Rare Maoist video shows rebels training to shoot down helicopters

The threat perception has risen in the strife-torn Bastar zone, after a rare video surfaced showing Maoists training hard to shoot down helicopters. There is a helipad close to almost every police station and base camp in the south Chhattisgarh area.

In the past, rebels have targeted copters in Bastar region at least four or five times. 

The Chhattisgarh Police, however, view this video as “nothing new”. 

In a recently surfaced video, Maoists can be seen getting trained on how to shoot down helicopters in Bastar region. Here, a makeshift copter slides down a rope at a training camp

Maoists stand guard as the helicopter begins to descend

“Such video clippings are in our cognisance. Through the video, Maoists are trying to create panic. Every precautionary security measure is being taken by us. We, however, need to be much more careful during take-off and landing of a copter,” Additional Director General of Police (Anti-Maoist Operation) R.K. Vij told Mail Today. 

“We are geared up to counter the Maoist strategy, and such trainings will not affect our morale,” Vij added, talking about the Maoists’ new strategy. 

The video clip of the training apparently suggests that the left-wing extremists are planning to go for soft targets. 

“As the Maoists are not able to counter security forces face-to-face and neither are their planting of IEDs causing any damage to the security forces, the armed guerrillas have turned their attention towards soft targets such as helicopters. This takes little effort but has high impact,” opined Brigadier B.K. Ponwar (retd.), the director of Counter Terrorism and Jungle Warfare College in Kanker. 

Rebels take aim at the helicopter

Security experts believe the videos do not depict the re-emergence of Maoists but their desperation, which is forcing them to attack soft targets. 

The Maoists have recently looted several modern automatic weapons, including four sophisticated under barrel grenade launchers that can shoot down a target from a distance of around 400 metres. 

Though the helipads in Bastar region are close to the camps and police stations, most of them are built in open spaces and even near villages, thus enhancing risk and vulnerability. 

It is, therefore, important to secure the vicinity, covering at least one kilometre, of these helipads. 

“Or else, those helipads, believed to be in vulnerable areas, should be relocated to safer and higher altitudes, and secured tactically,” Ponwar told Mail Today. 

Vij ruled out shifting any helipad to a “safer” location, saying the regions around the helipads are sanitised. 

Meanwhile, the state police headquarters has issued guidelines to the security forces to ensure the safety of copters at helipads, especially during take-off or landing. 

In Chhattisgarh, at least four IAF Mi-17 and two indigenous Dhruv copters maintained by the BSF, remain in operation. 

The copters are pressed into service to ferry VVIPs or VIPs in seven districts of the Maoist-affected Bastar division. They are also used during emergencies such as air-lifting injured or dead jawans, transporting rations to security personnel in remote pockets, and carrying cash to remotely-located banks.

Maoists call for Obama boycott on January 26 

The Banned CPI (Maoist) group has come out with a statement, opposing US President Barack Obama’s visit to India. 

The left-wing extremists have given a call to “boycott” Obama, who is scheduled to attend India’s Republic Day Parade on January 26 as the chief guest on the invitation of PM Narendra Modi. 

The spokesperson of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee, Gudsa Usendi, was critical of US policies in a press release as he cited that the western country was trying to secure itself from the economic crisis by “stepping- up exploitation” of resources in poor and backward countries. 

The rebels appealed to all sections of people, including youths, tribals, rights organisations and Kashmiris, to boycott Obama’s visit. 

“We will observe January 26 as a day of protest to oppose Obama’s visit to India,” Usendi stated. 

The Maoists have also criticised Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign, saying it’s a strategy to “loot India” for “foreign capitalists”. 

The boycott call, however, has been termed absurd by many. 

Social activist Swami Agnivesh feels there is no point boycotting Obama’s visit. 

“Being a political entity, the CPI (Maoist) is free to take a stand on boycott but there must not be any violence. The US President will be a special guest, and should be welcomed with warm hospitality in India,” Agnivesh told Mail Today. 

The Chhattisgarh Police too, find the Maoist boycott ridiculous. 

“It is nothing more than creating media hype,” ADG (Anti-Maoist operation) R.K. Vij said.