New Delhi: India’s security forces killed 27 people, said to be “maoist militants”, as authorities intensified “a campaign aimed at defeating the country’s decades-old leftist insurgency,” reports Pragati K.B. in The New York Times.
“India’s Maoist movement began as a guerrilla-style insurgency in the 1960s, when offshoots of Communist parties took up arms in the name of creating a classless society. It started in the eastern parts of the country and spread to the central and southern regions. The places where they are still active are collectively called the Red Corridor, a mostly forested area abundant in natural resources,” reads the description of the insurgency in the report.
“Along with the sprint to crush the insurgency directly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has undertaken development initiatives, like building wider roads to the remote regions where the movement has thrived. The hope has been that greater outreach to local residents, most of them tribal minorities, might persuade them to oppose the insurgents,” Pragati writes.
The Financial Times also features the killings, particularly that of Maoist leader Nambala Keshav Rao, or ‘Basavaraju’.
“Rao had a bounty of Rs 15 mn ($180,000) on his head and Indian intelligence agencies said he was a mastermind behind several deadly attacks on security forces, including one in 2010 in Dantewada in which 76 police officers were killed,” write John Reed and Jyotsna Singh.
Meanwhile, over a week after the ceasefire was announced, in Jammu and Kashmir as well as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, local people are still teetering on the edge––unable to return to regular life, report Rick Noack and Haq Nawaz Khan for The Washington Post.
“We fear another Indian attack,” Sardar Usman Attique, a senior member of an influential “pro-Pakistan” party, the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference, tells The Post. “Like an injured animal, Modi will come back to bite again,” he is further quoted as saying.
Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad was given interim bail, but the investigation against his social media posts continues, reports Nikita Yadav in the BBC. “Mr Mahmudabad’s arrest had sparked criticism from academics and rights groups, who called the allegations ‘baseless’ and the arrest a form of ‘censorship’,” the report reads.
“He expressed support for India’s response while warning of the brutality inherent in any war. He also highlighted the significance of two women officers—one of whom is Muslim—presenting the operation’s details during daily media briefings,” Yadav writes, in reference to his social media posts.
The “self-promotion” of General Asim Munir to Field Marshal is part of his “victory lap”, and nothing boosts popularity in Pakistan like a win against India, writes columnist Sadanand Dhume in The Wall Street Journal. It has even successfully erased past controversies, the piece says.
“The persecution of Mr. (Imran) Khan made Mr. Munir arguably the most unpopular Pakistani army chief in living memory—that is, until India bombed nine “terrorist infrastructure” sites on May 7 in retaliation for a terrorist attack on Indian tourists in Kashmir. The conflict has allowed Mr. Munir to reinvent himself as a hero,” Dhume writes.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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