Maoists have admitted that they have suffered huge losses in the ongoing war with Indian forces. In a letter sent to the members of CPI(Maoists) across India, the central committee of the party revealed that from June 2016 to June 2017, 205 Maoists leaders and members were killed in Operation Green Hunt. They have also claimed that around 50 “innocent” villagers were killed as they were caught in crossfire between forces and Maoists.
In a startling fact, the Maoists have revealed that Indian forces have killed 54 women leaders and cadres in the ongoing war.
“Indian ruling classes have intensified their attacks like never before on us with the help of imperialists, especially America. So far in last one year, we have lost 205 comrades and many innocent villagers. Scores of People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) members were killed and two of our senior members died in jail in Chhattisgarh due to torture and negligence,” the letter said.
“The cannibals inhumanely cut the private parts of the woman commanders after killing them brutally. We will not forget these,” the letter said.
The biggest casualty took place in Dandakaranya—the theatre of actions. Heavy attacks by the joint forces of Chhattisgarh, CRPF and Odisha claimed many lives in the past few months. Maoists admitted that till June, around 131 party members in Dandakaranya were killed in the last one year. They have also lost two central committee members and many zonal committee members.
“Among the deceased, 131 are from the Dandakarnya, 27 are from Bihar and Jharkhand, 35 from Andhra-Odisha border, six from Odisha, one from Telengana, two from West Bengal and one from Western Ghats,” the letter revealed.
What is interesting is all such information is not available in the police files of either Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand or West Bengal.
“We have no information about who were killed from West Bengal,” said an officer of the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) section of West Bengal police.
A top officer of Chhattisgarh police said, “Most of the time, after encounter we would not be able to get the bodies. They take the bodies away in order to hide information or for the treatment of injured.”
“I think the casualty is much more than what they are telling. We have given them a big blow,” said D.M. Awasthy, DG (Naxal), Chhattisgarh police.
The letter said Kavitha, women leader of Western Ghat, was sick and was going to Kozhikode when she was allegedly tortured and killed.
According to Maoists, around 15,000 people have died in India in the Naxalite revolution ever since its inception at Naxalbari.
The Maoist leaders have asked the members to find the weakness of the Indian security forces to fight till the end. The letter said the martyred leaders stood firm till their last breath. “They stood firm until their last breath overcoming ebbs and flows, ups and downs and twists and turns. They were firmly committed to party lines. They were our real heroes.”
“They were not selfish. They thought of the people. They demonstrated Communist values, ideals, courage and determination. We pay our humble homage to these martyrs who laid down their lives in the peoples’ war,” the letter stated.
Security experts said this is for the first time the Naxalites admitted such massive casualty. The security forces have, in the past month, gone deep inside the liberated zone of the Maoists with the help of three tier security structure—walking forces, forces ambushing vehicle and air strikers who carried out surgical strikes-type offensives.
The Maoists believe that the war is far from over as the oppression against farmers and women are rising in India.
According to their estimates, around 12,000 farmers committed suicide; there have been 50,000 cases of torture against women and around 40,000 women and girls are abducted each year from their houses.
“There are increasing number of acid attacks, forced prostitution, child marriage and feticide due to feudal structure in the society. We will change this,” said the letter.
The central committee asked the forces to divide the Indian forces to win over them. “We have to utilize the weaknesses of the enemy and as soon as we get an opportunity, we have to concentrate on the PLGA forces. We have to attack separate units of the enemy forces or divide their forces and attack. We must seize their weapons,” the letter said.
For this, the central committee believes, Maoists would have to implement the rules and principles of guerrilla war– secrecy, speed, strong will, self-defense through change of place and offensive tactics with initiative. The letter further asked the cadre to be suicidal in nature at times.
“Let us advance the people’s war one more step forward to achieve the immediate aims of enhancing self-defense, mass base, developing and consolidating our subjective forces, expanding the movement and other such aims with a sacrificing nature,” said the central committee.
