VZCZCXRO2132
RR RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHDBU RUEHLH RUEHNEH RUEHPW
DE RUEHCI #0162/01 1691211
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 181211Z JUN 09
FM AMCONSUL KOLKATA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2391
RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 2939

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KOLKATA 000162 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR SCA/INS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER PGOV IN
SUBJECT: MAOIST GROUPS STEP UP VIOLENCE IN EASTERN INDIA 
 
KOLKATA 00000162  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Summary: Over the past two weeks, there have been 
daily attacks on police and political party leaders in the 
Western part of West Bengal, primarily in and around the town of 
Lalgarh.  Leaders of these attacks appear to be members of the 
Communist Party of India - Maoist (hereinafter referred to as 
Maoists, otherwise known as Naxalites), but local villagers are 
also involved.  Maoists have also increased attacks on police 
personnel in the adjoining state of Jharkhand.  In addition to 
an increase in attacks, Maoists have stepped up their public 
presence by conducting press conferences and public rallies. 
The Government of West Bengal appears to be paralyzed and unable 
to effectively counter the Maoist attacks.   The West Bengal 
Police and Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) started 
operations in Lalgarh on June 18.  Maoists have called for a two 
day strike in West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and Andhra 
Pradesh to protest the police action.  End summary. 
 
Maoists Increase Violence and Public Outreach 
 
¶2.  (SBU) In the past two weeks, Maoists have significantly 
increased public activities and violent attacks in the East 
Indian states of Jharkhand and West Bengal.  On May 31, Maoists 
organized their first public rally since 2004 in the town of 
Banspahari, located in the West Midnapur district of West 
Bengal.  According to media reports, around 300 Maoists wearing 
olive green fatigues and carrying guns and automatic rifles 
gathered in Banspahari and moved through the tribal settlements 
of Belpahari, Shilda, Binpur (in West Bengal) and Chakulia (in 
neighboring Jharkhand state) and returned to Banspahari, 
covering a distance of 40 KM.  According to media contacts on 
the site, the police and the district administration did not 
enforce the law that bans carrying of lethal arms in public. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) On the same day, contacts report that Maoists held 
another rally at in Lalgarh in West Midnapur district. which is 
about 250 KM west of Kolkata.  According to post contacts, 
between 6,000 and 10,000 people attended the event, which was 
reportedly organized by Sashadhar Mahato, a Maoist "squadron 
leader."  A man known as Bikash reportedly addressed the rally. 
Bikash is rumored to be the head of the Maoist zonal committee, 
covering the West Bengal districts of Purulia, Bankura and West 
Midnapur. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Media reported that on the night of June 13, ten 
people died in a gun battle between the Communist Party of India 
- Marxist (CPI-M) and Maoist supporters in Dharampur village in 
West Midnapur.  Dharmapur is 11 KM west of Lalgarh.  CPI-M zonal 
committee secretary Anuj Pandey told the media that three of the 
dead were CPM workers and that nine others are missing. 
According to a journalist in Lalgarh, about 300 West Bengal and 
CRPF personnel living in camps in and around Lalgarh did not 
intervene and withdrew from their camps.   According to West 
Bengal Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia, 
the police were withdrawn from the camps because they were 
unable to procure supplies locally because villagers were 
refusing to sell provisions to the police. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) On June 15, after villagers from Lalgarh demolished a 
CPI-M leader's residence and attacked deserted police camps, 
both the print and electronic media showed Bikash, without his 
face being shown, holding a press conference with an automatic 
rifle slung across his shoulder, claiming complete political 
domination over Lalgarh and its adjoining areas.  Bikash also 
reportedly claimed that his party was supporting local tribals 
who had so far formally denied their Maoist links. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Jharkhand's Home Secretary, J.B. Tubid, told PolFSN 
that on June 10, Maoists killed 11 security personnel in a 
landmine blast near Chaibasa in West Singbhum district in 
Southern Jharkhand.  The policemen were returning after raiding 
a village.  Journalists told PolFSN that on June 12, Maoists 
killed nine policemen and injured 10 others during an attack on 
a bank and a subsequent landmine blast in Bokaro, in Central 
Jharkhand.  Contacts said that on June 16, Maoists ambushed and 
killed four policemen in Palamau district in Western Jharkhand. 
Six policemen were injured in the gun battle.  The policemen 
came under attack while they were patrolling the hilly terrain. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Kanojia told PolFSN that Lalgarh is now under Maoist 
control and they are attempting to prevent the Maoists from 
expanding beyond Lalgarh.  He said police action in Lalgarh and 
its surrounding areas will be a disaster since the Maoists are 
using villagers as human shields.  He said there are a large 
number of women and even children who are confronting the 
police.  Kishan-ji (aka Koteswar Rao) a senior Maoist leader, 
gave a telephone interview to local Bengali media outlets on 
June 18, claiming that they have never used children and women 
 
