Gadchiroli’s Naxal victim count third highest in country

Nagpur: Intelligence and security agencies have expressed concern after a remarkable increase of 53% in civilian killings by Naxals across the country till May this year. Gadchiroli, with 11 murders by Naxals, stood third following Jharkhand (28) and Chhattisgarh (25). Odisha is fourth with 10 murders.
Against 53 killings till May 31 in 2015, the number of civilians killed in the guerrilla zones across country this year has already reached 81 in the same period with the rise being attributed to the growing desperation among rebel cadres cornered in their stronghold by state police and paramilitary forces.
The Naxalites, who have lost many senior cadres in various encounters, are learnt to have adopted a ploy to retain their pressure on the masses by eliminating at least two civilians from every region under their respective ‘area committees’. Each areas committee roughly manages region corresponding to taluka or tehsil of the government’s revenue department.
Most targets eliminated were the civilians whom the rebels labelled as ‘police informers’ which is an old tactics of the banned movement. Intelligence sources claimed Naxals have also murdered a number of civilians on issues arising out of some dispute with local contractors, government or private, apart from carrying out their regular extortion activities.
In Gadchiroli, the rebels this year eliminated half a dozen of their Area Rakshak Dals (ARD) or Gram Rakshak Dals (GRD) which has been not a common phenomenon in the past. The Naxals, who now have mobilized their ARD and GRD members to shift to armed activities deviating from their past role of organizing local masses as support base, seemed to have eliminated two of their such cadres this year following differences with dalam members. It is learnt Naxals, facing acute manpower crunch following encounter deaths and increased surrender by cadres, have started acting tough with ARD and GRD cadres. The murders were being seen as a tough message to others.
They have also eliminated two commoners, labelling them as informers, who were relatives of police personnel. The rebels are also learnt to have been aggressively pursuing the Special Police Officers or SPOs inducted as official informers of district police against an incentive of Rs 3,000 monthly and other performance-based rewards. Following a spate of murders of informers and SPOs, Gadchiroli police have started following a stringent Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) regime in handling such sources.
Superintendent of police, Gadchiroli, Sandip Patil said the Naxalites were trying to regain their domination by targeting civilians as they did not have any more strength or confidence left to take up the challenge of security forces. “The Naxals want to dominate the masses by instilling fear. Apart from losing ground to the security forces, Naxals have also been losing control on the masses who have started to emerge from fear. The killing of civilians is just to scare people into following them,” said Patil. The forces under Patil in Gadchiroli have gunned down more than 10 Naxals apart from getting more than 25 to surrender.