Bihar students confront Maoist terrorists over school bombings

apr 16

no wonder communists blow up schools. they are terrified that educated people would see through their empty slogans. exactly like the kkkangress is afraid. 

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From: Ravi

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8608644.stm

 

 

 

Students confront rebels over India school bombings

By Amarnath Tewary BBC News, Patna Police say that schools are 'soft targets' (Photo: Bibhakar Kumar Srivastava) School children in some of the remotest villages of the Indian state of Bihar have urged Maoist rebels to stop destroying their schools. Twenty-five schools across the state have been destroyed by Maoists in the past year - five have been blown up in the last few weeks alone. But in one Maoist-dominated district, children made a heartfelt appeal directly to the rebels. "Maoist Uncle, what is our mistake that you keep blowing up our school buildings? This deprives us of our education. "You may have problems with the police, but we fail to understand why you destroy our schools." The rebels say that school buildings are being used by security forces battling the Maoists - but the students' emotional appeal appears to have had some kind of impact. Recently the rebels actually apologised to students for targeting their schools. 'Soft targets' This is just one aspect of the brutal and protracted fight between the guerrillas and the security forces in which civilians are invariably the biggest losers. What to do? There is no way out. We are quite helpless. Here in these remote areas, no rule of government exist Parent of student in Bihar village Santu Kumar, 11, and his younger sister Priyanka now have to travel 15km (10 miles) every day from their remote village in Aurangabad district to attend another school after their local school building was destroyed last December. "Nobody takes care of our education," they told the BBC by telephone from Aurangabad. "Who will compensate us for our education?" When parents pleaded and tried to stop Maoists in the village of Dughda, in Rohtas district, from blowing up the local school buildings, the rebels locked them up inside their houses and dynamited the school regardless. "What to do? There is no way out. We are quite helpless. Here in these remote areas, no rule of government exist," one parent said. The government has launched a major offensive against the rebels The police say that school buildings and mobile phone towers have become "soft targets" for Maoists keen to assert and maintain control. Thirty out of 38 districts in Bihar are affected by the Maoists, officials say. Fifteen of these have been designated under the most sensitive "A zone". But Bihar has been exempted from the government's biggest-ever operation against the rebels. This is because the state government has consistently said the Maoist problem can only be tackled through development. Despite this, police suspect the anti-Maoist offensive in neighbouring Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh states has spilled over into Bihar. The government in the area insists the key is to bring Maoists into the mainstream of local society. "We take police action against Maoists but we believed the problem is more of a socio-economic nature than one of law and order," Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar says. Maoist 'regret' The Maoist apology is some indication that they do engage with local opinion. After the emotional appeal from the students of Aurangabad, they distributed leaflets explaining their actions. "We regret our action as this creates problems for the children. But we are forced to target the school building as they are being used by paramilitary forces to launch operations against us," the leaflet reads. The central government... has sold forests, land and mountains to foreign companies at the cost of depriving local people Maoist leaflet The rebels claim that the government plans to turn all school buildings into military camps in the coming months. The leaflet also reminded people of the driving force being their fight. "The central government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram has sold forests, land and mountains to foreign companies at the cost of depriving local people. Maoists are opposing it and only they are your real saviours." For the students of Aurangabad, however, who complain of their education being "severely hampered" a continued campaign of destruction could have a serious impact on life in this far-flung and poverty-stricken part of India. Their parents are mostly labourers or farmers, and opportunities are few for people in this corner of the country. In their apology, the Maoists do not say if they plan to halt the campaign of school destruction. The police are sceptical. "They may distribute pamphlets and leaflets expressing their apology... but there have been no assurances that they will not destroy school buildings again," said senior police officer KS Dwivedi. With no end in sight to the long-running Maoist conflict, students feel their education and future livelihoods are in the balance.