S
tate Police sources estimate that the Maoists in Chhattisgarh have an armed cadre of over 5,000, equipped with sophisticated assault weapons, including AK-47 rifles, SLRs, machine guns, mortars, landmines and explosives. These'full-time revolutionaries' are backed by at least 20,000 'people's militia' members, who are variously armed with SLRs, .303 rifles,'country made' guns, and traditional weapons such as bows and arrows, and who have participated in the increasing numbers of'swarming attacks' on SF units, posts and encampments. [Interestingly, central agencies are currently and vigorously peddling the fiction that the total armed strength of the Maoists across India is just 4,000, with 4,100 weapons-- if that was even remotely close to the truth, we would have little to worry about]. The strength of the sympathetic base on which this armed capacity is founded is difficult to estimate, but would obviously be substantial.
It must be abundantly clear that Chhattisgarh simply does not have even the numerical capacities to contain an insurgency of this magnitude. Worse, existing capacities remain enormously under-utilized and misdirected, and there is increasing evidence of a progressive collapse of political will at the highest levels of thestate leadership to confront the challenge of the Maoist onslaught. Sadly, that means that many more SF personnel-- thrown without plan, preparation or purpose into the conflagration -- will fruitlessly lose their lives in the foreseeable future.
It can only be hoped that, eventually, someone, somewhere, in India's corridors of power, will lose a little sleep over this as well.