South Asia Terrorism Portal

Maoists: Failing Ventures
Deepak Kumar Nayak
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

In a successful operation conducted by the Security Forces (SFs) against the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), in Kerala, SFs killed at least four Maoist cadres in two successive encounters in a forested area in Manjakkatty near Agali town under the Attappady Taluk (revenue sub-division) in the Palakkad District of Kerala on October 28-29, 2019. According to the Police, two units of the 'Thunderbolts' - the commando wing of the India Reserve Battalion (IRB), an elite anti-Maoist formation, were on routine combing operations in the area, when a seven-member Maoist squad, the Bhavani Dalam (armed squad) of the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) of CPI-Maoist, opened fire at them. Police recovered four fire arms including an AK-47 rifle from the encounter site. The four slain Maoists were identified as Karthik aka Karthick aka Karthi, Rema, Aravind aka Suresh and Manivasagam aka Manivannan. Knowingly, of the four Maoists, Manivasagam, the leader of the Bhavani Dalam, was the CPI-Maoist State 'secretary' in Tamil Nadu before the formation of the Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee (WGSZC).

Earlier, in a combing operation on March 6, 2019, a CPI-Maoist leader identified as C.P. Jaleel was killed in an encounter between the Maoists and the Thunderbolts Force near a private resort at Lakkidi, located near the forested locality of Vythiri in Wayanad District. Two Police officers were also injured during the encounter. Police and the Thunderbolts were camping in the area as they received information that the Maoists were likely to arrive there. As a group of five armed Maoists reached near the resort, an encounter started, and gunfire continued till the early hours of March 7, 2019. Jaleel's body was recovered near the resort after the encounter.

These are the three incidents of Left-Wing Extremism (LWE)-linked killings in the Kerala-Karnataka- Tamil Nadu (KKT) tri-junction, since the beginning of the current year (data till November 3, 2019). Significantly, there were no such killings through 2018 or 2017. The last such killing reported in the area was on November 24, 2016, in which Kuppu Devaraj aka Shanker, a senior CPI-Maoist leader and 'central committee' member and Ajitha aka Latha aka Meera, a woman leader, were killed in an encounter with the Kerala Police, inside the Padukka Forests in the Nilambur Forest Range in Malappuram District.

Since March 6, 2000, when the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) started compiling data on Naxalism [Left Wing Extremism, LWE]-linked violence in these three States (Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu) constituting the KKT tri-junction, has resulted in 46 fatalities in 26 incidents of killing, (eight civilians, nine SFs, and 29 LWEs). However, the KKT tri-junction accounted for a miniscule 0.43 per cent of total Maoist-linked fatalities recorded across India during this period (All-India fatalities at 10,483, including 3,752 civilians, 2,564 SF personnel, 3,911 Maoists; and 256 not specified; data till November 3, 2019).

Significantly, the SF: Maoist kill ratio in the KKT tri-junction has been overwhelmingly in favour of SFs, at 1:3.22.

According to a November 24, 2013, report, the rebels are setting up a base in the tri-junction area, which falls between Wayanad and Kannur Districts of Kerala; Mysore, Chamarajanagar and Kodagu Districts in Karnataka; and The Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu. Wayanad (Kerala) and The Nilgiris (Tamil Nadu) are the only two Districts which share borders with these three States. The remaining LWE-affected Districts of these three States share borders with these two Districts.

The report also indicated that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA) had sent advisories to the State Governments concerned and asked them to take necessary preventive measures to foil any efforts by the Maoists to start their activities in their areas. The advisor observed:

According to a December 25, 2018, report, the Maoists are expanding in this region because of three principal reasons:

A December 17, 2018, report suggested that intelligence shared by Police departments of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka with central agencies indicated that the Maoists are getting familiarised and trained according to the terrain. Arms training is regularly undertaken in the dense Wayanad Forest. Intelligence reports indicate that, due to frequent operations by Anti-Naxal [Left Wing Extremism, LWE] Forces and the Special Task Forces (STFs) of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the Maoists were forced to flee towards the jungle areas of Kerala. However, "But for Kerala, combing operation is new to them and requires assistance. Kerala has vast jungle areas that are left unexplored."

