Source: news.bbc.co.uk
[HPI note: According to the Indian police, Maoists were the perpetrators of the murder of Swami Laxshmananda in late 2008, causing months of civil unrest.]
DELHI, INDIA, June 23, 2009: The Indian government has banned the Maoist Communist Party of India as a terrorist group, giving security forces enhanced powers of arrest.
Earlier, five states across east and central India were put on a high alert as the Maoists called a two-day strike. One district in West Bengal briefly fell under almost total Maoist control. The rebels said the strike they declared was in response to the “war” on people in Lalgarh, West Bengal, where security forces launched an offensive in recent days.
India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has described the Maoists as the greatest threat to India’s internal security. Correspondents say it is unclear how big an impact the ban will have in the fight against the rebels.
Some of Bengal’s leading artists, including film-maker Aparna Sen, visited Lalgarh on Sunday in a attempt to broker peace between the West Bengal government and the Maoists.
But neither appeared to be in a mood to talk.
“The Maoists have no specific demand,” said Bengal’s chief secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarty. Maoist leader Kishneji told the BBC: “We will show the government what is people’s power. No police or army can crush that.”
Maoist-linked violence has killed 6,000 people in India over two decades.