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Deja vu — Judith Apter Klinghoffer

Judith Apter Klinghoffer

MAOISTS FOLLOW IN AL QAEDA'S FOOTSTEPS

No it did not make headlines even in India. Indeed, it was shamefully relegated to the back pages of the newspapers and could not compete with the cricket news on TV. But Indian Maoists, or Naxalites, not only share Al Qaeda's goal of preventing Third World development but also their strategy and even the tactics of slitting the throats of those who fell to tow the line. In this case the victims were those Maoist are "supposedly" championing - tribal farmers. Their sin? Selling their land to developers.

"Over 40 armed Maoists raided Bhansi village and killed two tribal villagers by slitting their throats for agreeing to surrender their land for Essar Steel`s planned plant," senior police officer OP Pal said by telephone.
Bhansi village is about 400 km (250 miles) south of the Chhattisgarh`s capital, Raipur.
Police said Maoists had warned residents in the area not to hand over their land in return for financial compensation for the steel plant of Essar Steel Ltd, which had signed a deal with mineral-rich Chhattisgarh in 2005 for investing £811m in the project in Dantewada.

This latest atrocity was too recent to be included in the Maoist annual report - Yes, they have one and just like Al Qaeda they list terrorist atrocities as successful operations.

Besides touching upon their future plan, Maoists also listed their successful operations, which included the Jehanabad jailbreak in Bihar, killing of 11 Naga jawans and attack on Salva Judum camps in Chhattisgarh, killing of 14 cops in West Singbhum in Jharkhand and attack on Malkangiri-Udaigiri jail in Orissa.

Why are they consider such acts successful?

It is clear from the report's contents that they had been successful in such operations despite the government putting up a larger contingent of security personnel in place. It also reflects the naxals' intention to encourage their cadre by highlighting such incidents.

In other words, the poorest Indian are now paying the price for a mainstream media strategy noted by Tony Blair of treating every terrorist atrocity as a successful anti-Western defiance.

It started in Iraq and has migrated elsewhere and is being adopted by other ruthless ideologues. As always, the most vulnerable will pay the highest price.

Will the so called idealistic intellectual elite see the light before the Islamist - Maoists succeed in blocking the best chance of ending abject poverty the world ever had?

Posted on Thursday, April 5, 2007 at 2:26 AM | Comments (0) | Return

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