Interestingly, incidents of killing have taken place in Wayanad and Palakkad, which have been included in the revised list of Left-Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected Districts in the country covered under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme, by UMHA on April 16, 2018. Though the number of LWE-affected Districts had decreased from 126 in 10 States to 90 in 11 States, three Districts (Malappuram, Palakkad and Wayanad) from Kerala have been added for the first time to the revised list. There is no District from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu listed in the UMHA's current list of 90 District in 11 States.

LWE violence has been recorded only in Kerala and not in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, though the three States are included in the KKT tri-junction. Importantly, the Maoists had merged with the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist - Naxalbari (CPI-ML-Naxalbari), under the CPI-Maoist banner, on May 1, 2014, with the aim of securing a foothold in the KKT tri-junction area. According to official data disclosed by then Union Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, Kerala has accounted for 23 incidents of Maoist-related violence since 2014: eight in 2014, 10 in 2015, five in 2016, and none in 2017 (data till December 15, 2017). Ahir further disclosed that no violence had been reported in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu since 2014. This is confirmed by violence data recorded by SATP.

On July 2, 2019, UMHA, directed Central Forces and State Police personnel deployed in LWE-hit areas to make a decisive push to tackle CPI-Maoist in the limited geographical areas to which they had retreated in the wake of their shrinking influence over the past five years. This includes the KKT tri-junction, where the Maoists are trying to set up bases.

In an earlier annual assessment of LWE activities, by the Institute for Conflict Management (ICM), it was mentioned that there are at least 16 Naxalite front organisations that double up as human rights organisations in the KKT region. Intelligence agencies also disclosed that there are around 80 Naxalites operating in the Western Ghats region, who frequently move across the KKT region. These cadres were mostly confined to Kerala, after Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, put the heat on them.

The Maoist threat is far from over. It is, consequently, imperative that the political and security establishments of the three States controlling the KKT tri-junction keep a constant vigil on the sustained Maoist efforts to spread their influence in this strategic region.

Endangered Health
Sanchita Bhattacharya
Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management

On October 11, 2019, a doctor, identified as Mohammad Ali, was assassinated by Taliban terrorists in the Payencha region of Dolina District in Afghanistan’s Ghor Province. Taliban terrorists have been repeatedly targeting health workers, including doctors and nurses, as well as medical facilities across Afghanistan. Facing constant threat, intimidation and harassment from the Taliban, several healthcare practitioners have resigned and health centres have been shut down, depriving civilians of access to healthcare.

Some of the recent incidents targeting healthcare practitioners include:

September 19, 2019: At least 20 people died after a truck packed with explosives was detonated by the Taliban outside a hospital at Qalat in the Qalat District of Zabul Province. It was the main health facility of the Province.

July 17, 2019: The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA) stated, “The Taliban forced SCA to close 42 out of 77 health facilities in six out of nine districts of Wardak Province so far, and due to this closure, an estimated number of over 5,700 patients are affected on daily basis.”

May 25, 2019: A bomb exploded outside a clinic in the Jalalabad city, provincial capital of Nangarhar, wounding six people, including women and children.

April 4, 2019: A bombing at a clinic in Puli Khumri, the provincial capital of Baghlan, killed a doctor and wounded 18 others.

Data compiled from the 2011-2018 Annual Reports of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and Quarterly Report of October 2019, documents 467 attacks on health facilities and workers. However, there have also been dozens of unreported incidents of attack, kidnapping, intimidation and assault on healthcare practitioners, and the actual incidence would be much higher. An August 29, 2018, report quoted Dr David Lai, Afghanistan Health Cluster Coordinator, under the OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), stating, “There are many incidences of attack on healthcare that are currently not reported. We need to have good information to address the scope of the problem in this country.”

Attacks on healthcare facilities during armed violence and internal disturbances tend to fall into four main categories. The first is the deliberate targeting of such places to gain military advantage by depriving opponents and those perceived to support them of medical assistance for injuries sustained. The second category of attack is also deliberate, but in this case for political, religious or ethnic reasons. The third type of attack is unintentional bombardment or shelling – “collateral damage” from a missile or mortar aimed at a military target. The fourth and perhaps most common form of violence committed against healthcare facilities is the looting of drugs and medical equipment.

