Oppose Army Deployment in Bastar

Dear Friends and Comrades,

For the last one year and a half, we have been hearing and worrying about the deployment of Army in Bastar[1] area. When all of us have gathered here to discuss about the deployment of army and about the War on People of this country, a brigade of Indian Army is being trained near Kokkodi village on the road connecting Kondagaon and Narayanpur district headquarters in Chhattisgarh (CG). This brigade arrived here in the second week of March 2012. Earlier two brigades had completed their training in Kondagaon and Narayanpur districts. At first, 1700 jawans of Mountain Brigade belonging to the Army entered Bastar in end May 2011. After their training was completed, the second brigade came and departed. The training of the first brigade was conducted near Masaura village on the Raipur-Jagdalpur highway while that of the second was completed near Bunagaon on the Kondagaon-Narayanpur road. Now they have advanced further in the direction of Narayanpur town and are being trained in Kokkodi. It is clear that the Army is advancing further according to a plan to gradually cross Narayanpur town and penetrate into the remote Maad (Abujmaad) area. All this is an exercise to gradually occupy the 750 sq kms area allotted by the CG government to the army for ‘training’.

In the second week of April 2012, General VK Singh of the Indian Army supervised the training of his jawans and did aerial survey of the proposed training area. Earlier, in the first week of April, the Lucknow Central Command Officer Commanding-in-Chief Lieutenant General Anil Chait, Central India Area Command Jabalpur General Officer Commanding Lieutenant General R.S. Pradhan and Brigadier Amrik Singh belonging to the COSA (CG-Odisha Sub Area) Command toured Bastar. They reviewed the training program going on in Kondagaon and Narayanpur districts.

 The deployment of Army and all the necessary preparations for this purpose are getting completed rapidly on a big scale. In fact, a nodal cell was formed by the Army long back to study and monitor the Maoist People’s War (PW).  With a long term view of completely suppressing the Maoist movement going on in the Central and Eastern parts of India, two Sub Area Head Quarters (HQ) are about to be formed, each with 15,000 soldiers. One would be at Jagdalpur in Bastar and the other would be at Ambarda on Odisha-Bengal borders. The Sub Area HQ was formally inaugurated in Raipur, the capital of CG. They are establishing Brigade HQ by forcefully occupying 1800 acres of land from the peasants of Chakarbhantha village near Bilaspur. Retired Army officers are being employed to give training in anti-IED operations to CRPF.  Another training school for the army is about to be established near Saraipaali on CG-Odisha borders.

Even before entering the Maoist areas, the Central Defence and Home ministries had given several powers to the Army in the name of ‘self-defence’.  These powers  given in the name of ‘Guiding Principles’ and the  provisions in the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) are almost the same. Air Force is also involved in its preparations apart from the Army. In fact, usage of Air Force helicopters has been going on for a long time. Apart from the MI-17 helicopters belonging to the IAF, ‘Dhruv’ helicopters belonging to the BSF are being vastly used for transport of armed forces during military operations in Maoist areas. In the combat, search and rescue operations that are carried on through these helicopters, the Special Force ‘Garud’ belonging to the IAF are being used. Apart from the helicopters given by the Centre, the CG government is taking some more helicopters on hire and utilizing them. At present, the process of establishing an Air Force air base by occupying 300 acres of land near Nandini in Durg district is on. An air base is getting built in Narayanpur too. On the other hand, efforts are on to build an air base in Bodeli village on the Dhanora-Gadchiroli road. On the whole, a hundred helipads are getting built in nine ‘Naxal affected’ states.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or drones manufactured in US and Israel are also being used on a vast scale. These take real time images, find out about the guerillas’ movements and their camps on the ground and send the data to the control room and in turn they are sent immediately to the forces participating in operations through modern devices. Small UAVs named ‘Netra’ that run on rechargeable batteries are carried and used by the forces during the operations. 1800 mobile towers are newly getting built in the Maoist movement areas. A Regional Navigation Satellite System is being established under the direction of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

It is clear that all these resemble war preparations  by occupying armies against enemy countries. The preparations are on the scale of attacks done on foreign armies. What foreign armies are present inside the country according to the rulers? Which foreign elements are present in the heart of our country in Bastar? The Indian Army is descending on  Bastar to wage war against whom? It is necessary to know this in detail.

