South Asia Terrorism Portal
Chhattisgarh: Bastions Breached Deepak Kumar Nayak Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
On April 16, 2024, in the second ever most successful operation in terms of Maoist fatalities in Chhattisgarh, at least 29 Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres, including senior leaders, were killed in an encounter between the Maoists and Security Forces (SFs) in deep forests near the Binagunda and Koronar area under Chhotebethiya Police Station limits in Kanker District. Senior Maoist 'commanders' Shankar Rao and Lalita were among those killed, and they carried a cash bounty of INR 2.5 million each. Another cadre, Vinod Gawde, who was active in Rajnandgaon and the bordering regions of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh states, was also killed. Gawde carried an INR 1 million bounty on his head. Three security personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF) and District Reserve Guards (DRG) sustained bullet injuries in the encounter. As many as 22 weapons, including one AK-47 rifle, two INSAS (Indian Small Arms System) assault rifles, one Self-Loading Rifle (SLR), one carbine, three .303 rifles, two 315 bore rifles, two 9MM pistols, two country-made launchers, eight muzzle-loading guns and one country-made hand grenade were recovered from the encounter site. Kanker, however, has not seen significant Maoist armed activity for the past several years, and it is likely that the group that was cornered and neutralized in the Binagunda-Koronar area had come to the area from the more troubled Districts, deeper south in the Division.
The most successful operation in the state was recorded on March 14, 2011, when the Police killed 30 CPI-Maoist cadres in an encounter, after an ambush by the Maoists killed three Policemen and injured another nine in the Dantewada District. However, "Police did not collect so far a single dead body of Maoists and it is probable that rebels have carried away the bodies of their colleagues deep inside the jungle," the then Bastar Inspector General of Police, T. J. Longkumer, had then said.
On April 6, 2024, three CPI-Maoist cadres were killed during an exchange of fire with SFs in the Karriguta Forests of Pujari Kanker in the Bijapur District. SFs recovered one AK47 rifle, one Light Machine Gun (LMG) and explosives from the encounter spot. The identities of the slain Maoists are yet to be ascertained.
On April 2, 2024, 13 CPI-Maoist cadres were killed in an encounter with security personnel in a forest near Lendra village under the Gangaloor Police Station limits in the Bijapur District. The identity of the dead Maoists was yet to be ascertained, but prima facie, it appeared that they belonged to the Maoist's PLGA (People's Liberation Guerrilla Army) Company No. 2, a senior Police official disclosed. Police recovered weapons, including an LMG, a .303 rifle, and a 12-bore gun, along with a substantial quantity of barrel grenade launchers, shells, and other arms and ammunition, from the site.
These were the three recent major onslaughts against the CPI-Maoists in the Bastar Division, the area which Maoists still believe is their safe haven. The Bastar Division comprises seven of the 33 Districts of Chhattisgarh - Bastar, Bijapur, Dantewada, Kanker, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, and Sukma.
According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), at least 81 Naxalites [Left Wing Extremists, LWEs] have been killed by SFs in the Bastar Division in 2024 (data till April 21). During the corresponding period of 2023, SFs had eliminated just two Naxalites. Through 2023, SFs killed 21 Naxalites, in addition to 31 killed in 2022 and 45 in 2021.
On the other hand, the Maoists have killed seven SF personnel in the Division in the current year (till April 21). During the corresponding period of 2023, Maoists had killed seven SF personnel. Through 2023, Maoists killed 23 SF personnel, in addition to 10 SF personnel killed in 2022, and 45 in 2021.
Since March 6, 2000, when SATP started compiling data on Left Wing Extremism, a total 1,376 Maoists and 1,114 SF personnel were killed in the Bastar Division (data till April 21, 2024).
Meanwhile, according to the SATP database, SFs have already arrested 33 Maoists in 2024 (data till April 21) in the Bastar Division, in addition to 125 in 2023. 3,296 Maoists have been arrested in the Division since March 6, 2000. Moreover, at least 24 Maoists have surrendered in 2024, in addition to 187 in 2023. 3,994 Maoists have reportedly surrendered in the Division since March 6, 2000. The total number of arrests in the State is 3,598 since March 6, 2000, while 4,150 have surrendered.
Clearly, the SFs have achieved tremendous success in recent times in the Bastar Division in their fight against the Maoists.
