Editorial
Sudden, bloody death in India
We condemn the heinous act
THE suspected involvement of Maoists in the train crash which left at least a hundred dead in West Bengal on Friday renews fears of the threats India faces from these extremist elements. The very fact that since February this year the Maoist guerrillas have been making violent raids on targets in West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, in the process causing the deaths of scores of people, says a whole lot about the horrific and mindless lengths to which extremism can go in staging such orgies of destruction. It also points to the desperate measures they appear to be adopting in their war against the establishment. This desperation becomes clear from the fact that the Maoists are now beginning to target civilians, a clear change in strategy considering that earlier the focus was on soldiers and policemen. Obviously, with the Indian government going in for a direct, no-holds-barred assault on Maoist strongholds, the rebels find themselves in a beleaguered position. It is a back-to-the-wall approach that they now have decided on. The consequences have been horrendous.
One does not have to emphasise the severe challenge that India faces today from the Maoists. This reality is borne out by the number of those killed by the rebels this year alone. Such acts of cowardice can only alienate the rebels from the very people they say they would like to help vis-à-vis socio-economic uplift. The problem is compounded by the fact that the Maoists do not only operate in West Bengal and Chhattisgarh but also have camps in other Indian states. The networking established by the Maoists in different regions of the country demonstrates the level of coordination which has come into their operations. And unless the Indian authorities prove equal to the task of quelling the rebels, there is a real chance that the chaos the Maoists have so far caused will only ripple out in a wider dimension. It is quite clear that even as they face the full force of Indian security forces, the rebels seem to think that the more they strike out against policemen and civilians, the closer the authorities will come to negotiations with them.
We in Bangladesh sympathise with the families of the dead and with those who have survived this newest tragedy as we have ourselves been victims of terrorism in some form or the other. Terrorism is never a solution to a problem but a beginning to a problem. We have always upheld the principle that violence to achieve political aims can only leave a society in huge disorder. For that reason, we condemn the murder and mayhem that the Maoist elements in India have lately resorted to. Those who kill and pillage can only distance themselves from the people. They can only destroy and leave societies in various states of paralysis.
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