A day after hundreds of Maoist rebels trapped and killed 76 Indian security personnel in a heavily mined swathe of jungle in Chhattisgarh, a feeling of shock pervades the national psyche.
The nature of the attack, the detailed planning that went into it and the government’s reaction thereafter has raised the question that is being debated for some time now.
Is it time to involve the better equipped and better trained armed forces in ongoing anti-insurgency operations?
Home Secretary G.K. Pillai told a television news channel the central forces are on track in reclaiming thousands of acres of land under Maoist control and the decision to get the army into fighting Maoist insurgency is essentially a political one.
The April 6 attack, one of the deadliest in recent times, is seen by experts as retaliation to the government’s ongoing operation to root out insurgency in Maoist-hit states.