Interestingly, the Taliban’s reason for attacking health facilities and medical staff is to control the hospitals which fall within their areas of dominance. As Health Ministry spokesman, Wahidullah Majroh, stated, (as reported on September 27, 2017), the Taliban’s intention is to vet surgeons and other medical staff who treat wounded Taliban fighters. Unsurprisingly, Taliban militants have been demanding control over health facilities in their areas of dominance.

According to the quarterly report released on January 30, 2019, by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), as of October 22, 2018, there were a total of 74 Districts under Government control and another 145 under its influence, as against 12 under insurgent control and 38 under their influence. The number of contested Districts was 138. Afghanistan has a total of 407 Districts.

Another reason behind the Taliban’s targeting of health service providers is their (Taliban) requirement to have certificates from doctors for their inmates in jail for their release on grounds of illness. Taliban leaders exert pressure on doctors to sign relatively healthy prisoners (Taliban cadres) out of jail, so they could return to fighting. In one such incident, on May 5, 2018, Dr. Mohammad Haqmal was abducted and tortured by Taliban for several days because he refused to follow Taliban dictates. Later he was given asylum in the UK, as reported on May 23, 2019.

The Taliban has also regularly attacked polio vaccination staff, accusing them of collecting intelligence to target militant leaders with drones and other air strikes. In June 2019, Taliban’s military commission alleged that internationally-backed health workers collected information used to find and kill Taliban leaders in Special Forces’ raids and air strikes. The insurgents want vaccinators to stop delivering polio drops door-to-door, and instead to administer vaccines from a central point, such as a village mosque.

Earlier, in October 2017 the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced that it would "drastically" reduce its presence in the country after seven of its employees were killed. On February 8, 2017, six employees were killed at an undisclosed location in Jowzjan Province. And later, on September 11, 2017, another aid worker was killed in Mazar-e-Sharif, the provincial capital of Balkh. The decision by the charity, which has been working in Afghanistan for over three decades, underlined the growing dangers for aid workers. The Taliban, in the meantime, accused the ICRC of "suspicious" activities during vaccination campaigns and of failing to monitor conditions in Afghan jails and to provide medical aid to Taliban prisoners.

According to the Afghanistan Crises Situation Reports of the World Health Organization (WHO), between January 2015 and July 2019, at least 241 health facilities were closed due to the ongoing violence in the country. 27 facilities were closed in 2015; 29 in 2016; 42 each in 2017 and 2018 and 101 till July 2019. The trend indicates a steady increase in the shutting down of medical and health facilities. Further, underlining the dire scenario of health expenditure in the country, the World Bank report, Afghanistan: Public Expenditure Update, dated July 2019, noted that the total budgeted health expenditure in Afghanistan was around 1.5 per cent of GDP (USD 8 per capita), whereas the WHO benchmark is 4-5 per cent of GDP or USD 86 per capita.

Ironically, as reported on May 25, 2019, Abdullah Abdullah, the Chief Executive of Afghanistan in an address to healthcare providers stated, "With what we spend on a single day of war, we could build a state-of-the-art hospital." An October 28, 2019, report notes that, in a country of more than 38.33 million, Afghanistan has just 150 hospitals, including regional, district, and special military hospitals, and a mere three doctors per 10,000 people. Doctors and medical staff suffer from long working hours, low wages and lack of infrastructural support. Often, due to lack of governmental assistance, doctors and nurses become de facto engineers, repairing vital solar power systems, fixing plumbing, and performing a vast range of other tasks, outside their job description. The result is a steady stream of doctors and staff quitting their jobs.

Even after the US has spent nearly USD 877 billion (until March 2019) in its fight against terror in Afghanistan over the past 18 years, the Taliban grows more confident of returning to power. Afghanistan, once again, stands at the crossroads of history, and no one knows what is coming. Sustained insecurity and violence continue to have a tremendous impact on health care in the country. Decades of insecurity have created a physical and mental health catastrophe, even as health workers are exposed to threats and actual violence.