View source for April 2010 Maoist attack in Dantewada

{{Short description|Ambush of law enforcement by Naxalite-Maoist insurgents in Chhattisgarh, India}}
{{For|the May 2010 bus bombing|2010 Dantewada bus bombing}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Dantewada Ambush
| place             = Chintalnar, [[Dantewada district|Dantewada District]], [[Chhattisgarh]], [[India]]
| combatant1        = {{flagicon image|South Asian Communist Banner.svg|size]23px}} [[Communist Party of India (Maoist)|Maoist CPI]]
| combatant2        = '''{{flag|India|name=Indian Government}}'''
* {{flagicon image|..Chhattisgarh Flag(INDIA).png|size=20px}} [[Chhattisgarh|Chhattisgarh State Government]]
| width             = 330px
| partof            = the [[Naxalite-Maoist insurgency]]
| strength1         = 300-1000 militants
| strength2         = 86-200 policemen
| date              = 6 April 2010
| casualties1       = 8 killed
| casualties2       = 76 killed<br>8 wounded
| result            = Maoist victory
* Deadliest attack on Indian Police by Maoist terrorists, as of 2022
* Indian Police convoy suffer heavy casualties
| units1            = Local Maoist tribes
| units2            = {{flagicon image|CRPF Flag.svg|size=23px}} '''[[Central Reserve Police Force|Central Police Force]]'''
* Chhattisgarh Police
}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2019}}
{{Campaignbox Naxalite insurgency}}
{{Terrorist attacks in India (since 2001)}}

The '''April 2010 Dantewada Maoist attack'''<ref>{{cite magazine| url=http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1981122,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100413155217/http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1981122,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=13 April 2010 | magazine=Time | title=Massacre Prompts Debate Over India's Maoist War | date=2010-04-12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/dantewara-massacre-the-post-mortem-19434.php |title = Dantewada massacre: The post-mortem  |access-date=17 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100411041230/http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/dantewara-massacre-the-post-mortem-19434.php |archive-date=11 April 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> was an 6 April 2010 ambush by [[Naxalite-Maoist insurgency|Naxalite-Maoist insurgents]] from the [[Communist Party of India (Maoist)]] near Chintalnar village in [[Dantewada district]], [[Chhattisgarh]], [[India]], leading to the killing of 76 [[Central Reserve Police Force|CRPF]] policemen and 8 Maoists<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/maoists-slit-throats-of-2-cops-lost-8-of-their-own-in-attack/602158/|title=Maoists slit throats of 2 cops,lost 8 of their own in attack|date=9 April 2010}}</ref> &mdash; the deadliest attack by the Maoists on [[Law enforcement in India|Indian security forces]].<ref name="ndtv">{{cite web|url=http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/20-security-men-killed-by-naxals-in-chhattisgarh-19293.php |title=74 security men killed by Naxals in Chhattisgarh |publisher=Ndtv.com |date=1970-01-01 |access-date=2010-04-06| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100409053805/http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/20-security-men-killed-by-naxals-in-chhattisgarh-19293.php| archive-date= 9 April 2010 <!--DASHBot-->| url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="bbc">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8604256.stm|title=Scores of Indian soldiers killed in Maoist ambushes|date=6 April 2010|publisher=BBC World}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/75-security-personnel-killed-in-Chhattisgarh-Maoist-ambush/articleshow/5765722.cms|title=75 security personnel killed in Chhattisgarh Maoist ambush|date=6 April 2010|work=[[Times of India]]|access-date=6 April 2010}}</ref>

The attack occurred when over 85 officers from the central paramilitary force [[Central Reserve Police Force]] (CRPF) and a local police group were conducting an area domination exercise in the [[Bastar division|Bastar]] tribal region of the Indian state of [[Chhattisgarh]].<ref name="hindu">{{cite news|url=http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/07/stories/2010040756680100.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106034004/http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/07/stories/2010040756680100.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=6 November 2012|title=Maoists massacre 74 CRPF men|author1=Aman Sethi |author2=D. Chandra Bhaskar Rao |newspaper=[[The Hindu]]|date=6 April 2010}}</ref> 

