India to consider airstrikes against Maoist rebels after bus attack kills 31

India to consider airstrikes against Maoist rebels

NEW DELHI — India’s home minister called for the government Tuesday to consider using the air force against Maoist rebels in the wake of an insurgent attack on a bus that killed 31 police officers and civilians.

The rebel strike Monday in a remote area in the state of Chhattisgarh came despite a government offensive aimed at rooting out the Maoists fighters, known as Naxals, who have been fighting one of Asia’s longest rebellions.

Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said in a television interview broadcast Tuesday that the Indian states worst hit by the rebel violence have been demanding the use of air power to bolster government offensives.

“The security forces, the chief ministers want air support,” he said in an interview with NDTV. “They are the men on the ground.”

When asked why he cannot convince the Cabinet to authorize airstrikes on the rebels, Chidambaram said: “I’ll try.”

Top Indian officials had been reluctant to escalate the fight, arguing it was inappropriate against India’s own citizens.

The home minister said the government would need to revisit its policies after a spate of recent insurgent attacks.

Last month, the rebels ambushed a paramilitary patrol, killing 76 troops. They also kidnapped and killed six villagers over the weekend, alleging they were police informants.

In Monday’s attack, the insurgents remotely triggered a land mine under a bus carrying civilians and police in Chhattisgarh, which has been the site of fierce fighting, said senior police officer Rajinder Kumar Vij.

More than a dozen insurgents fired rifles at the survivors and tried to take away weapons from the slain police, but ran off when wounded officers fired at them, Vij said.

The attack killed 16 civilians and 15 police, Vij said. The initial death toll was reported at 35, and it was not clear why it had been revised. Another 27 wounded were hospitalized, he said.

Police often ride in civilian buses, apparently hoping the insurgents would not target vehicles for fear of losing local support.

Television images from the scene showed the bodies and officers’ weapons strewn across the road in Dantewada district, about 350 miles (560 kilometers) south of Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh.

India has inducted thousands of paramilitary forces to help state police fight the insurgents. The rebels, who have tapped into the rural poor’s growing anger at being left out of the country’s economic gains, are now present in 20 of the country’s 28 states and have an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 fighters, according to India’s home ministry.

Last year, the government announced its “Operation Green Hunt” offensive aimed at flushing the militants out of their forest hide-outs.