Wasting no time after the ban was imposed in Andhra Pradesh, Naxals launched an attack in Chhattisgarh early this month by triggering a landmine, which left at least 23 security personnel dead. This blast, near Padeda village in Dantewada district, was powerful enough to awaken the State government from deep slumber and complacency. A ban on the Communist Party of India –Maoist (CPI-Maoist), the perpetrator, and its front organizations followed after an emergency meeting of the Cabinet in the State capital, Raipur.
It took the Andhra Pradesh government at least thirteen months to realize that its much-publicized honeymoon with the Naxal groups was a damp squib. Instead, the Naxals used the period as an opportunity to regroup, rearm, and consolidate in new areas.
The growing influence of the newly formed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-M), the Naxal outfit, along Uttar Pradesh's (UP) eastern borders, and the rapidity with which they expand their organisation in the State is undoubtedly alarming. Naxals are looking to the State for fresh bases to build a formidable organization. The inaccessible hilly terrain and dense forests of the state provide perfect cover for the Naxalites, who use their maps to move around.
Even as the nine-day-long ceasefire called by Maoist extremists during the ‘Dashain’ festival ended on October 28, civil society groups urged the Maoists to continue the truce until December this year when an international Buddhist convention will be held in Lumbini in southern Nepal. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has refused to extend the ceasefire unilaterally. The government started the offensive immediately, but it stopped just before the truce. At least ten extremists were gunned down in separate encounters in the Taplejung and Siraha districts within 48 hours of the truce.