Naxalite Terrorists Destroy Cellphone Tower in India

Revolutionary communists in India are reported to have blown up a cellphone tower in Girola village, Chandrapur District. The attack was apparently to mark Peoples' Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) Week.

Sources told The Times of India that around 30 Naxalites belonging to the Chatgaon Dalam detained the security guard of the cellphone tower and destroyed it by using detonators. Later they disappeared into the jungle. It was not revealed which operator owned the tower.

"Through the towers the mobile service providers can easily issue alerts and tip-offs and can even tap the mobile communication quickly. So these have become the targets of the naxalites. We apprehend more attacks on such towers," police said.

Sources said that because the police is on high alert and keeps a strict vigil on the public meetings, the naxalites are searching for soft targets like mobile towers. "The naxalites celebrate PLGA Week every year to felicitate their great leaders of yesteryears. During this week they intensify their attack too," police sources said.

Naxalite or Naxalism is an informal name given to radical, often violent, revolutionary communist groups that were born out of the Sino-Soviet split in the Indian communist movement. Ideologically they belong to various trends of Maoism. Initially the movement had its epicentre in West Bengal. In recent years, they have spread into less developed areas of rural central and eastern India, such as Chattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh through the activities of underground groups like the Communist Party of India (Maoist). The CPI (Maoist) and some other Naxal factions are considered terrorists by the Government of India and various state governments in India.

Insurgents in several countries often target mobile phone towers as they are often lightly defended and the insurgents accuse the operators of allowing the security services to spy on their phone calls.

On the web: The Times of India

Posted to the site on 3rd December 2007