Caught Off Guard

THE outlawed Peoples War Group (PWG) Naxalites are on the rampage once again. On January 10, in a pre-dawn swoop they blew up the Karakugudem police station, near Manuguru in Khammam, killing 16 cops, eight of them belonging to the Andhra Pradesh Special Police (APSP), an anti-Naxal squad. And even as the security forces reassess their anti-Naxal strategy, attacks like these seem to have irreparably harmed the chances of human rights activists in reviving the democratic process to restructure the politics of social transformation.

Says K.G. Kannabiran, the People's Union for Civil Liberties president: "It is unfortunate that on the one hand an uncommitted government is entertaining the people with gimmicks, against an unmitigated backdrop of state violence, and on the other, revolutionary politics are unleashing violence and terror." He is no doubt referring to Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's much trumpeted Janmabhoomi programme, calling for greater public participation in infrastructure development at the village level.

However, the attack came as no surprise. The PWG was very active in the area, which has a vast jungle all along the Godavari valley, bordering Madhya Pradesh. That it was a well-laid plan is evident from the fact that no reinforcements could be sent immediately to Karakugudem, as the last 14 km stretch to the village was dotted with culverts which could have been mined. Says Inspector-General of Police (Law and Order) M.A. Basith: "The attack on the police station was nothing short of a sensational act through which the outlawed Naxalites wanted to create a reign of terror among masses living in the Telengana region." In fact, the forest ravine criss-crossing this dusty road has witnessed two encounters in the recent past in addition to a number of extremist-related incidents. At Pagideru, a nearby village, 11 PWG cadres were killed in an encounter with the police in March 1992. Some time later 10 APSP personnel were killed in a landmine blast near Kara-kugudem. And only few months back, the PWG blasted a telephone exchange and generally stepped up its activities in the area.

The seriousness of the latest blast can be gauged from the fact that Naidu cancelled his scheduled trip to Calcutta, where he was supposed to address the CII Partnership summit, and rushed to the site of the incident. Without mincing words, he held the police responsible: "In spite of the fact that the PWG was active in the area, the police does not seem to have taken precautionary measures." At the time of the attack, most of the security men, eight of them belonging to the APSP, were fast asleep. The police station is located in the middle of the village and the extremists managed to sneak into an adjacent building to carry out their offensive. Interestingly, such attacks on police stations are a well-thought out strategy on the part of PWG personnel. Not only do they help the cadres to regroup, but also enable them to snatch a substantial amount of arms. After incidents like these, the state police has taken the precaution of shifting some vulnerable police stations in deep jungles to safer places, but the continued attacks point to a complacent intelligence set-up.

Peeved at this latest assault, Naidu declared that the ban on the PWG, which was reimposed on July 30, 1995, would be further strengthened. "There shall be no let-up in controlling the senseless violence of extremists," he declared. "We have all along considered the Naxalite problem from a socio-economic angle.  

But the extremists have now become an obstruction in removing the socio-economic disparities." But while top police officials may try to put up a brave front in spite of the brutal killings of their colleagues and argue that the PWG has lost its hold on the masses and the underground movement has reached the end of the road, the PWG has effectively proved them wrong. Once again.