With Maoists believing in tactical counteroffensives against security forces post the Malkangiri-type big-bang offensive by security forces, the leftwing extremists could now go in for booby traps in any slaughtered so-called police informer’s or any martyred security jawan’s body to inflict maximum damage.
According to a former top CRPF official who worked for a longer stint in anti-Maoist operations, the Red rebels believe in tactical counter
offensive in the form of small or big military operations as there is a significant counteroffensive strategy document declared quite conspicuously that ‘A meal is eaten mouthful by mouthful’.
“Though Maoists always innovate and opt for newer strategies to shock security forces with ‘an element of surprise’, in such retaliatory offensives they either go in for big military actions like the Dantewada-type ambushes or small actions like booby-trapped dead bodies as, in both cases, the damage to security forces would be colossal”. Moreover, in Malkangiri-type offensives where they were encircled, Maoists disperse in mobile squads to carry out counteroffensives from the exterior lines, he indicated.
More significant here is Maoists always have an edge over security forces in both the quantity and quality of intelligence available to them. “Since now forces get some actionable intelligence inputs from some insiders courtesy the catfight in Maoists over cuts in commission-quota taxed on many economic activities in their domains including PDS transportation, mostly the forces gather only general intelligence,” the former CRPF official explained, adding that Maoists have an elaborate spy network consisting of both formal and informal informers.
Besides, they can also gauge patterns of thinking and behaviour of security forces and their movements to an extent via open source information like statements, interviews and such associated ilk appearing in media, he observed.
Interestingly, the rage in Maoist camp looks quite discernible when an official Press statement of theirs released on Wednesday warned of retaliatory attack directly on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and even on his son. This shows they hold the AP Government accountable for such audacious strike on Red camps in their strongholds.
According to security experts, monsoon period has traditionally been a relative quietude for Maoist activities, and post the withdrawal of monsoon such a big meeting in Malkangiri with big honchos in attendance actually indicate to some strategy being cooked to reboot their operations, which the security forces have neutralised by a preemptive strike.
Why this offensive operation is considered significant in the annals of recent Maoist operations is in the last three years (2013-15) when a over 200 security personnel were killed in Maoist operations, only a handful of around four leftwing extremists (lWEs) were killed by forces in any operation.
Even, till August this year, the ratio of lWEs to security jawans killed is around 1:30. Maoists’ depletions were mostly via surrenders and arrests during the period. When the year 2013 saw around 1,400 arrests, the first half of 2016 has witnessed arrest of over 1,128 lWEs, including 40 from Odisha.