VZCZCXRO8675
RR RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHDBU RUEHLH RUEHNEH RUEHPW
DE RUEHCI #0194/01 1970539
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 160539Z JUL 09
FM AMCONSUL KOLKATA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2417
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 2979

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KOLKATA 000194 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR SCA/INSB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PTER ASEC CASC IN
SUBJECT: POLICE IN WEST BENGAL ASSERT PRESENCE IN ALLEGED MAOIST 
STRONGHOLD 
 
REF: A. MUMBAI 291 
     ¶B. KOLKATA 167 
 
KOLKATA 00000194  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary: Joint operations by state and central police 
have brought more areas under control in and around West 
Bengal's rural Lalgarh without any significant opposition from 
the armed groups of the Communist Party of India - Maoist 
(hereinafter referred to as Maoists, also known as Naxalites). 
The true extent of the Maoist presence and threat it poses to 
the central and state governments remains unknown and suspected 
Maoist presence remains largely confined to rural, forested 
areas.  Civil rights activists and independent observers 
reported no major incidents of human rights violation from the 
police action.  Differences exist between the state and the 
central government over application of anti-terror statutes and 
banning the CPI - Maoists organization. 
 
Police Re-assert Control Over Lalgarh and Surrounding Area 
 
¶2. (SBU) State and central police have continued their police 
action against the Maoists in West Bengal's West Midnapur 
district (Reftel B).  On site journalists told PolFSN that apart 
from a few landmine explosions and small skirmishes involving 
sporadic gun fights, the police contingent faced no significant 
resistance or large attacks from the Maoist groups such as that 
which recently occurred in Chhattisgarh (Reftel A).  No large 
Maoist strongholds or supplies have been discovered.  In the 
absence of any large scale fighting, villagers have begun 
returning to their homes.  According to press reports, 
individual party workers or affiliates of the ruling state 
government, the Communist Party of India - Marxist, are being 
intimidated, assaulted and killed by unknown assailants, who may 
possibly be Maoists, political rivals or individuals with 
grudges to bear.  Suspected Maoist presence remains largely 
confined to rural, forested areas in which there is little known 
American physical presence. 
 
No Evidence of Human Rights Violations 
 
¶3. (SBU) A human rights activist, who recently returned from 
Lalgarh,  saw no evidence of police atrocities or other human 
rights violation in the villages.  He said the police were very 
cautious, especially after India's National Human Rights 
Commission had publicly expressed concern over reports of police 
deploying local residents to retrieve land mines.  However, 
another activist contended that villagers continue to be 
reluctant to speak out against police atrocities to maintain 
impartial and outside of the conflict between the police and the 
Maoists. 
 
The State Government Views Civil Society Mediation Attempt as 
Interference 
 
¶4. (SBU) The state government has discouraged civil society 
mediation during the Lalgarh operation.  Despite a general 
prohibitive ban on travel to Lalgarh, a group of intellectuals 
from Kolkata traveled to the area and spoke with the leader of 
one of the local groups protesting alleged police abuse.  Post 
was unable to verify a senior journalist's claim that the group 
went at the behest of opposition leader and current federal 
Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee who wanted the group to 
distance itself from the Maoists so that she could support them 
and attempt to address their grievances against the state. 
According to the same journalist, the state government viewed 
the civil society mediation attempt as political interference in 
an ongoing law and order operation. 
 
State Government Prefers Anti-Criminal Rather than Anti-Terror 
Statutes 
 
¶5. (SBU) The state government has preferred charging suspected 
Maoists with anti-criminal rather than anti-terror statutes. 
For example, only one individual, the Maoist spokesman Gour 
Chakraborty, has been charged under the anti-terrorism statute 
the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) while dozens have 
been arrested under anti-criminal statutes.  The state 
government has also differed with the central government in its 
refusal to ban the political party CPI-Maoist, claiming it 
prefers to challenge it openly within the democratic political 
system rather than driving it underground. 
 
Comment 
 
¶6.  (SBU) The absence of police and Maoist encounters and the 
lack of evidence of Maoist strongholds or supplies have raised 
questions about the actual Maoist threat in the district.  It 
appears that the state government reluctantly re-asserted a 
 
KOLKATA 00000194  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
police presence in the area only after prompting from the 
central government, which has taken a more pro-active approach 
in addressing the Maoist challenge.  The state government, 
weakened by a disastrous parliamentary poll showing and wary of 
the effects on the 2011 state assembly elections were any police 
action to go wrong, is unlikely to have the political will 
necessary to address the security, development and political 
challenges posed by Maoists -- whoever and wherever they might 
be -- in the rural, undeveloped areas of West Bengal.  Since 
state, rather than the federal, governments bear the primary 
responsibility for law and order in India, the central 
government's success in addressing the Maoist challenge will 
depend on its ability to work with and through states such as 
West Bengal. 
PAYNE