At least 35 elements of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) and special unit COBRA (Combat Battalion for Resolute Action) of the reactionary state of India were killed in a raid by the People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA) on the Darmavaram camp on January 16. Darmavaram is a community in Pamed, Bijapur in the Chhattisgarh region. Apart from this, 40 other policemen were seriously injured in the attack. The PLGA launched the raid to strike the fascist Operation Kagar in Central India.

Reports say the raid started at 7:05 pm. The PLGA used more than 600 grenades and other improvised explosive devices in the three-hour raid. Before the actual attack on the camp, Red guerrillas had already taken control of the surrounding areas. They barricaded key roads with large logs and mobilized the militia to blow up responding police units. Three fighters were martyred during the raid.

Subsequently, on February 1, the PLGA attacked the construction of a bridge at Abujhmaad, in Narayanpur district, Chhattisgarh. The guerrillas paralyzed a tractor, a tanker and a concrete mixer. The bridge’s construction, like other “development projects” in Abujhmaad, allows the entry of large corporations to plunder the area’s natural resources.

The Communist Party of India (CPI)-Maoist says this offensive is part of their defense of the Adivasi (indigenous) people. It says this renders justice for police repression of the revolutionary people.

Terrorism of Operation Kagar

Operation Kagar began implementation in January in Abujhmaad, a mountainous and forested region in the south of Chhattisgarh state. This is part of the expanded implementation of the counterinsurgency campaign Operation SAMADHAN-Prahar (OSP) by the reactionary Indian state led by Narendra Modi.

The 10,000 paramilitary forces stationed in the area are mobilized under the operation. Three thousand of these are from other Indian states who have been poured into Abujhmaad to focus on eradicating the armed resistance led by the CPI-Maoist. State forces are stationed in six paramilitary camps in the area. In effect, there are three paramilitary troops for every seven local residents.

One of the heinous crimes committed by the police here was the killing of a 6-month-old baby on January 1 in Bijapur. In addition, on January 19, three Adivasis were abducted and extrajudicially killed in Nendra, Bijapur. The victims, Madkam Soni, Punem Nangi, and Karam Kosa were on their way to a protest action when they were abducted by police in the mountainous part of their community. Meanwhile on January 30, police shot and killed Ramesh Poyam, a resident of Bodga, Bastar, while going to the river to bathe.

To cover up their crimes, the state forces made it appear that the victims were killed in an encounter with the PLGA or were casualties in the clash between it and the PLGA. The CPI (Maoist) belies all this.

Human rights groups in India also recorded several cases of aerial bombings using drones south of Chhatisgarh on January 13. These communities have been victims of repeated bombings since 2022. These bring Adivasis extreme fear which prevent them from properly earning a living.

Militarization in Central India accompanies corporatization and the entry of large companies into India’s rich forests. Under the guise of fighting the Maoists, these operations serve to intensify the plunder of the country’s natural resources by large foreign corporations.

The reactionary state and its corporate accomplices and imperialist countries drool over Abujhmaad as it is considered to be one of the last places in India that has not been plundered and the forest remains protected.

The PLGA and CPI (Maoist) are the only partners of the Adivasis in Abujhmaad in their life and death struggle for the environment, their land and livelihood.