Naxalites of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) made an unsuccessful attempt on the life of a Superintendent of Police (SP), Mahesh Chandra Ladda, in the heart of the district headquarters of Ongole, Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh (AP), on 27 April 2005. A remotely triggered claymore mine hit the SP's vehicle, setting it on fire. However, as it was reportedly triggered two seconds earlier, the SP came out unscathed. Two persons were killed while at least eight others were injured.

Surely, the operation was meticulously planned. The Naxalites had reportedly conducted sound reconnaissance for 20 days and had pressed cellular phones into service to secure exact information on the SP's vehicle and the progress of its short journey.

Earlier in AP, the Naxalites had shot dead an SP (14 November 1993), a Deputy Inspector General of Police (27 January 1993) and an Assistant Inspector General of Police (4 September 1999), the last two in the State capital Hyderabad.

The Naxalites' lethality has been rising, as also their daredevilry. They launched their campaign of violence using farm implements and crude bombs. Now, they field a mélange of weapons, including SLRs, sten guns and AK series rifles, and claymore mines. In early 2002, a surrendered Naxalite claimed in an interview with this researcher that, by 1992, they had acquired the capability to service a sten gun. Thereafter, a media report of 10 February 2002 confirmed the claim and added that they were manufacturing sten guns at an arms making unit in the Nallama forests. On 20 August 1991, the then Home Minister of AP informed the State Legislature that the Naxalites had acquired 20 sten guns and 60 AK-47 rifles from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Recently, on 25 April 2005, the AP State police chief, Swaranjit Sen, informed at a press conference in Hyderabad that they had recovered from an arms dump in Anantapur district rocket launchers and an improvised device that could work like a rocket--a metal tube filled with explosive material and fitted with a percussion cap which would detonate upon impacting on a hard surface. Indeed, either he, or the media, should have added that his predecessor P Ramulu told a similar gathering on 26 May  2003 that the State police had recovered the design of a rocket launcher from a Naxal arms dump in Kalimela village, AP-Orissa border. Indeed, unconfirmed reports in the recent past suspected that the Naxalites might have used what resembled a rocket launcher in an attack on a police station in Anantapur district.

The Naxalites have a variety of sources to acquire weapons - 'dedicated' arms repair and production units, networking with smugglers and gun runners and, as Swaranjit Sen said on 25 April, elements within Bangladesh, Myanmar and India's North East. In 2002, a senior AP police officer told this researcher that Naxalites of the then People's War Group (PWG) [the PWG and the Maoist Communist Center of India merged on 21 September 2004 to form the CPI-Maoist] had visited Dhaka and met with some United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) leaders based there. Subsequently, a 13 March 2005-media report, quoting unnamed intelligence officials, stated that the CPI-Maoist was acquiring weapons from ULFA.

On the other hand, the AP government has not been able to formulate a clear and coherent strategy to deal with the Naxalites, because it has not been able to unambiguously decide if the Naxalite issue needed to be addressed on a military plane, viewed as a socio-economic problem, or could be 'politically managed'. Its statements have been contradictory and its actions are mired with stark vacillation. Worse, some Naxal-affected districts have been left without police chiefs and there is hardly any government programme to address 'socio-economic grievances'.

The political approach (peace process) has failed. Nevertheless, it continues to harbour the misplaced hope that it could be revived. Moreover, it agreed to 'hold fire', but refrained to term it as one; it did not sign a truce agreement, but constituted a committee to monitor holding of fire. Naxalite violence has not abated - 12 policemen and 91 citizens were killed between January and 14 April 2005. On the other hand, even as the Ongole attack was underway, the vernacular Telugu media reported Swaranjit Sen as saying in Srikakulam: "the law & order situation in the State is fine; everything is peaceful; I think this will continue in future; the Centre, too, is very happy with the peaceful atmosphere here." Obviously, he was speaking his government's words. Chief Minister Rajasekhar Reddy said on 27 April  that the CPI-Maoist could be proscribed, but added that it was presently not being considered.

The rising tide of Naxalite violence clearly indicates that bloodier days are ahead. The government is obliged to the people of the State to clearly announce its Naxalite policy. Three weeks hence the government would complete one year in office and it had better get its act together, rather than further alienate the people.