal patted the Orissa government for its performance in battling the Maoists in 2006, and pointed out that between 236 and 350 rebels were neutralised in the past 12 months (the highest ever) compared to 199 in 2005.
"I don't say this with a sense of pride, rather with remorse and pain. It should not be happening," Duggal said, explaining, " The rule of law has to prevail. There is no other option left in a civil society We want the misguided youths to come back to the mainstream and be part of the development process. They should take advantage of the multiple growth opportunities, instead of staying in jungles."
According to Duggal, the overall situation in 2006 was distinctly better then the previous years. Incidents of Maoist violence came down from 1,608 in 2005 to 1,457 in 2006. Similarly, there were 317 encounters this year compared to 295 during the preceding year. "Our information is that overall recruitment by Naxalites across the country has come down compared to previous years," he said, adding, "We are aiming to tighten the noose further but for obvious reasons cannot reveal the strategies."
On the Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh, Duggal said, "Initially there were some reservation s but we found that it is a people's movement. People have shown courage to stop recruitment by Maoists. It has served its purpose," he added.
Advising the states to expedite development by leveraging Central schemes, Duggal summed up "2007 does pose a challenge. In spite of Nepalese Maoists joining the mainstream, inputs tell us the minds of Indian Maoists are still not very clear. Efforts will be made to bring them back to the mainstream, but police action will be firm".
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Labels: Orissa
posted by Bimal 1/01/2007 02:20:00 PM,
