‘India must wage war against Maoist rebels’

INDIA: Indian newspapers voiced shock and anger Wednesday after a Maoist massacre of 75 paramilitary police, with some urging the government to consider deploying the army against the rebels.

“It’s War!” thundered the front page headline in the Times of India which argued that Tuesday’s jungle ambush in the central state of Chhattisgarh had raised the stakes in the fight with the Maoists “to an unprecedented level.”

“The Maoists have made their intentions clear. Dialogue will have to be off the table for now, until the state clearly establishes operational superiority,” it said in an editorial.

The Times joined other newspapers in questioning how the rebels were able to wipe out almost an entire company of armed paramilitary personnel, and cited experts who said the security forces were ill-equipped, under-trained and ill-informed.

Tuesday’s attack was deadliest inflicted by the Maoists in terms of single-day casualties and the Hindustan Times warned that the integrity of the Indian state was under threat.

“Let there be no confusion here,” the newspaper said. “If India keeps losing these battles, it is in jeopardy of losing the war... Whether it has the stomach for it or not, it is certainly embroiled in one.”

The Maoist insurgency, which started as a peasant uprising in 1967, has spread to 20 of India’s 29 states and has been identified by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the number one threat to domestic security.

At the end of last year, the government launched Operation Green Hunt — a large-scale coordinated offensive involving paramilitary forces from six states worst affected by Maoist violence.

After Tuesday’s ambush, the Hindustan Times suggested that the government needed to reconsider its decision not to deploy the national army.

“A military solution in tandem with state forces cannot be shelved indefinitely. This is a war,” the paper said. “The time for rhetoric is over.’ NEW DELHI, Wednesday, AFP