KOLKATA 00000162  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
as human shields, and never will.   He said that women have 
joined the movement in huge numbers and will remain. 
 
Government Response 
 
¶8.  (SBU) According to Kanojia, the GOWB is divided about how to 
respond to the Maoist activities in West Bengal.  The consensus 
among post contacts is that the near-collapse of 
CPI-M-controlled administrative machinery after the recent 
general elections has emboldened CPI-M's detractors to show open 
defiance.  In Lalgarh, this show of defiance and acts of 
violence against anything CPI-M is hampering the state's 
capacity to respond.  At the administrative level, the state 
police and district administration are unwilling to meet the 
challenge as the police do not want to risk the collateral 
damage and the administration has lost the people's support. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Most contacts in Jharkhand believe that the state 
administration has also become too weak and corrupt to take on 
the Maoists.  Analyst and editor of daily Prabhat Khabar 
newspaper Mr. Harivansh (please protect) told PolFSN that the 
law and order situation in Jharkhand has become worse under 
President's Rule, which was imposed in January 2009.  In 
discussions with PolFSN, J.B. Tubid continues to claim that he 
has adequate resources to combat the Maoists. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) According to Kanojia, the central government has sent 
an additional five companies (numbering about 3,000 personnel) 
of CRPF to join West Bengal's local police and existing CRPF 
personnel (six companies) in and around Lalgarh.  This doubles 
the number of CRPF deployed in the three districts of Bankura, 
Purulia and West Midnapur.  These additional forces first 
engaged Maoists in Lalgarh on June 18.  Contacts confirm that 
CRPF are also deployed in Jharkhand.  It appears from media 
reports and conversations with police officials that that 
central and state security agencies are working closely 
together.  The Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram stated in news 
interviews that the GOWB must take the lead in any police 
action. 
 
Comment 
 
¶11.  (SBU)  While Maoists have conducted attacks on police in 
Jharkhand on a weekly basis for the past several years, the 
recent uptick in Maoist violence in West Bengal is unusual.  The 
CPI-M led GOWB has been paralyzed since the Tatas withdrew its 
small car factory from Singur in October 2008 and are even more 
so after their poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections. 
Indian National Congress (INC) politicians are questioning 
whether the CPI-M can effectively run the GOWB until 2011 when 
state assembly elections are to be held, and are asking publicly 
whether the current government should step down.  All India 
Trinamool Congress (AITC), however, is staying quiet, letting 
the INC take the lead in public criticism of CPI-M. 
Chidambaram's insistence that the GOWB lead any police action in 
Lalgarh forces the CPI-M to either admit that they cannot 
control the Maoists or take forceful action that could result in 
significant casualties.  In either case, IATC and INC would 
benefit politically.  The opposition may be using this latest 
outbreak of Maoist violence to force the CPI-M to step down, 
resulting in early state assembly elections.  This would benefit 
AITC since it would give less time for its emotional and erratic 
leader Mamata Banerjee to make a major blunder (something for 
which she is famous) and would allow the party to take advantage 
of the current anti-CPI-M wave in the state.  While post has not 
seen any evidence of AITC/Maoist cooperation, the possibility of 
tacit support for each other cannot be ruled out. 
PAYNE