Maoists are worst than terrorists, says Naresh Aggarwal

Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Naresh Aggarwal on Friday dubbed the Maoists as 'militants' and one of the biggest internal threats to the country.

"To me, they (Maoists) are worst than terrorists because in the name of having social reforms and trying to fight for the injustice of the tribal areas they have taken arms and are openly working against the government," said Aggarwal.

"I personally feel the Central Government and State Governments should tackle this issue on the war footing," he added.

Meanwhile, Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Atul Kumar Anjan said that social, economic and political issues related to Maoists need to be addressed in detail.

"The Maoist insurgency has increased and both the State and Central Governments have not been successful in containing it. There are certain social, economic, political and psychological issues which have been ignored and now need to taken into account while dealing with the Maoist insurgency," he said.

Three people, including one RPF jawan were killed and six others injured when Naxals attacked the Dhanbad-Patna Intercity Express near Jamui railway station in Bihar yesterday. Over 100 odd Naxals fired indiscriminately on the train between Bhalui and Kundra railway stations in Jamui district.

Meanwhile, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Director General Pranay Sahay said that Maoists started melting soon after the team reached the spot, diverting the train to a safer station.

"My two companies with the commandants and the quick action team had reached the place at precisely at 2:10 pm, within 40 minutes of the occurrence they had reached. In fact, because of our troops reaching there, they (Maoists) started melting away and leaving the place," said Sahay.

Jharkhand Police has sounded an alert in Giridih and Dhanbad districts following yesterday's Maoist attack.

The RPF has increased the number of personnel to 12 to be deployed in every train passing through the Naxal affected areas.

Security vigil has been tightened and reports suggest that one company of CRPF has been deployed at the Bihar-Jharkhand border areas.

Earlier on June 10, an all-party meet held at Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's official 7, Race Course Road (RCR) in New Delhi emphasized that there can be no compromise in dealing with the Naxal violence.

A resolution, which was adopted at the meeting, urged the youth to leave the path of violence and pursue their goals through democratic means.

The resolution, which strongly denouncing Left-Wing Extremist violence, said nothing can be more dangerous than the insurgency to overthrow parliamentary democracy and Constitution of India through violent means.

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, has said the government has been following a two-pronged strategy to deal with this challenge of Left Wing Extremism- sustained and proactive operations against Maoist extremists and addressing development and governance issues in Left Wing Extremist affected areas.

"We believe that there is a need to further fine tune and strengthen this strategy. We have already started work in this direction. I would not like to take your time to give details of the steps that we are taking or planning to take, but would only reaffirm that our government will not be found wanting in this regard," said Dr. Singh in his opening remarks at the all-party meeting held in wake of the May 25 Chhattisgarh Maoist attack.

"We believe that there is urgency to the need to effectively deal with the Naxalite menace. Even as we take all measures that are needed to permanently root out this menace, we must immediately ensure that Naxalite violence is held in check and attacks like the one in Chhattisgarh do not recur," he added.