US Blames Maoists Protecting Tribal Lands for Widespread Attacks in India

India's "Naxals" or Indian Maoists as the third most deadly terror organization in the world after IS and Taliban, according to data collated by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism of the U.S. State Department.

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While the U.S. State Department report stated, "the deadliest attack in India in 2016 took place in July, when the Communist Party of India – Maoist detonated explosives and opened fire on Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Bihar state," it failed to mention the region's longstanding history of struggle with the Central Reserve Police Force, CRPF.

The so-called "terrorist attacks" led by the Naxals oppose commercial development and industrialization in forest areas that are home to India's tribal communities.

Naxals who follow the doctrines of Mao Zedong are named after the 1967 peasant revolt in the West Bengal village of Naxalbari led by the left-wing guerrilla force against the Indian state. The Indian Maoists or Naxals represent some of India's poorest districts, and are spread across the tribal belt running through the areas in the western India, also known as the "Red Corridor."

According to the Indian Constitution, the resources in the tribal areas belong to them. A 1995 commission also recommended that 50 percent of the industries' ownership in the tribal areas should rest with the community, while 20 percent with the landowner and only 30 percent with the investor. But the laws are rarely implemented.

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In 2016, a total of 11,072 terrorist attacks occurred worldwide, resulting in more than 25,600 total deaths and more than 33,800 people injured. The report revealed that although attacks occurred in 104 countries in 2016, 55 percent of all attacks took place in five countries — Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines.

India ranked third among countries that experienced the most terror attacks, the lethality of those attacks remained relatively low compared to other countries that also experienced a lot of violence in 2016.

Out of 11,072 terror attacks in 2016 worldwide, 927 attacks took place in India, 16 percent rise from 2015. The number of deaths in India also rose 17 percent from 289 in 2015 to 337 last year while the number of injured increased from 500 in 2015 to 636 last year.

In 2016, over half the attacks that took place in India occurred in the four heavily militarized states of Jammu and Kashmir (19 percent), Chhattisgarh (18 percent), Manipur (12 percent), and Jharkhand (10 percent). Jammu and Kashmir experienced nearly 93 percent an increase in attacks in 2016 compared to 2015.