South Asia Terrorism Portal

Maharashtra: A Resistant Red
Deepak Kumar Nayak
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-linked violence continued to torment Maharashtra in 2019.  According to partial data collated by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), 51 fatalities [19 civilians, 15 Security Force, SF, personnel and 17 Naxalites (Left Wing Extremists, LWEs)], were reported in 2019, adding to 58 such fatalities (five civilians, two SF personnel and 51 Naxalites) in 2018. No fatality has been reported in 2020, thus far (data till February 16, 2020).

Civilians, meanwhile, bore the brunt of LWE violence. Fatalities in this category increased from five in 2018 to 19 in 2019, an almost four-fold increase. This is, in fact, the maximum number of fatalities recorded in this category since 2012, when it had stood at 21. Fatalities in this category never crossed 10 between 2013-2018.

Of the 19 civilian fatalities in 2019, Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres killed 12 civilians in 10 incidents, branding them as ‘police informers.’ Of the five fatalities in 2018, the rebels had killed two civilians in two incidents labelling them as ‘police informers.’ The remaining civilian killings were also likely to have been on the pretext of the victims being ‘police informers.’

SF fatalities also registered a spike, from two in 2018 to 15 in 2019. Again, as in case of civilians, SF fatalities in 2019 increased to their maximum since 2012, when they totalled 13. Significantly, all fatalities in 2019 occurred in a single incident. On May, 1, 2019, 15 SF personnel of the Quick Response Team (QRT) wing of C-60, the Maharashtra Police counter-insurgency commando unit, and a civilian driver, were killed in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosion triggered by CPI-Maoist cadres on Dadapur Road near Lendali Nullah in Jamburkheda village under the Kurkheda Police Station limits in the Gadchiroli District. A chargesheet submitted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to the special NIA court in Mumbai on December 4, 2019, noted, “A conspiracy to target security forces was planned nearly a year before the May 1, 2019, attack in Gadchiroli, in which 15 police personnel and one civilian were killed.”

The May 1, 2019, incident was the worst, in terms of fatalities among SFs, recorded in the State since October 8, 2009, when CPI-Maoist cadres killed at least 18 Policemen, in an ambush in the dense forests under Laheri Police Station limits in Gadchiroli District. The dead in the 2009 incident include 10 commandos of the Maharashtra Police, as well as six constables and a sub-inspector, Chandrasekhar Deshmukh, from the Laheri Police Station. The incident occurred when a 40 member Police party came under heavy fire from 150 to 200 Maoists. The Police force was returning after a search operation following intelligence inputs that the Maoists had assembled in the area. The Additional Superintendent of Police M.K. Sharma claimed that the Police managed to kill 15-17 Maoists, though no bodies were recovered. There was no independent verification of the claim.

While civilian and SF fatalities spiked, Maoist fatalities recorded a decline from 51 in 2018 to 17 in 2019, yielding a kill ratio of 1:1.13 in 2019, significantly down from 1:25.5 in 2018.

According to SATP data, at least 12 Maoists were arrested in Maharashtra in 2019, adding to the 10 arrested in 2018. The most significant catches of 2019 included Parvati Sadmake (24), a member of the ‘Bhamragarh Area Committee’ (BAC), who carried a cash reward of INR 600,000 on her head. Sadmake was arrested by the Police in Gadchiroli District on December 6 2019. Further, 34 Maoists surrendered in 2019, in addition to 17 who surrendered in 2018. Significantly, five prominent CPI-Maoist cadres with a joint reward of around INR 2.7 million on their heads surrendered before the Police in Gadchiroli District on December 31, 2019.

Though overall fatalities came down from 58 in 2018 to 51 in 2019, the number of incidents of killing increased from 16 in 2018 to 22 in 2019. Though the number of major incidents (each resulting in three or more fatalities) remained the same in 2018 and 2019, at three incidents each, the number of fatalities registered was higher in 2019 (27 fatalities: four civilians, 15 SF personnel, and eight Maoists) as compared to 2018 (25 fatalities: all Maoists).

Moreover, overall LWE-related incidents registered a sharp increase from 32 in 2018 to 60 in 2019, a whopping 87.5 per cent. The number of explosions triggered by the Maoists registered a spike from one in 2018 to four in 2019. In addition, incidents of arson registered a spike from three in 2018 to 11 in 2019. Furthermore, the SFs recovered arms and ammunition on 10 occasions in 2019 as against three such occasions in 2018.