Ambush style attacks on Indian Police have been repeated since by Maoist terrorists <ref>{{Cite web|title=India steps up anti-Maoist operations after 22 policemen killed|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/6/india-steps-up-anti-maoist-operations-after-22-policemen-killed|access-date=2021-08-21|website=www.aljazeera.com|language=en}}</ref>

==Background==
{{main|Naxalite-Maoist insurgency}}

Indian Maoists, or [[Naxalite|Naxal]]s, were named after a 1967 leftists armed uprising against the Indian state originating in the village of [[Naxalbari]] in [[West Bengal]]. The movement had its intellectual roots in the doctrines of [[Mao Zedong]] promoting armed overthrow of the ruling class by the peasant and worker class. The original movement had weakened considerably by the 1970s, but it started spreading across a swathe of India's poorest districts, the so-called [[red corridor]], a tribal belt running through the mainly [[Santhal people|Santhal]] regions of [[West Bengal]], [[Jharkhand]], [[Orissa, India|Orissa]], and then through the [[Gondi people|Gond]] and other tribal regions of [[Andhra Pradesh]], into the [[Bastar division|Bastar]] region of [[Chhattisgarh]].<ref>{{cite web|author=<!--Updated 1136 hrs 3 Feb 2010(+5:30 GMT)--> |url=http://ibnlive.in.com/news/knowing-the-reds-a-primer-on-maoists/95141-3.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090621223742/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/knowing-the-reds-a-primer-on-maoists/95141-3.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2009-06-21 |title=Knowing the reds: a primer on Maoists |publisher=Ibnlive.in.com |date=2010-02-03 |access-date=2010-04-09}}</ref>

Two separate radical leftist groups, the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) People's War party (also known as the [[People's War Group]]) and the [[Maoist Communist Centre]] merged to form the [[Communist Party of India (Maoist)]] in September 2004. This happened within four months of the end of India's centre-right nationalist [[Bharatiya Janata Party|BJP]]-led [[National Democratic Alliance (India)|NDA]] government and the start of the [[Indian National Congress|Congress]]-led [[United Progressive Alliance|UPA]] government in alliance with the [[Left Front (West Bengal)|Left Front]] (a grouping of India's leftist and communist parties). After the [[2009 Indian general election]], the Congress-led UPA managed to come to power at the centre without the support of the Left Front or communist parties. Within one month of that election, the [[Government of India]] declared the CPI (Maoist) as a designated [[terrorism|terrorist]] organization under the [[Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act]].<ref name=MaoTerrorist>{{cite web|url=http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=49325|title=CPI (Maoist) included in list of terrorist organizations to avoid any ambiguity|publisher=[[Press Information Bureau]]}}</ref> A few months later Prime Minister [[Manmohan Singh]] said that the Maoists pose the biggest internal threat to India's security and their activities had intensified over the previous years.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/08/2009817173841682428.html |title=CENTRAL/S. ASIA - India weighs Maoist threat |publisher=Al Jazeera English |date=2009-08-17 |access-date=2010-04-06}}</ref>

The insurgency points to the commercial development and industrialization in forest regions that are home to India's tribal communities, resulting in loss of land or livelihood as justification for its activities.<ref>{{cite web|author=Jyoti Punwani |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/For-tribals-development-means-exploitation/articleshow/5664400.cms |title='For tribals, development means exploitation' - The Times of India |publisher=Timesofindia.indiatimes.com |date=2010-03-10 |access-date=2010-04-09}}</ref> These regions are noted for lack of development; at 30% literacy, the Dantewada district has the lowest literacy rate in the nation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dantewada.gov.in/census.htm |title=Dantewada - Census-2001 At A Glance |publisher=Government of India |access-date=2010-04-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100323062255/http://dantewada.gov.in/census.htm |archive-date=23 March 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Before the incident at Chintalnar in Dantewada, in March 2007, Maoists were also blamed for the killing of 55 policemen in Chhattisgarh. In the February 2010 [[Silda camp attack]], at least 25 policemen were killed in eastern West Bengal when their camp came under fire. In response to the growing insurgency, [[Indian paramilitary forces]] launched a large-scale offensive, popularly known as [[Operation Green Hunt]], against the rebels along the [[red corridor]] which includes the Dantewada district.<ref name="bbc"/>

