India's Maoists targeted a convoy of the leader of the Congress Party in Chhattisgargh, Nandkumar Patel on July 20, 2011. They blew up a bridge in the Gariyabandh area, just after the convoy passed, but damaged some vehicles following it. Then the rebels fired at the vehicles. Four people were reported dead and five were injured in the attack.
The attacks by Maoists, commonly known as the 'Naxalites' are growing in number. The term Naxalite has been broken from the village Naxalbari in West Bengal, where a peasant uprising erupted in 1967. Initially, the Naxalites were composed of a militant faction of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-CPI(M). In 1969, they formed the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-CPI(ML).
Naxalite groups grew in many parts of the country, especially along the Western parts of India. Marginalized tribal groups are the main supporters of these groups. The various groups did not have a unified command. This changed when two of the main Maoist groups, People's War Group of Andhra Pradesh and the Maoist Communist Center of Bihar joined in 2004 to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist). Since then, CPI(Maoist) has become the vanguard of the 'Naxalite' movement, and Naxalites have grown in to such proportions that they have influence in more than 45% of India's land mass. They have created a 'red corridor' from West Bengal to Andhra. No wonder India considers the Naxalites to be the greatest internal threat she faces!
Photo: The "Red Corridor"-Wikimedia Commons
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