Civilian fatalities, however, have been following a cyclical trend without significant respite. 13 civilians have been killed in the Division in the current year (till April 21). During the corresponding period of 2023, Maoists had killed 12 civilians. Through 2023, Maoists killed 35 civilians, in addition to 28 civilians killed in 2022 and 23 civilians in 2021. As pressure builds on the Maoists, they have been targeting civilians, suspected by them of being 'informers' or 'agents of the Police'.
Fatalities alone do not give an adequate assessment of the Maoist threat to the civilian population. In a recent case in Bijapur District, on April 18, 2024, the Maoists threatened local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers and leaders to stay away from campaigning for the General Elections, declaring that they would be killed if the directive was overlooked. The Maoists reportedly threw several threat letters in the jungle area, issuing a direct warning to the BJP leaders, even as they held the BJP leaders responsible for the killing of 29 Maoists during the encounter with the SFs in Kanker on April 16, 2024. In the warning letter, the Maoists threatened anyone who overlooked the order with the same fate as Katala Tirupati, a BJP leader, who was killed by the extremists in Toynar village in Bijapur District on March 1, 2024. Several pamphlets were thrown at various places in the Cherpal area of Bijapur and nearby areas under the Barsuru Police Station area.
Meanwhile, speaking on the recent successful encounter against the rebels in Kanker, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Bastar Range, Sundarraj P., disclosed,
It is pertinent to recall here that, soon after coming to power on December 28, 2023, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai adopted a hard line against the rebels, declaring,
In the interim, on April 18, 2024, deputy Chief Minister and state Home Minister Vijay Sharma stated that the Chhattisgarh government was working on a new surrender policy in which CPI-Maoist cadres who give up arms may have their First Information Reports (FIRs) quashed, but the terms would not be lenient for hard-core 'commanders'. He thus stated,
On being asked if FIRs against Madvi Hidma, 'central committee' member, who is also a 'commander' of the Maoists PLGA Battalion 1 and a member of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) that leads the Maoist operations in Chhattisgarh, or other such top Maoist 'commanders', would also be quashed if they give up arms, Sharma added,
Maoist violence has seen a dramatic decline in Chhattisgarh, predominantly in the 'heartland' areas of the Bastar Division, even as the Maoists have lost impact in their erstwhile areas of dominance across the country. However, the current onslaught against the Maoists cannot be considered a victory, since the rebels still retain significant operational capacities in the Bastar Division, the location of some of their last bastions, which they will struggle to protect.
Abusing the Media Sanchita Bhattacharya Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management
Since its 'comeback' in August 2021 the Taliban have detained journalists, shut down and controlled media organisations, and imposed harsher restrictions on female reporters. The once vibrant and active independent and free news media, and diverse voices, collapsed overnight. Taliban is doing its worst to stifle various media houses, and silence voice of reason coming out of Afghanistan. Domestic media face severe censorship, and are forced to mainly feature religious hymns and songs, and Taliban propaganda, while refraining from broadcasting content misaligned with the Taliban's preferences.
On April 16, 2024, the Taliban suspended the activities of two Kabul-based TV stations, Noor and Barya, alleging that they failed to "consider national and Islamic values." An official from Taliban's Information Ministry's Media Violations Commission, Hafizullah Barakzai, stated that a court would investigate files on the two stations. Noor TV and Barya TV cannot operate until the court gives its verdict. Barya TV reportedly began operations in 2019 and is owned by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the former prime minister and leader of the Hizb-e-Islami party. Noor TV, which began broadcasting in 2007, is backed by Afghanistan's former foreign affairs minister and leader of Jamiat-e-Islami party, Salahuddin Rabbani.
As reported on April 9, 2024, the Taliban has announced plans to restrict or completely block access to Facebook. Taliban's acting Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology, Najibullah Haqqani confirmed these plans.
On February 27, 2024, Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, Taliban Minister of the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, issued a warning to media representatives during a meeting in Kabul, that the leader of the Taliban could completely ban women from working in the media if women do not cover their faces when they appear on television or in video interviews.
On February 24, 2024, the head of the Taliban Police in Khost Province sent a letter to the province's Directorate of Information and Culture as well as that of Vice and Virtue. The letter expanded the Taliban's diktats on how women are seen and heard in the media:
As reported on February 12, 2024, Taliban's Media License Renewal Commission mandated allocating 50 per cent of total airtime to broadcast Taliban programs and propaganda in favour of the group.
