ABSTRACT
The Communist Party of India–Maoist (CPI–Maoist) is a highly organised group formed from the 2004 merger of the People’s War Group and the Maoist Communist Centre. Various federal- and state-level law-enforcement agencies are responsible for combatting the Naxalite insurgency, which is almost exclusively driven by CPI–Maoist. CPI–Maoist’s highest decision-making body, the Central Committee, delegates authority geographically to lower-ranking committees, which control ‘divisions’ and ‘zones’ often corresponding to the borders of Indian states and districts. The group claimed that the attack was in retaliation for the victims’ support for bauxite mining, but the assassinations, planned by CPI–Maoist’s top leaders, may also have been intended as a show of force to bolster both morale among its fighters and its reputation among civilians. Fatality and surrender rates suggest that the government’s counter-insurgency efforts have continued to degrade CPI–Maoist’s fighting strength since 2013.
