Nihar Nayak

On October 1, Left Wing extremists - called Naxalites - of the People's War Group (PWG) failed in an attempt to assassinate the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu in one of the worst incidents in an unending sequence of violence that has plagued Andhra Pradesh for decades.

The Chief Minister escaped narrowly when a powerful landmine ripped through his motorcade on a forest road between Tirupati and Tirumala in Chittoor district, injuring five persons including the state's Information Technology Minister B Gopalakrishna Reddy.

The PWG itself has been in existence and engaged in continuous violence since 1980, and is presently joined by some two dozen Naxalite groups that are active, not just in Andhra Pradesh, but eight other states as well.

This was the second attempt on Naidu's life by the PWG, with the first occurring in 1998 near Kathlapur village of Karimnagar district, while he was campaigning for the Metpally Assembly by-election. Naidu has topped the Naxalite hit-list ever since he re-imposed the ban on the group in July 1996.

In a four-page statement published in vernacular dailies on October 3 the PWG state secretary Ramakrishna and two others claimed responsibility for the attack and defended their action saying, "it was a judicious move to eliminate a person who has been perpetuating state sponsored violence". Their statement also described Naidu as a "World Bank agent".

The PWG has carried out several such blasts in the past, particularly targeting politicians and police officials. In March 2000, the then state Panchayat Raj Minister, A Madhav Reddy, was killed in a landmine blast at Ghatkesar near Hyderabad.

Other important personalities, who have been assassinated by the group so far include former speaker Duddilla Sripada Rao, liquor baron and Member of Parliament Magunta Subbirama Reddy, Minister Hayagiva Charri, state legislators Ragya Naik, S Chenna Reddy, Malhara Rao, and Palvai Purushottam Rao, besides three officers of the Indian Police Service: K S Vyas, Umesh Chandra and Pradesi Naidu. Several major attacks have also been executed against leaders of Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP), including:

· On March 16, 2003, Naxalites of the PWG killed TDP Gundala mandal (administrative unit) convenor Vagaboina Jaggaiah, in Guntur district.
· On February 9, 2003, a senior activist of the TDP was beaten to death by Naxalites of the PWG at Kambalapalli, Nalgonda district.
· On December 13, 2002, PWG cadres killed Bommapur Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency (MPTC) member at a village in Mahadevpur mandal in Andhra Pradesh.
· On September 17-18, 2002, PWG cadres killed the Anantagiri mandal unit president of the TDP at his house in Anantagiri, Visakhapatnam district.

Total fatalities in Naxalite related violence in Andhra Pradesh since 1990 amount to 4,546, including 2,025 civilians, 454 security forces personnel and 2,067 extremists.

During the current year, till October 1, 2003, there were 314 incidents of Naxalite violence in the state in which a total of 224 persons, including 75 civilians, 17 security force personnel and 132 Naxalites were killed.

In the year 2002, there were 727 incidents of Naxalite violence in which a total of 191 persons including 88 civilians, 16 security force personnel and 87 extremists, were killed. Significantly, over 90 per cent of the civilian casualties inflicted by the PWG are drawn from the very classes - the poor and the dispossessed - whose rights the extremists claim to be fighting for.

There have also been a large number of attacks on government properties. During the current year, till March 31, 2003, property worth Rs 20,20,67,000 was destroyed by the Naxalites. Damage to properties by Left Wing extremists in Andhra Pradesh in 2002 amounted to Rs 10,90,83,000. Between January 1990 and March 31, 2000, total damage inflicted on property by these groups amounted to Rs 1,121,736,465.

The PWG is the most powerful Naxalite group in Andhra Pradesh, with a presence in all the 23 districts of the state, though such a presence is marginal in at least some of these. The group, however, claims that it has established 'special guerrilla zones' of domination in North Telangana, South Telengana, Nallama and the North Coastal regions.

The PWG took birth in the forests of the northernmost coastal district of Srikakulam neighbouring Orissa in 1980, when Kondapalli Seetharamaiah united some 18 Left Wing extremist groupings - survivors of the Naxalite movement of the late 1960s and 1970s.

But as the pressure from the police, particularly the anti-extremist commando force - known as Greyhounds - mounted, the Naxalites shifted base to the southern parts of the state, which hitherto had served only as a sanctuary.