On December 10, 2023, a Taliban court in the Daykundi Province sentenced Sultan-Ali Jawadi, the chief editor of Radio Nasim to one year in prison on charges of collaborating with foreign media, blasphemy, and espionage for foreigners.
According to partial data collated by Institute for Conflict Management, since August 15, 2021, when the Taliban seized power, at least 28 journalists have been arrested in 15 incidents (data till April 17, 2024). On March 11, 2023, Hosein Naderi, a journalist with the Afghan Voice Agency was killed in a bomb attack on a cultural center in Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of Balkh Province, while reporters had gathered to mark National Journalists Day. It is the lone incident in which a journalist lost his life.
The situation, however, is worse than these numbers alone suggest, since the Taliban's pall of intimidation is enveloping, and a high measure of compliance has already been enforced. Nevertheless, Nai, a media-supporting organization in Afghanistan, disclosed on November 19, 2023, that 108 cases of violence against journalists had already been recorded in the country in 2023. The head of Nai, Zarif Karimi, added that the cases included arrests, beatings, harassment, insult, humiliation and other unlawful actions against the journalist by security forces.
In its annual report for 2023, released on December 29, 2023, the Afghanistan Journalist Center indicated that it had documented at least 168 instances of violation of journalists' rights, including one death and 61 arrests. Although the numbers reflected a decrease compared to 2022, when the center recorded 260 such incidents, the center noted that eight media outlets had been banned in 2023, of which five were temporarily barred from operating, while the remaining three were banned outright.
In January, 2024, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), disclosed that, in the years since the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan had lost 40 per cent of its media outlets and 60 per cent of its journalists, including a steeper decline in the number of women journalists.
A February 2024 report also noted that, before the Taliban takeover, 197 television networks, 284 radio stations, hundreds of print magazines and active websites were operating in Afghanistan. Following the Taliban takeover, 70 per cent of media outlets in the country ceased operations.
Since August 15, 2021, the Taliban regime has issued around 17 directives to control the media and journalism in Afghanistan (data till February 24, 2024), including the prohibition of music on all media; a ban on women appearing in television dramas; a prohibition on publishing films and serials; a prohibition of interviews with opponents and critics of the Taliban; imposition of total gender segregation in the media and a prohibition of interviews between men and women; a prohibition on any criticism of the performance of Taliban officials by the media, among others.
Since the Taliban gained control of Afghanistan, numerous journalists and media professionals have fled the country due to fear of the Taliban's retaliation and repression. According to Taliban directives, spokespersons for the group are forbidden from engaging with exiled media, and they have revoked licenses and blocked the internet domains of some exiled media outlets. As reported in February 2024, Ahmad Qureshi, the Executive Director of the Afghanistan Journalists Center, stated that the Taliban had verbally issued orders prohibiting cooperation with exiled media outlets, further intensifying the restrictions on the access to information.
Women journalists and media officials, have been the primary targets of Taliban bigotry. An August 2023, Reporters Without Borders report, titled Two Years of Journalism under the Taliban Regime, observed that over 80 per cent of Afghanistan's female journalists had been compelled to cease working since August 15, 2021. The report noted, further, that of the 12,000 journalists, including both males and females, that Afghanistan had in 2021, more than two-thirds had abandoned the profession.
According to the Afghan Independent Journalists Association, more than half of the 547 media outlets existing in 2021 have subsequently vanished, Reporters Without Borders added.
Even while the Taliban regime restricts and suppresses media, it also exploits the surviving media outlets to spread propaganda. The regime has appointed its 'own people' at different managerial and executive levels in these media, including national radio and television channels, over 30 provincial radio and TV stations, the Bakhtar News Agency, five government newspapers, and radio and television affiliated with the former House of Representatives. These media primarily function as propaganda machines, spreading the Taliban's narrative and the state's political and religious propaganda. Journalists and media organization are forced to publish and propagate messages aligned with the Taliban's agenda.
A few social media channels and Influencers remain in the Taliban's good books, and these are granted coveted broadcast licenses. Influencers whose work is seen as benefiting the regime have been allowed to showcase the achievements of various Taliban ministries. One of the top channels, "Our Afghanistan," with over 350,000 YouTube subscribers, has focused on a widely known backer of the Taliban, 'General' Mobeen Khan, often shown distributing donated winter clothing, talking to soldiers or visiting hospital patients. Even such favourites are, however, not outside the spectrum of scrutiny. 'General' Khan was arrested, detained for at least 20 days, and then released, in June 2023. He attributed his incarceration to a 'misunderstanding'.
