While one would associate the Naxal movement to the jungles and rural areas, security agencies flag the rise of the urban Naxal force and say that this is more lethal
When the Narendra Modi government took over in the year 2014, two key areas which required attention were internal security and development. During the analysis that were conducted after taking over as Prime Minister, Modi was advised to focus extensively on the Naxal menace.
The threat from the Naxalites was bigger when compared to the one from the Islamic terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba or Jaish-e-Mohammad. What made the threat from the Naxalites even more dangerous is that it was internal and worse, they had an eco-system in the cities, which would propagate and sympathise on their behalf.
New Delhi, Sep 10: In the year 2017, a report prepared by the United States of America had said that the CPI-Maoist is the deadliest terror outfit in India. Looking at the casualty rate and number of lives naxal related violence had claimed, it is only behind the Taliban, Islamic State and Boko Haram.
Mumbai, Sep 9: The Pune police claimed on Saturday that all the seven organisations, to which some of the left-wing activists arrested recently for alleged Maoist links belonged, were fronts of the banned CPI (Maoist).
New Delhi, Aug 30: The urban movement is the main source for providing leadership and resources to the CPI(Maoist). The responsibility for provision of supplies, technologies, expertise, information and other logistic support is also shouldered by the overground activists in urban centres, officials have said.
In the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Intelligence Bureau had issued several warnings regarding the security of Narendra Modi, who was then running for Prime Minister. All the reports had a clear indication that the threats were by external agencies, who were backing groups such as the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and the Students Islamic Movement of India.
In the crackdown against naxalites and their friends in the urban areas, there is plenty of information on their modus operandi that has been coming out. The Special Intelligence Branch which keeps a close watch on their activities say that there is a new sense of desperation that can be seen, due to dip in geographical territory and more importantly the drying up of funds.