By IANS
Ranchi : Civilian casualties in Jharkhand have almost doubled after the two main Maoist groups – Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and People’s War Group (PWG) – merged three years ago, nearly 76 deaths having been reported till July this year.
“Civilian casualties have doubled in the state after the merger of the MCC and the PWG in 2004 (when the Communist Party of India-Maoist came into existence) as more outfits were floated by disgruntled members to carry out their own agenda,” said Additional Director General of Police Gauri Shankar Rath.
It has been a steadily increasing graph – in 2005, 79 civilians were killed, in 2006 the numberof those killed was 93 and in the first seven months of this year, 76.
The increasing numbers are attributed to a split in the ranks of the CPI-Maoist that has led to several new groups being formed.
Six new outfits, including the Jharkhand Liberation Front (JLF), Tritiya Prastuti Committee, Jharkhand Prastuti Committee (JPC), were formed following the merger three years ago.
According to police sources, different Maoist factions earn nearly Rs.1.5 billion a year through extortion.
When Jharkhand was formed in November 2000, only six districts were affected by Maoist insurgency. This has now gone up to 16 with reports of Maoist rebels expanding their base in other regions as well.
In the most recent instance of civilians being attacked, three people were killed in Jamshedpur last week for participating in the Lok Sabha by-elections despite a Maoist boycott call.
Since 2001, nearly 630 civilians have been killed in various Maoist attacks.
In the same period, 284 rebels and 274 security personnel have been killed.
“The situation has become worse since there was no action to chase them out before. Though now they are on the run, the failure of the local government is helping them bounce back,” said Rath.