Fatalities in 2019 were recorded from two Districts – Gadchiroli and Gondia – while fatalities were recorded in Gadchiroli alone in 2018. In 2019, a civilian was killed in Murkutdoh-I area under Salakesa Tehsil (revenue unit) in Gondia District on October 18, 2019. All other fatalities in 2019 were confined to Gadchiroli, the epicentre of Maoist activities in the State.

Gadchiroli and Gondia, along with Chandrapur, are listed among the 90 Districts in 11 States identified as LWE-affected by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA) on February 5, 2019. Moreover, Gadchiroli is included in the 'worst LWE-affected Districts' in the list of 30 Most Affected LWE Districts from seven States across India, released by UMHA on August 1, 2018.

A February 3, 2020, report, revealed that, according to figures provided by the Maharashtra Police, even though the number of Naxal attacks in the State is on the decline, there had been a massive rise in destruction of private property by Maoists in the three Districts of Gadchiroli, Gondia and Chandrapur over the preceding three years. The value of property destroyed increased from INR two million in 2017 to INR 89 million in 2019. Shailesh Balkawade, Superintendent of Police (SP), Gadchiroli, thus noted,

Worryingly, critical security gaps in capacities and deployment persist in the State. According to Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) 2018 data (as on January 1, 2018), though Maharashtra’s Police-population ratio, at 174.93 per 100,000, is significantly higher than the national average of 150.80, it remains substantially lower than the minimum of 220:100,000 regarded as desirable for 'peacetime policing'. Further, the Police/Area Ratio (number of Policemen per 100 square kilometres) for Maharashtra is 69.55, as against the sanctioned strength of 78.07. The all-India ratio is 61.31, as against a sanction of 78.45 per 100 square kilometres. The sanctioned strength for the States’ Police is 240,224, but 214,029 personnel were in position, yielding a vacancy of 26,195. In addition, the sanctioned strength of the apex Indian Police Service (IPS) Officers in the State is 265, but just 240 officers were in position, with 25 posts vacant, considerably weakening the executive supervision of the Force.

The previous State Government led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) got itself embroiled in ‘exposing’ an alleged ‘urban Maoist conspiracy’ [LINK: SAIR-17.10], famously known as the Koregaon-Bhima case. The case pertained to the arrest of 10 purported ‘urban Maoists’: five (Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawale, and Rona Wilson) on June 6, 2018, and another five (Sudha Bhardwaj, P Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves) on August 28, 2018, from different parts of the country. The 10 were charged on strikingly tenuous evidence, for inciting the Bhima Koregaon violence between Dalits and upper castes on January 1, 2018, an incredible plot to assassinate the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and a range of other implausible offences. The Pune Police on November 15, 2018, filed a chargesheet against five accused (Gadling, Sen, Raut, Dhawale, and Wilson) who were arrested in June over their alleged role in the Bhima Koregaon violence. A January 28, 2020, report, revealed that the NIA was not handed over Koregaon-Bhima case files as the relevant orders from the Centre had reportedly not been received.

Despite the diminution of the Maoist threat across the country, the Maharashtra Governments’ lethargic approach towards capacity building remains a major impediment to sustaining and consolidating the gains secured at great cost and sacrifice in the State. Extreme care and sustained focus will be necessary to secure enduring peace and stability in the fight against the Maoists. Politically motivated diversions such as the ‘urban Maoist’ cases can only undermine State legitimacy and result in a diversion of both resources and focus.

Shock and Recovery
S. Binodkumar Singh
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

In the worst terrorist incident  in the country, on April 21, 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches in the cities of Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa; and three hotels and a banquet hall in Colombo, were targeted in a series of coordinated suicide bombings. 259 people were killed and 500 were injured in the attacks. The responsibility for the coordinated bombings was claimed by the Islamic State (IS or Daesh) on April 23, 2019, by its official news outlet Amaq News Agency, which released a video showing the Sri Lanka attackers pledging allegiance to the (now deceased) Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

On May 1, 2019, 10 days after the attacks, Sri Lanka Police named all nine Easter Sunday suicide bombers as local residents – Zahran Hashim, Ilham Ahmed Mohamed Ibrahim, Inshaf Ahmed, Mohamed Azzam Mubarak Mohamed, Ahmed Muaz, Mohamed Hasthun, Mohamed Nasser Mohamed Asad, Abdul Latheef and Fathima Ilham – tracing all of them to two domestic Islamist organisations, National Thawheed Jamaath (NTJ) and Jamathei Millathu Ibrahim (JMI).

