Ammunition shortage forces Maoists to rely on bombs

NEW DELHI: Political power flows from the barrel of the gun, so said Mao. But for Maoists in India, guns are increasingly going silent. Maoists are learnt to have instructed their cadres to use their weapons sparingly and rely more on bombs and mines to inflict casualties on security forces. The instructions have been given apparently owing to fast depleting ammunition with the CPI Maoist and the outfit's difficulty in getting fresh arms.
The information has been gathered from some party documents recovered from arrested cadres. "In the past couple of years Maoists have not been able to loot weapons from police stations or armoury. Many of their arms and ammunition manufacturing units have also been neutralized by forces. This has led to top brass passing instructions to cadres to use weapons less frequently," CRPF DG DIlip Trivedi said.
He added, however, that Maoists still have good access to explosives and are improving day by day in making new kinds of bombs. "We are worried about their explosive stockpile. They are able to freely procure explosives and detonators. Their capability there has not been dented," said Trivedi.
It is because of this that CRPF has also asked its personnel to use mine protected vehicles (MPV) sparingly as Maoists are adept at making powerful mines with up to 100 kg of explosive load that throw vehicles so high in the air that personnel die of concussion upon impact.
The situation has come about due to various reasons. Due to Maoist raids, police stations in several Maoist-affected districts have stopped keeping weapons eliminating opportunity for Maoists to loot. Following the 2010 Tadmetla encounter where 76 CRPF personnel were killed and their weapons snatched, force operations have improved reducing chances of such massive casualties.
Absence of a strong second rung of leadership in CPI Maoists has led to a string of surrenders in the past few years. The party's arms manufacturing ambitions suffered a setback after their top arms engineer and CC member, Sadula Ramakrishna, who was preparing rocket launchers and guns for the party, was arrested in 2012.

"Maoists are on the backfoot. This year Maoists could not even launch their tactical counter offensive campaign (an all-out offensive against security forces launched every February to June) fully. The central committee did not hold its meet. Top leaders are getting old and facing illness. Second rung is not as prepared. And forces have marched deep into the jungle. That is why we have seen a spate of surrenders in the past few months," said Trivedi.
Sources said Maoists area of influence has also shrunk over the years with their stronghold remaining largely restricted to Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. From West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh they are virtually out while in Maharashtra, Odisha and Bihar they have very small pockets of influence.