This Article is From Apr 11, 2010

Bastar: A Naxal stronghold

Dornapal: The Maoists were clearly prepared and executed the attack with precision. NDTV correspondents travelled back to Dornapal and found how the state and the Naxals are battling for control in this part of India's Red corridor.

Worshipping the earth, an annual ritual deep inside Bastar. Locals believe it will bring good harvest and prosperity. But despite their prayers the ground situation is not improving. Earlier this week, Maoists massacred 76 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans, 30 KMs from here.

"Bastar was peaceful, now the situation is bad. Earlier police used to come whenever we called them, now they don't. We live in constant fear and it's becoming worse every day," says one of the residents of the area.

Everyone here is on the edge, that includes Kamlesh, in-charge of the 50-odd men at a police station here. Barbed wires and check posts are increasingly becoming part of the landscape. It's not hard to find out why.

Just a few kilometres away, a sign of the presence of Maoists. A few months ago they cut a tree to block the crucial highway that connects Jagdalpur, the district headquarters of south Bastar with Chintalnard, where the jawans were killed.

If Maoists are trying to take over roads, forces here have been forced to take cover in school buildings.

Vikrant Verma, commanding the Bravo Company of the CRPF's second battalion, is a worried man. He and his men were looking for Maoists around the time the jawans were ambushed. They were lucky to be 20 KMs from the site of the massacre.

Vikram's challenge is not only to take on Maoists and keep his men safe, but also intelligence gathering.

Maoists use a very old but effective system of gathering intelligence human couriers. They don't even trust cell phones.

Mr Nag, the acting principal of a school, is equally worried. Schools are soft targets for Maoists. The CRPF camp just in front, a constant reminder of the lurking insecurity.

The school has 250 students, but only four teachers. Besides it has not won as many trophies as it once used to.

A few yards away is the primary healthcare centre. "This hasn't opened for over a year. The doctor has stopped coming," says one of the locals.

The only doctor Mohammed Khalil Khan was killed by Maoists two months ago. His son Akil cannot understand why? "My father took three bullets," says Akil. His father's only fault was that he treated those in the forces occasionally.

Amid all the doom and gloom, we couldn't help notice a beauty parlour, which is doing a good business.

Barely 30 KMs from where the CRPF jawans were massacred a fight is on, though of a different kind.

As fight between the Maoists and the State intensifies in the forest and villages around us, this too is part of Bastar, but the big question is for how long?
 
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