VZCZCXRO5792
OO RUEHBI RUEHCI
DE RUEHBI #0291/01 1941320
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O P 131320Z JUL 09
FM AMCONSUL MUMBAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7322
INFO RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 8559
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA PRIORITY 1860
RUEHCG/AMCONSUL CHENNAI PRIORITY 2072
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI PRIORITY 2544
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MUMBAI 000291 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PINS PTER ASEC IN PINR
SUBJECT: NAXALITES KILL OVER THIRTY POLICEMEN IN WESTERN 
CHHATTISGARH 
 
REF: A. NEW DELHI 1359 
     ¶B. KOLKATA 162 
     ¶C. KOLKATA 164 
     ¶D. 08 KOLKATA 148 
 
¶1.   (U)  Summary:  On July 12, at least thirty state security 
personnel were killed by suspected Maoist rebels in the central 
Indian state of Chhattisgarh.  The attacks, amongst the worst to 
hit the insurgent-ridden state in years, occurred in three 
stages over the course of the day in the rural Manpur-Mohalla 
district, ninety kilometers west of the capital Raipur, and just 
across the eastern border of neighboring Maharashtra.  Included 
in the causalities was the district Superintendent of Police 
Vinod Kumar Choubey, the highest ranked officer killed in the 
more than twenty years of violence in the state. Over the past 
few months, India has witnessed a sharp increase in the number 
and severity of Maoist attacks, with the state of West Bengal 
having been especially hard hit. These repeated attacks are 
leading political opponents and observers to question the 
ability of state governments to competently tackle this 
challenge. End Summary. 
 
 
 
¶2.  (U) According to Deputy Inspector General of Police Pavan 
Deo, the police official in charge of the state's anti-Naxalite 
(Maoist) operations, the attacks began when two Chhattisgarh 
Special Armed Forces (SAF) personnel were gunned down outside 
their rural police training camp near the village of Madanwada. 
Upon hearing word of the attack, the district's Superintendent 
of Police, Vinod Kumar Choubey, accompanied reinforcements to 
investigate the incident.  He and his men were hit by a 
succession of landmine explosions when they arrived at the 
scene, and were subsequently ambushed by nearly two hundred 
well-armed insurgents.  Twenty three security personnel were 
killed in the ensuing fighting; an additional five who had been 
dispatched earlier were later killed while trying to enter the 
area through an alternative road.  In all, at least 30 policemen 
have been confirmed dead and more than ten have been 
hospitalized.  There is speculation that an additional thirteen 
policemen are still unaccounted for, but police officials have 
refused to confirm or deny the reports until rescue operations 
are completed.  The Central Reserve Police Force - a national 
police force sent to Chhattisgarh specifically to combat the 
Naxalite threat - has ordered six hundred of its security 
forces, equipped with mine detection kits and rescue equipment, 
to secure the area and pursue the assailants. 
 
 
 
¶3.  (U) According to security experts, the Maoist insurgency, 
which grew out of a rural uprising in West Bengal in 1967, has 
spread to more than half of India's 28 states.  These rebels, 
known as "Naxalites," operate across the "red corridor" 
stretching from the Nepal border to West Bengal, and through 
central India into the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.  The 
Government of India (GOI) estimates that there are up to 20,000 
insurgents operating nationwide, in more than 180 of the 
country's 611 districts.  Chhattisgarh has been one of the 
strongholds of the Maoist insurgency in the last two decades, 
and this year has been a particularly bloody one in the state. 
According to new sources, this week's attack brings the total 
number of Maoist-inflicted deaths to over 150 in Chhattisgarh 
alone since January.  In June, eleven police officers were 
killed in a similar attack in the Bastar region, and in April, 
Naxalite forces planted a landmine near a polling station for 
the national elections, killing five. In neighboring 
Maharashtra, the increase in violence has been drastic.  There 
has been 54 Naxal-related deaths this year, compared to fourteen 
in 2008.  The most brazen attack of the year came on May 22, 
when sixteen police officers, including five policewomen were 
killed.  As in Chhattisgarh the Naxalites ambushed a police 
caravan that had been lured into the jungle to remove trees 
blocking a major road. 
 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Comment:  While the Indian security forces are 
mindful of the threat presented by the Naxalite forces, this 
type of ambush style attacks seems to be on the rise. Security 
officials and political leaders in Chhattisgarh claim to be 
changing tactics - including the use of police trained at the 
state's counterinsurgency and jungle warfare school, but such 
new tactics have yet to appear.  The state governments of 
Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh recently held a 
strategy session to better coordinate a response to the 
Naxalites, but insurgents are able to move relatively freely 
throughout the sparsely populated - and sparsely governed - hill 
 
MUMBAI 00000291  002 OF 002 
 
 
and forest regions that border these states, eluding such 
efforts.  The Maoists have repeatedly been able to ambush large 
police forces, using the same tactics, provoking finger pointing 
and accusations that the police - and the state governments that 
direct them - are incompetent and ill-prepared to face this 
challenge.  End Comment. 
FOLMSBEE