Indian Maoists 'kill and dismember' 10 policemen

SOCIALISM IN ACTION:   Ten policemen, including one senior officer, have been killed and dismembered by Maoist rebels in India's Chhattisgarh state, police say.

The BBC said the attack reportedly took place in the densely-forested Gariyaband area on the state's border with Orissa.  The bodies of nine policemen were found on Tuesday. Officials say they were shot and then hacked into pieces.


 India's Maoist insurgency began in the late 1960s, in
the remote forests of West Bengal state

 Maoist rebels say they are fighting for the rights of indigenous tribal people and the rural poor.  They are active in several eastern and central states. In one of the most deadly attacks last year, rebels killed 74 policemen in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district.   India's prime minister has described the Maoist insurgency as the country's biggest internal security challenge.

The team left for a routine patrol on Monday morning and police said they lost contact in the afternoon. After their bodies were discovered on Tuesday, officials said the policemen were first shot and then their bodies were hacked into pieces "by sharp-edged weapons", the BBC's Salman Ravi from Raipur reports.

An inquiry has been launched to find out how such a small number of police ventured into Gariyaband, which is considered to be a Maoist stronghold.   "As per the code of anti-insurgency operations, there has to be a team of not less than 200 when venturing into such difficult areas," an official told the BBC.

Life inside a Maoist forest hideout

BBC's Suvojit Bagchi:

After eight hours of walking in dense forest, in the early evening we entered a narrow, barren stretch of land hemmed in by hillocks.

Somji, one of the men who collected me between a small town in south Chhattisgarh and the thick central Indian forest, picked up speed as we approached.

A tall man standing guard with a rifle flung over his shoulder whistled and people started rushing towards us.

In under a minute, the camp members stood in formation and began singing a welcome song.

Each member in the queue raised their fist to whisper "lal salaam" - "red salute".

Mostly aged between 15 and 30 years old, the men and women in the camp wore rubber sandals, olive green battle fatigues and carried guns of various makes.

The rebels are active in swathes of central and eastern India  


India's Maoist rebels say they are fighting for the rights of indigenous tribespeople and the rural poor. But the battle has been brutal: they frequently launch deadly attacks on India's security forces and those thought to support them.

The relationship with villagers in areas they control is generally positive, but not always. Maoists will kill suspected informers and that has the potential to create a climate of fear. But they are also aware that harming ordinary villagers will simply erode their support base.

But this is a highly polarised area. In areas controlled by the paramilitary units there is little support for the Maoists - and villagers who display such sympathies have uncertain fates.

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