India’s push to crush revolt

AFTER India’s Maoist rebels executed his father, accusing him of spying, the young tribal man dropped out of university to join a controversial paramilitary group hunting down the insurgents.

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“They claim to be fighting for us, but they kill us,” the 21-year-old member of the District Reserve Guards (DRG) said.

India is waging an all-out offensive against the last vestiges of its Naxalite rebellion, named after the Darjeeling village in the foothills of the Himalayas where the Maoist-inspired guerrilla movement began nearly six decades ago.

More than 12 000 rebels, soldiers and civilians have died since a handful of villagers rose up against their feudal lords there in 1967.

At its peak in the mid-2000s, the rebellion controlled nearly a third of the country with an estimated 15 000 to 20 000 fighters.

But the “Red Corridor” across east and central India with its parallel administration that included schools and clinics has been ruthlessly squeezed since.

Security forces have killed nearly 400 suspected rebels - a record - since the start of last year, with Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah vowing to wipe them out by next April.

Most have died in the insurgency’s last stronghold, the mineral-rich forests of Bastar region in central Chhattisgarh state, where police say up to 1 200 insurgents are still holding out.