Maoists flee as security forces capture Ramgarh

[GracchusBabeuf]

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[gorillafuck]

How long had this been a Maoist stronghold?

[AvanteRedGarde]

Maoist guerrilla warfare has always promoting the tactics of fighting when the enemy is weak and fleeing when the enemy is strong. Notice that the article said nothing about capturing or killing any of the rebels. Unless India has the resources to keep a presence more substantial than an "outpost," they'll be back rather easily.

[Saorsa]

How long had this been a Maoist stronghold?

I assume it's part of the same of the same swathe of West Bengal as Lalgarh was. Depends on what you mean by the term 'stronghold' really. Obviously the Naxalites aren't strong enough to hold the territory and beat off a full frontal assault by state forces in conventional warfare, but the Maoists are active in these underdeveloped areas and have a lot of support, so as soon as the bulk of state forces leave the Naxals will be back.

[scarletghoul]

Wish there was more info on the naxal situation, like, which areas they have control over and stuff

[Saorsa]

I think this news article sums up what the situation really is. As soon as the bulk of the heavily armed state forces keave, the Maoists will be back and the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities will resume defact state power in the area. The Maoists have won a political victory here - revolutionary guerrilla forces do not think in terms of conventional set-piece military victories.

Lalgarh villagers vow to resist security forces (http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/lalgarh-villagers-vow-to-resist-security-forces/)

Posted by n3wday (http:///) on June 29, 2009
http://southasiarev.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/people_of_lalgarh_uprising.jpg?w=300&h=225 (http://southasiarev.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/people_of_lalgarh_uprising.jpg)This article was published in the Times of India (http://m.timesofindia.com/PDATOI/articleshow/4697978.cms). Thanks to Ka Frank for pointing it out.
Lalgarh villagers vow to resist security forces
24 Jun 2009, 1848 hrs IST, IANS



LALGARH: Amid allegations that security forces were ransacking homes and even throwing away food, villagers in this trouble zone where operations to flush out Maoists have been on for a week said on Wednesday they would continue to put up resistance.


“Lot of people have fled the villages. But some have decided to stay back in their houses. And they feel they will suffer at the hands of the forces whether they remain in the villages or not, so they have chosen to die resisting the forces,” Sidhu Soren of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) said.


Another PCAPA leader Chhatradhar Mahato indicated that the agitators would lie low for some time and resume their movement once the central forces comprising the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Border Security Force (BSF) leave.
“We know we can’t resist such a massive force. But the central forces will not stay for ever. Once they leave, we will resume our agitation in the scale we did last November,” Mahato told reporters.

Alleging that the forces were committing atrocities against innocent villagers, including women and children, ransacking houses and even throwing away food, Mahato said thousands of villagers have fled their homes fearing torture.


The PCAPA, backed by the Maoists, had since last November established virtual control over 42 villages in Lalgarh, 200 km west of the state capital Kolkata, and surrounding areas by driving away the civil and police administration.


But the combined forces of the centre and the West Bengal government have re-established the writ of the state in more than half of these villages since the operation was launched June 18.


On Tuesday night, Communist Party of India-Maoist spokesperson Gour Chakraborty was arrested in Kolkata, a day after the organisation was banned by the union government. Till now, 21 Maoists, including top ranking leaders, have been arrested.


Before he was arrested, Chakraborty had told the media that the Maoists were willing to talk to the central and state government, but only in the presence of anti-Left Front intellectuals like filmmaker Aparna Sen, who had visited Lalgarh Sunday.
The state cabinet has decided to set up a university named after three tribal heroes – Sidhu, Kanhu and Birsa Munda – in the neighbouring districts where the tribal people have a strong presence. The Sidhu Kanhu Birsa University will have campuses in Purulia and Bankura districts.


“There will be lot of scope for higher studies in Santhali in the university. We will prepare a bill and present it in the assembly soon,” Higher Education Minister Sudarshan Chakraborty told reporters in Kolkata.
Lalgarh has been on the boil since last November when a landmine exploded on the route of the convoy of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and then central ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Jitin Prasada.


Complaining of police atrocities after the blast, angry tribals backed by Maoists launched an agitation virtually cutting off the area from the rest of West Midnapore district.


The Left radicals torched police camps, set ablaze offices of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and drove out the civil administration to establish a virtual “free zone” in the enclave of West Midnapore district.
The Maoists have been active in three backward districts – Purulia, West Midnapore and Bankura – in the western part of the state.

[Saorsa]

The language used in these media articles is highly misleading. "Maoist stronghold captured", "Maoist bastion falls" etc. The Communist Party of India (Maoist) does not have a strategy of building fortresses and castles throughout the countryside that it defends to the last. It doesn not signify a defeat for the Naxalites when state forces enter Lalgarh, or Kantapahari, or wherever. The Maoist fighters melt away when the army throws its full strength at them and return to attack again when it is weaker. That's whats going to happen within the next few weeks. The entire area, and more specifically it's people should be seen as the Maoist stronghold, and that's only to be strengthened by the violent state assault.