According to the Andhra Pradesh Police, the PWG has some 7,000 underground cadres trained in the use of weapons, including AK-47 rifles and landmines. Intelligence sources indicate that the PWG has assembled 16 action teams, most of them including women.

While the group has suffered several reverses in the North Telangana region - including Khammam, Warangal, Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Adiliabad - its activities have been on the rise in other parts of the state such as the Palandu region of Guntur district in South Coastal Andhra, the Nalamalla forest areas, and in North Coastal Andhra - including East Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam.

There has also been a surge of Naxal activity on the Orissa border with reports indicating considerable militarisation of the PWG in the area. The PWG, which suffered humiliating setbacks in the Telangana districts, has been trying to stage a comeback in the state by targeting public officials.

Left Wing extremism extending across areas in nine Indian states constitutes perhaps the largest single internal security challenge in the country after terrorism in Kashmir, but has only fitfully engaged the attention of policy makers in the affected states or in the Central government.

Significantly, the list of affected states includes three that are among the economically better-off states in the country: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. As heightened concerns, both domestic and international, immediately after the October 1 attack on Naidu indicated, Left Wing extremist violence constitutes significant risks in these states, and can have a direct impact on foreign and domestic investment in these states.

Areas where Naxalite activity has been strongest over the decades are also those that have suffered the greatest economic stagnation, with quality of life indices among the poor often worsening over time, as indiscriminate violence drives out investment and entrepreneurship.

In 2002, the Union government had set up a committee headed by the Union Home Secretary to coordinate action with various affected states to end the activities of these groups. Directors General of police and Chief Secretaries of these states were members of the Committee.

The Committee found that the Left Wing extremist groups were restructuring to establish domination in the North Coastal, South Coastal and Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh; southern parts of Orissa; Jharkhand and north Bihar; and the coastal areas of West Bengal and Orissa.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs records indicate that, over the past decade, the Central government has released nearly Rs 967 million to various states to curb the Naxalite menace, but the sphere of Left Wing extremism appears, instead, to be widening.

The Ministry's annual report notes, "The Left Wing extremist groups have been making concerted efforts to militarise their cadres through formation of special guerrilla squads and extend their activities over larger areas of the country."

The PWG has linkages with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and the Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist (CPN-M). PWG cadres have received training in the use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) from the LTTE in the late 1980s.

The districts bordering the Indo-Nepal border have now become very vulnerable because of the continuing violence in Nepal. Available evidence suggests that both the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and the PWG are establishing close linkages with the CPN-M to further expand, consolidate and unify Maoist movements across South Asia.

Both are members of the Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organisations of South Asia (CCOMPOSA), whose formation was announced in July 2002. The growing linkages between the MCC, the PWG, and the Nepali Maoists are part of their larger strategy to create a 'Compact Revolutionary Zone' (CRZ) stretching across Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar, to Nepal.

Though the extremist squads have been withdrawn from the plains of Telangana - the 'Naxalite heartland' till the beginning of this millennium - the PWG has been making a determined effort to gain ground in other districts, while trying simultaneously to regain lost ground in Telangana region. The unmistakable message the PWG has now sent across the state and beyond is that it remains a potent force, and can target the political leadership at the highest level.

According to preliminary reports, a trial run of the attack on Naidu had been carried out in the presence of PWG general secretary, Muppala Laxmana Rao alias Ganapathi, and other 'central committee' members at a training camp in Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh.

A PWG source disclosed that top Naxalite leaders Patel Sudhakar Reddy, Satyam, Sakhamuri Appa Rao and eight others were assigned the task of planning the ambush, and a special team of the People's Guerrilla Army (PGA), the military wing of the PWG, was set up for the operation.

The state Home Minister, T Devender Goud, has ruled out further dialogue with the PWG, stating, "There is no scope for repeating the exercise as they are targeting people for outright killing.''

In a corresponding move, the Union Minister of State for Home, Chinmayananda Swami, on October 2, 2003, mooted the proposal of forming a Unified Commando Force for all the Naxalite infested states to further strengthen security measures in these states.

The near-success of the attempt on the life of Andhra Pradesh's most protected politician will certainly bolster the sagging morale of the PWG cadres. With the state government and police hardening their stance against the group, an escalation in violence from both sides appears imminent in the immediate future.

SAIR