Dantewada district is a "remote, sparsely-populated and under-developed" area which is regarded as the "nerve center" of the Maoists.<ref name=Economist>{{cite news|url=http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7799247 |title=A spectre haunting India |newspaper=Economist |access-date=2010-04-07 |date=2006-08-17| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100304052245/http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displayStory.cfm?story_id=7799247| archive-date= 4 March 2010 <!--DASHBot-->| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/seven-maoists-killed-in-chhattisgarh-gun-battle-lead_100287640.html |title=Seven Maoists killed in Chhattisgarh gun battle |publisher=Indo-Asian News Service via Thaindian |access-date=2010-04-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100103090913/http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/seven-maoists-killed-in-chhattisgarh-gun-battle-lead_100287640.html |archive-date=2010-01-03 |url-status=dead }}</ref> About 66% of the district's population consists of tribal peoples (known as [[adivasi]]s). In 2006, ''[[The Economist]]'' noted that Naxalite-Maoist insurgency is "most intense" in the Dantewada district and linked the popularity of the Maoists among the local populace to the region's lack of development.<ref name=Economist/> Indian forces and Maoist insurgents had been involved in numerous skirmishes in the Dantewada district since 2007. In September 2009, [[Commando Battalion for Resolute Action]] (COBRA) personnel and state police forces killed about 30 Maoist rebels in Dantewada during an intense gun-battle.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/india-goes-aggressive-in-fight-against-maoist-guerrillas_100252302.html |title=India goes aggressive in fight against Maoist guerrillas |publisher=Indo-Asian News Service via Thaindian |access-date=2010-04-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100222173925/http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/india-goes-aggressive-in-fight-against-maoist-guerrillas_100252302.html |archive-date=22 February 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Ambush==
{{Campaignbox Naxalite insurgency}}
According to police reports, 300 fighters initially attacked a convoy of the paramilitary [[Central Reserve Police Force]] (CRPF) in the Talmetla area as they were returning from an operation.<ref name="alj">{{cite web|url=http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/2010466515592429.html|title=Indian police killed by Maoists|date=6 April 2010|publisher=Al Jazeera}}</ref> India's [[home minister]] [[P Chidambaram]] said that it appeared that the forces had "walked" into a rebel ambush by returning to the police base via the same route they had come. "Something has gone very wrong. They seem to have walked into a trap set by the [Maoists] and casualties are quite high," he said.<ref name="bbc"/> Police sources reported that the Maoists triggered two [[land mines]] targeting the [[mine protected vehicles]] carrying the jawans. The attack took place when the CRPF unit belonging to the 62 Battalion entered the forest for an operation between 6 and 7 am and were ambushed by the Maoists.<ref name="hindu2">{{cite news|url=http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article389303.ece?homepage=true|title=70 CRPF men killed in Chhattisgarh|author=D. Chandra Bhaskara Rao|date=6 April 2010|newspaper=The Hindu}}</ref>

===Repercussions===
The attacks were seen as a setback for efforts to clear the eastern regions of the Naxals in order to open up areas rich in iron, coal, bauxite, and manganese to investment. NMDC Ltd. operates its biggest iron-ore mine, while Essar Steel Ltd. plan a $1.5&nbsp;billion steel plant in the district. The [[Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India]] (ASSOCHAM) in a statement said "If such activities continue, investments do get impacted and even committed investments would fly away."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?678886|title=Naxal Violence to Dent Investor Confidence: Industry|date=9 April 2010|publisher=OutlookIndia.com|location=New Delhi|access-date=7 April 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006163210/http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?678886|archive-date=6 October 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

