-Outlook The Maoists want a military conflict as it brings more adivasis into their fold. The Indian state's best bet is in ensuring that it wins over the aam adivasis to its side.   May 25th's condemnable attack by the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army, which ended up killing and injuring over 50 people from Congress politicians to migrant adivasi labourers, cannot be understood without recognising the Maoist party's explicit political aims. These...

-The Telegraph Hyderabad: Thousands of Bastar tribals have fled to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh since Sunday to escape the security forces' combing of areas around the Sukma-Jagdalpur road following Saturday's ambush. Although exact figures are not available yet, Andhra district officials say some 10,000 to 15,000 people - mostly tribals but including some middle-class traders - have entered the Khammam and Warangal districts through Bhadrachalam, Chintoor and Venkatapuram. "This is the worst time for...

-The Indian Express   Maoists say target was Karma, demand pullout of forces Raipur: Claiming responsibility for Saturday's attack on the Congress convoy in Bastar which claimed 24 lives, the CPI (Maoist) said on Tuesday that the killing of senior party leaders was the "necessary revenge against the UPA's fascist Operation Green Hunt, which is being run in connivance with several state governments". "The primary aim behind this attack was to kill Mahendra Karma...

-The Economic Times DANTEWADA: With both the Congress and BJP advocating an intensification of the military campaign against the Naxals, and the UPA government at the Centre even committing more troops to Chhattisgarh, local development in the state could become a casualty in the crossfire. "An outside force is less capable of discriminating between Naxals and villagers," says Vishwa Ranjan, former director general police, Chhattisgarh. Such an intensification will result in greater...

-The Hindu     The killings of Mahendra Karma and his colleagues call not for retributive violence but for a deeper reflection on the discontent among the tribals of central India and their dispossession In the summer of 2006, I had a long conversation with Mahendra Karma, the Chhattisgarh Congress leader who was killed in a terror attack by the Naxalites last week. I was not alone - with me were five other members...