Naxalite Violence - Articles

In yet another incident of jailbreak a total of 299 inmates, including 110 Naxal activists, fled from the Dantewada jail in Chhattisgarh on 16 December. It may also be recalled here that on 13 November 2005, about 1,000 Maoists and their supporters attacked Jehanabad jail in Bihar and released a large number of Naxal prisoners. The following year on 24 March, at least 400 persons raided a sub-jail in R. Udayagiri in Orissa and freed 40 prisoners. Later on 15 April, armed cadres belonging to CPI (Maoist) attacked the Narayanpur sub-jail in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh using explosives. These incidents prove that jails have become increasing vulnerable to Maoist attacks.

The Dantewada jailbreak, however, hints at yet another stage of Maoist warfare. In this well-orchestrated episode of jailbreak in the Naxal heartland the Maoists have sent a strong message that they no longer need to storm jails to set their comrades free; their fellow comrades lodged inside prisons are capable enough to execute the act. This Naxal triumph is bound to bring in some newer terror tricks into the Maoist operations across the country. Dantewada is known to be one of the worst Naxal infested areas, not just in Chhattisgarh, but in the country. It is widely believed that the central leadership of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) resides here. On 29 November this year, Konta village in Dantewada district had witnessed a Naxal attack in which 10 jawans were killed. In September too, heavily armed Naxalites had attacked a patrol party of the CRPF's 51 Battalion in Dantewada, while earlier on 29 August, at least 12 policemen were killed after the Naxalites attacked a police party in the same region.

The Dantewada jail located in the Naxal heartland had over a hundred Naxal sympathizers lodged in it and it is really difficult to understand why there were only two policemen to guard some 377 prisoners? Chhattishgarh Home Minister Ramvichar Netam admitted the security failure, but was there actually any security at all? The Naxal Commander Sujit along with another fellow cadre took just 10 minutes to overpower both constables and to shoot them with their own rifles. Within the next 45 minutes, 299 inmates of the jail simply walked out of the jail with the two injured constables looking on helplessly. By the time reinforcements reached the jail, the Maoists had reached the outskirts of Dantewada town, from where they all sneaked into the thick forests.

Chhattisgarh has four Central Jails, seven District Jails and 16 Sub-Jails. According to the Government of Chhattisgarh, the number in the "lock-up in the jails of the State is double the capacity." All the jails in the State are overcrowded. According to the latest statistics available on the website of the Jail Department of the Government of Chhattisgarh, the four Central Jails of the State housed a total of 6,502 inmates against the capacity of 2,949. While Central Jail, Raipur housed 2,174 prisoners against the capacity of 1,130, Central Jail, Bilaspur housed 1,748 prisoners against its capacity of 628, Central Jail, Jagdalpur had 1,281 prisoners against the capacity of 648, and Central Jail, Ambikapur housed 1,299 prisoners against a capacity of 543. Similarly, all the District Jails and Sub-Jails were also overcrowded. On the other hand, the majority of the posts of the jail administration are lying vacant. This is not the first time that jail security has been breached in the state. In November, the Chhattisgarh Police seized a mobile phone from the possession of Narayan Sanyal, the highest-ranking Maoist ideologue lodged in Bilaspur Central Prison. It was for the security agencies to make out from this that the strong Maoist network is active even in the jails of the state. Given the situation the government needs to take steps to enhance the quality of the whole prison security and administration, especially of the Sub-jails situated in the border districts, as these are most vulnerable.

This is a classic case of Maoist attack, where something 'next to impossible' was made to look so simple that one cannot but admire the Maoists. The attack was well planned and the two Maoists must have taken at least a couple of weeks to execute the attack which indicates total state intelligence failure in a region badly hit by the Naxal conflict. The Union Government so far has sanctioned Rs.16,000 million on jail modernization in the states, from which Chhattisgarh received Rs.290 million between 2002 to 2006. The state has, however, till date managed to utilize just Rs.183.7 million, a key reason why the condition of jails in Chhattisgarh is so abysmal. A sum of Rs.600 million for modernizing the state police force and Rs.130 million under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme have been already sanctioned by the Union Government for the state and given the extraordinary situation of the state the government must include the improvement of jails as part of its counter-naxal initiatives.