In order to maintain public security and essential services, President Maithripala Sirisena, in a gazette notification, on April 22, 2019, declared a State of Emergency across the country. Under the Emergency Regulations, the Government on May 14, 2019, banned three radical Islamist organizations: NTJ, JMI and Willayat as-Seylani (WAS). Finally, the four-month state of emergency declared after Easter Sunday suicide bombings was ended on August 23, 2019. Through this period, there was a nationwide crackdown on Islamist groups. According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), 12 NTJ cadres were killed and 294 cadres of NTJ and JMI were arrested across the country. Prior to the Easter Sunday attacks, there was no terrorist incident linked to NTJ or JMI.

On September 18, 2019, in the wake of the Easter Sunday attacks, the Cabinet approved a new Counter Terrorism Bill to deal with the latest threat. The Bill gave a broad definition to terrorism and covered areas not found in the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), 1979. The PTA was only limited to terrorist acts committed by any citizen of Sri Lanka within the country, whereas the Counter Terrorism Bill will apply to any citizen of Sri Lanka in the country within or outside the territory of Sri Lanka. The new Bill, modelled on laws in Britain and India to deal with IS terrorism, also contains provisions for dealing with the use of cyberspace for terrorist operations and coordination of terrorist activities. The PTA lacked adequate teeth to act against such cyberspace operations.

Meanwhile, on October 23, 2019, the final report of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on the Easter Sunday Attack was presented in the Parliament. The report made eight recommendations that includes taking action to ban Wahabism in Sri Lanka, reorganising the defence sectors including the intelligence services, setting up of a financial investigation unit, reorganising the Attorney General’s Department and the Judiciary, monitoring media in order to stop publishing of false reports, and changing the education system to exclude teaching of extremism. The PSC had been appointed on May 22, 2019. Deputy Speaker Ananda Kumarasiri was the Chairman of the nine-member PSC. The other members of the PSC were Rajitha Senaratne, the Minister of Health and Indigenous Medicine; Rauf Hakeem, the Minister of Urban Development, Water Supply and Drainage; and Ravi Karunanayake Minister of Power, Energy and Business Development; as well as parliamentarians Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, Ashu Marasinghe and Jayampathy Wickramaratne from the Government side; and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian MA Sumanthiran and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) parliamentarian Nalinda Jayathissa representing the Opposition.

The Government also cracked down on the remnants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2019, with 27 former LTTE cadres and sympathisers arrested across the country. There were six such arrests in 2018 and seven in 2017. No LTTE-linked fatalities were recorded in 2019, 2018 and 2017. The last LTTE-related fatality was reported on April 10, 2014, when four people, including an Army Lance Corporal and three LTTE cadres, were killed in a clash between Security Forces (SFs) and LTTE cadres in the Nadunkarni area of Vavuniya District. Disturbingly, Defence Secretary Major General (Retd.) Kamal Gunaratne on December 9, 2019, stated that the ideology of LTTE continues to persist despite Sri Lanka’s freedom from terrorism.

There were also reports of arrests outside Sri Lanka in connection with LTTE. On April 11, 2019, four Sri Lankans were arrested at the Luton Airport in the United Kingdom over ‘connections’ to the LTTE. On October 10, 2019, seven persons were arrested for promoting and supporting LTTE from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Again, on October 13, 2019, Malaysia Police arrested five citizens of Malaysia over involvement in huge financial transactions to revive the LTTE. In fact, on March 26, 2019, the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry revived its Counter Terrorism Unit in the Ministry to coordinate more closely between the defence, law enforcement authorities, other relevant agencies and Sri Lankan missions abroad on counter terrorism and counter crime initiatives. The Counter Terrorism Unit most importantly coordinated efforts to continue the proscription of the LTTE as a terrorist organization by foreign Governments.

