DNA:
New Delhi: Monday, 19 January 2015.
In the past
10 years, Communist Party of India (Maoists) organised as many as 489 training
camps for more than 40,000 cadres who have been taught about the use of
sophisticated weapons and guerrilla warfare, according to information obtained
under the Right to Information (RTI) Act from the Ministry of Home Affairs
(MHA).
The
revelations are significant as in the recent months several attacks on security
personnel have been carried out by Maoists. These very 40,000 cadres have been
trained over the years for such deadly attacks. The original number of cadres
trained could be much higher as this is just the data which MHA has recorded.
The
information provided by MHA under RTI shows that while there was a year-on-year
increase in the number of training camps from 16 in 2004 to 93 in 2010,
thereafter the numbers decreased to five in 2014. While ministry officials are
attributing the decrease to the success of Operation Green Hunt, Maoist experts
claim that the rebels are shifting the districts of the training camps and thus
the forces are not able to find out about the camps.
"Because
of the Operation Green Hunt the Maoists have not been able to organise training
camps like before," said an official who works in the Naxal Management
Division of the MHA on condition of anonymity. The Operation Green Hunt was
launched in November 2009 during the previous UPA government and is described
as an 'all-out offensive' by paramilitary forces and the state's police against
the Maoists.
"MHA has
no idea about the exact number of training camps. These numbers are their
imagination. The actual numbers could be much higher. While Maoists shift base
and the camp locations, the security forces and state police have eyes glued to
the same spot," said Suhas Chakma, Director, Asian Centre for Human
Rights.
For instance,
not a single training camp was held until 2010 in Gadchiroli district of
Maharashtra. And since 2010 nearly 10 camps have been organised, training more
than 1,000 cadre. "If they know about these camps, why are they not able
to dismantle them," asks Chakma.
The biggest
challenge for the security forces came from the BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh, which
tops the chart. Maoists organised 200 training camps in the forest areas during
the above period and trained 20,000 cadres. Next in line is Jharkhand in which
12,582 cadres were trained in 136 camps. In the third position is Orissa with
4,136 cadres trained in 56 camps. As per the MHA data, preferred districts of
organising camps have been Dantewada, Narayanpur in Chattishgarh and Giridih
and Bokaro in Jharkhand. Cumulatively, more than 15,000 cadres were trained in
these districts.
Training
camps have two major components military and in-doctrine. The military
training mainly consists of guerrilla warfare, ambush, handling of explosives
and sophisticated weapons. Generally, such training camps are conducted for 10
to 15 days, but sometimes it lasts for more than a month. Under in-doctrine
training, cadre are told about the Maoist ideology in details and explained
about the ultimate objective.
Recoveries
made during the raids conducted by the state police on Maoist training camps in
the past give us a glimpse of what goes on in such training camps. Police have
recovered devices ranging from solar plates and radio sets to tiffin bombs,
guns and other explosives. "The newly recruited cadre that also includes
young kids are trained in handling sophisticated weapons and explosives. They
are also taught methods to escape and retaliate during a police
crackdown," said former Director General of Police Rahul Gopal, who is
known for his anti-naxal operations in Gadchiroli district.