Dantewada (Chhattisgarh): There are many horror stories of kid Maoists undertaking violent attacks on security forces in the troubled districts of Chhattisgarh.
On October 8, a police constable was attacked by a group of five Naxals, all aged below 15 years, when he went to meet his sister in Hitabar village under Kuakonda police limits in Chhattisgarh’s south Bastar district of Dantewada. The “child” rebels stormed into his sister’s house and opened fire on him from 9 mm pistols.
“The ambush left him (the jawan) stunned and shocked. He could not believe his eyes when he saw the child Naxals spraying bullets on him from their nine mm pistols. The very sight of Maoists of such young age had left him stupefied and motionless for a moment,” Dantewada district superintendent of police (SP) Kamal Lochan Kashyap told this newspaper.
“He recovered soon to overpower them and snatch their arms. The rebels then attacked him with knives, leading to loss of a couple of toes of his left foot,” he added.
Such incidents of Maoist violence involving Naxals aged below 15 years are becoming common in south Bastar districts of Dantewada, Bijapur and Sukma, Mr Kashyap said, calling it a “disturbing development”.
Another disturbing trend witnessed in the Leftwing insurgency in recent times is that the Maoists have started engaging children as young as 10 years of age in Bastar in making and planting landmines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and pressure bombs, a senior police officer posted in the conflict zone disclosed.
A group of child Maoists aged barely 13-15 years was spotted planting IEDs at a place in Bhejji area in south Bastar district of Sukma last month. They fled when a search party reached the area. “Security forces are virtually at a loss on how to deal with such a situation. They have suffered casualties in ambushes by child Maoists,” the police officer posted in Bastar said.
“The use of children in guerrilla warfare by the Maoists is giving birth to a dangerous legacy in insurgency. The situation will be unmanageable in coming days if the trend is not nipped in the bud,” said Dr Vernika Sharma, a research scholar who did her post-doctorate on mental condition of security forces in Naxal conflict zone of Bastar, told this newspaper.