Separately, in order to promote reconciliation, the Government on August 24, 2019, opened the third regional Office on Missing Persons (OMP) in Jaffna District of the Northern Province. OMP Chairman, Saliya Pieris inaugurated the office at Jaffna, adding to the existing regional offices in Matara and Mannar Districts. OMP was operationalized on March 13, 2018, with the mandate to search for and trace the fate and whereabouts of missing and disappeared persons during the war between the Government forces and the LTTE, which was concluded on May 17, 2009. Further, President Maithripala Sirisena, during a discussion with security officials on August 28, 2019, issued instructions to expedite the process of releasing lands acquired by the military in the North and East to the rightful owners. During the discussion, security officials informed the President that 80.98 per cent of state lands and 90.73 per cent of private lands which had been acquired during the war, had already been released.

Significantly, Gotabaya Rajapaksa of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) was sworn in as President after the polarized Presidential Election of November 16, 2019. Gotabaya Rajapaksa swept the poll in the Sinhala majority Districts of the South, while New Democratic Front (NDF) candidate Sajith Premadasa garnered most of the votes from the Tamil dominated North and East, and from the Muslim community as well as the tea plantation workers of Indian origin. Repeating history, on November 21, 2019, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Sri Lanka by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Further, on November 22, 2019, the President appointed a 16-member interim Cabinet headed by his elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa and allotted major portfolios to his brothers. Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister, as well as Defence and Finance Minister. Chamal Rajapaksa as Trade and Food Security Minister. 16 law makers will serve as Ministers in a Caretaker Government until the next General Election in March 2020. Gotabaya also vowed to call a snap general election "at the earliest opportunity" hoping to ride a wave of popularity and secure a majority for his SLPP party in the 225-member Parliament. Currently, the Rajapaksas and their allies have just 96 legislators, making it hard for them to pass any legislation.

In a departure from the previous Government, on January 7, 2020, an official attached to the Justice Ministry disclosed that the Government had decided to review the OMP Act enacted by Parliament under the preceding regime. The official further stated that a preliminary discussion had been held on the Act and that the Government would review it and decide what needs to be done. In another departure from the previous Government, the Gotabaya Rajapaksa Government declined to sing the national anthem in Tamil, the country’s second national language, during the island’s Independence Day celebrations on February 4, 2020. Earlier, the anthem was sung in the country’s two primary languages – Sinhala and Tamil – to promote ethnic harmony in the aftermath of a decades-long civil war. Tamil politicians had requested Gotabaya to continue the practice of singing the Tamil translation of the national anthem, recognized by the Constitution, in order to give the Tamil community a sense of belonging to the country after decades of estrangement with the state.

The new Government also withdrew the Counter Terrorism Bill drafted by the previous Government to replace PTA. Co-Cabinet Spokesman Minister Bandula Gunawardena on January 3, 2020, noted,

Minister Gunawardena, in his statement, highlighting the opposition to the Bill within the country stated,

Gunawardena asserted that the PTA would remain in place.

Moreover, expressing serious concern over the Counter Terrorism Bill, the then opposition leader and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa (now the Prime Minister) had stated on April 2, 2019, "We will be talking to other like-minded parties to prevent the passage of the CT Bill in Parliament. The proposed new legislation is because of undue international pressure and the failure of the Government." Similarly, another opposition party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Member of Parliament (MP) Anura Kumara Dissanayake on May 8, 2019, had asserted that the Bill included articles that suppress the people. He had further said that it was very clear the Counter Terrorism Bill was attempting to suppress protests and people's rights.

Highlighting that the respect for fundamental human rights in Sri Lanka is in serious jeopardy following Gotabaya Rajapaksa's election as President in November 2019, Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its World Report 2020 released on January 14, 2020, claimed,

Through 2019, the National Unity Government, formed on August 20, 2015, made remarkable efforts to press forward the reconciliation process by establishing regional OMP centres to help find the missing persons of the war era. However, after the eighth Presidential Election of November 2019, there are already concerns in the country among the minority communities about the possibility of a return to iron-fisted rule under the Rajapaksa-duo's regime. Moreover, with a discernibly polarized mandate, Gotabaya's commitment to be a leader for all will be severely tested.