Indian Army men kill a dog for Breakfast in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh

The Army man can be heard shouting Operation Kutta is successful at the end. Somebody in Delhi should nominate these guys for a medal.

Mr Chidambaram kindly supply your troops with some rations and meat, or I won't be surprised if they take to cannibalism in Dantewada.

On the one hand the mongrels of Dantewada / Bastar save the lives of hundreds of Paramilitaries by sniffing  out IED's and paramilitaries repay this favour by consuming more than 5000 of these dogs over the last few years ?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw1-8AMoBlM

This video was posted online in June 2010.

In this picture , CTJWC Director Basant Kumar Ponwar trains his ‘students’ in the techniques of IED detection

Brigadier B K Ponwar needs to change his dog training motto to " Mission Breakfast Nahin Banana".

Yudh Abhyas 2012 - U.S. and Indian Army military exercise Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQcIphhr2iQ

Yudh Abhyas is an annual exercise between the Indian and U.S. armies. Yudh Abhyas 2012 took place in Mahajan training range, Rajasthan, India 70km from the Pakistan border.

This is a short trailer showing some of the events of the military exercise. The units that took part were from U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC) including the A troop 2-14 Cav 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii and the 6th Engineer Battalion (Airborne), 2nd Engineer Brigade out of Ft. Richardson, Alaska.

Produced and Shot by SSG Robert Ham.
Cultural Advisor, SPC Mohan Pagonda.
Music by Celldweller Song - ShutEmDown

Indian Army Base in Abujhmad,Bastar to become operational soon.

The Indian army is moving into the conflict theatre of Bastar, arriving at the doorsteps of what is arguably the strongest military base of the CPI Maoist - not for combat, as yet, but ostensibly for training. "Manoeuvre ranges have been finalised in Narayanpur district where training will be given to our troops," confirmed a highly placed official in the army.

Significantly, the hundred square kilometres identified for training lie in the foothills of Abujhmad, a thickly forested plateau, straddling both Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, one of the only regions of India unsurveyed by the government, considered out of bound for the administration, entirely controlled by insurgents, and often described as a Maoist liberated zone.

While the army sought to emphasise that its plans are limited to training, and there will be no active troop deployment against the Maoist insurgency, sources in the security establishment said any training facility would necessitate logistical support. "This means the army would first secure the Kondagaon-Narayanpur axis, placing a large number of troops in a series of camps, before it moves inwards for the purpose of training, somewhere near Orcha in the foothills of Abujhmad" explained a senior official.

Since the Maoists ambushed and killed more than hundred CRPF men in Bastar this summer - incidentally one of the ambushes took place close to the proposed army training range - an intense debate has raged over whether at all the army should be drawn into anti-Maoist operations. For the record, the government has maintained that the army's role would be limited to training. The army itself has shown great reluctance for the job. But sources indicate the army has begun mapping the contours of the conflict, preparing itself for the eventuality of deployment, in case the government decides to declare Maoist affected territories as disturbed areas, like parts of the North East, or Jammu and Kashmir.

While one view is that the training range in Bastar will bring the army tantalisingly close to the Maoists, and hence could be part of future strategic positioning, another view is that the move is purely routine, linked to the army's needs. "Since the army's counter-insurgency training centre in Vairengte in Mizoram is under great pressure, the army has been scouting for training grounds in tropical forests, either in Orissa, Maharashtra, Jharkhand or Chhattisgarh," said a security expert. Recently, the army also announced the setting up of a peace time station, called a sub area command, near Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh, one of the few states where the army has no presence.

Whether strategic or routine, the army's move into Bastar would be significant, pointed out a retired army officer: "Look at this in the light of psychological warfare. It is like telling the Maoists, beware, the tiger is outside your den".

Read more: Finally, Army moves into Maoist territory - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Finally-Army-moves-into-Maoist-territory/articleshow/7096294.cms#ixzz186kYitkW