CPI activist [[Kartam Joga]] was arrested in connection with the attacks on 14 September 2010.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/article673781.ece |title=Supreme Court petitioner arrested in Chhattisgarh |author=Aman Seithi |date=17 September 2010 |newspaper=The Hindu |access-date=17 May 2011}}</ref> His arrest has been controversial<ref name="Hindu2">{{cite news |url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article799338.ece?service=mobile |title=Tarmetla: 'eyewitnesses' accuse police of making up statements |author=Aman Sethi |date=28 September 2010 |newspaper=The Hindu |access-date=17 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025035302/http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article799338.ece?service=mobile |archive-date=25 October 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and was condemned by [[Amnesty International]], who described the charges as "fabricated" and named him a [[prisoner of conscience]].<ref name="AI">{{cite web |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa20/031/2010/en/ |title=DOCUMENT - INDIA: CHHATTISGARH AUTHORITIES MUST IMMEDIATELY RELEASE PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE KARTAM JOGA |date=1 November 2010|publisher=Amnesty International |access-date=17 May 2011 <!--DASHBot-->}}</ref>

===Reaction===
P Chidambaram, India's home minister, condemned the attack, saying it showed the "savage nature" of the Maoists.<ref name="alj"/> The attack was a blow to the Indian government as it came days after Home Minister P Chidambaram described the rebels as "cowards enacting dramas". Mr Chidambaram has said troops will intensify the offensive if the rebels do not renounce violence and enter peace talks.<ref name="bbc"/> On 9 April Chidamabram offered his resignation to Prime Minister [[Manmohan Singh]] over the issue, which the Prime Minister rejected.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Chidambaram-offers-to-resign-over-Dantewada-PM-rejects/articleshow/5777654.cms|title=Chidambaram offers to resign over Dantewada, PM rejects|authors=TIMES NEWS NETWORK & AGENCIES|date=9 April 2010|newspaper=Times of India|location=New Delhi}}</ref>

The [[Bharatiya Janata Party]] (BJP) argued for an "all-out offensive" against the Maoists.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/Govt-outraged-over-attack-BJP-wants-fight-to-finish/H1-Article3-527924.aspx |title=Government outraged over Maoist massacre; BJP wants 'fight to finish' |newspaper=Hindustan Times |access-date=2010-04-06| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100408002728/http://www.hindustantimes.com/Govt-outraged-over-attack-BJP-wants-fight-to-finish/H1-Article3-527924.aspx| archive-date= 8 April 2010 <!--DASHBot-->| url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Maoist leader Gopal stated that the attack was conducted as a "direct consequence" to the government's [[Operation Green Hunt]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/chhatisgarh-attack-consequence-of-green-hunt-maoist-leader/story-G4utwRHT24hNgnug1PLs1L.html |title=Chhatisgarh attack 'consequence' of Green Hunt: Maoist leader |newspaper=Hindustan Times |access-date=2010-04-06}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Timeline of the Naxalite–Maoist insurgency]]
* [[2021 Sukma-Bijapur attack]]
* [[2000 Zhani-Vedeno ambush]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/planned-dantewada-operation-for-months-naxal-to-ndtv/136818 Planned Dantewada operation for months: Naxal to NDTV]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Maoist Attack In Dantewada}}
[[Category:21st-century mass murder in India]]
[[Category:Communist Party of India (Maoist)]]
[[Category:Naxalite–Maoist insurgency]]
[[Category:History of Chhattisgarh (1947–present)]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 2010]]
[[Category:2010 in India]]
[[Category:Massacres in India]]
[[Category:Manmohan Singh administration]]
[[Category:Crime in Chhattisgarh]]
[[Category:Terrorist incidents in India in 2010]]
[[Category:April 2010 events in India]]
[[Category:Mass murder in 2010]]