Some channels, such as Dostdaran Kabul with over 40,000 subscribers, focus almost entirely on purported urban development under the Taliban. Others, for instance, Kabul Lovers, mix scripted entertainment videos with content featuring Taliban officials.
The decline in press freedom has been evident in international rankings, with Afghanistan's position dropping from 122nd in 2021 to 156th in 2023 (out of 180 countries assessed) on the World Press Freedom Index.
The Taliban, this time around, is far more dangerous than its earlier avatar (1996-2001). Unlike the 1990s, when the Taliban militia used to break TVs, dish antennas and radio sets, Taliban 2.0 is more organized, shrewd and insidious, suppressing media freedoms even while it exploits the media to its own advantage.
Weekly Fatalities: Major Conflicts in South Asia April 15-21, 2024
Civilians
Security Force Personnel
NS
Total
AFGHANISTAN
INDIA
Chhattisgarh
Jammu & Kashmir
INDIA (Total)
PAKISTAN
Balochistan
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Sindh
PAKISTAN (Total)
Total (South Asia)
First Afghan female Olympian calls on International Olympic Committee to ban Afghanistan, says report: Friba Rezayee, the first woman to represent Afghanistan at the Olympics, has called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban Afghanistan due to the Taliban's human rights record. She has argued that under such ban, Afghan women should still be allowed to participate as part of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team. Arab News, April 16, 2024.
29 Maoists including senior cadres killed in encounter with SFs in Chhattisgarh: At least 29 Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres, including senior cadres, were killed in an encounter between Maoists and Security Forces (SFs) in deep forests near Binagunda and Koronar area under Chhotebethiya Police Station limits in Kanker District of Chhattisgarh on April 16. Kanker Superintendent of Police (SP) Kalyan Elesela said "Senior Maoist commanders Shankar Rao and Lalita were among those killed, and they carried a cash bounty of Rs 25 lakh [INR 2.5 million] each. Another cadre, Vinod Gawde, who was active in Rajnandgaon and the state bordering regions of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, was also killed in the biggest encounter ever. Gawde carried a Rs 10 lakh [INR 1 million] bounty on his head." Three security personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF) and District Reserve Guards (DRG) also sustained bullet injuries in the encounter.The Times of India, April 17, 2024.
MHA confirms declaration of JKDFP unlawful group: On April 15, a tribunal constituted by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs confirmed the ban imposed on the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP), headed by jailed separatist Shabir Ahmad Shah. While declaring JKDFP a banned group, the home ministry said, ''Shah called Kashmir a "dispute" and ruled out any settlement within the framework of the Constitution of India, and the members of his party have been at the forefront of secessionist activities to create a separate Islamic state''. Daily Excelsior, April 16, 2024.
Peace talks should never compromise core issues of State, says Manipur CM N Biren Singh: Manipur Chief Minister (CM) N Biren Singh on April 17 asserted that any form of peace talks between the warring communities should not compromise the territorial integrity of the State and must ensure the protection of the indigenous population. Singh said, "The peace talks should not compromise the territorial integrity of the state and the well-being of our indigenous people. We will not accept peace negotiations that dilute these fundamental issues." The Telegraph, April 19, 2024.
Working on new surrender policy, but not for hardcore Maoists, says Chhattisgarh deputy CM Vijay Sharma: Chhattisgarh government is working on a new surrender policy in which Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres who give up arms may have their FIRs quashed, but the terms will not be lenient for hard-core 'commanders', deputy Chief Minister (CM) and state Home Minister Vijay Sharma said in an interview on April 18. "Our govt is holding discussions to bring major changes in the surrender policy for Maoists. We want to encourage more insurgents to give up violence, join the mainstream and avail benefits of the state's progress," he said. Daily Excelsior, April 19, 2024.
The South Asia Intelligence Review (SAIR) is a weekly service that brings you regular data, assessments and news briefs on terrorism, insurgencies and sub-conventional warfare, on counter-terrorism responses and policies, as well as on related economic, political, and social issues, in the South Asian region.
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