India mulls crackdown on Maoist rebels

The meeting in New Delhi today will bring together officials from the nine Indian states where Maoist rebels are active. A common strategy will be drawn up, officials say.

The states, which stretch across the centre of the subcontinent, are looking for satellite technology, elite troops and sophisticated arms, regional officials say.

The government says there are about 9,300 Maoist rebels in the country, and that social and economic disparities were providing support for the rebels.

The rebels have killed politicians, policemen and government officials, bombed factories and government offices and attacked buses and trains in an insurgency that stretches back to 1968. Thousands have been killed.

The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of poor peasants and landless labourers in the country's rural hinterland, often holding their own courts to resolve disputes and kill officials they claim are corrupt.

The high-level government meeting comes within two weeks of the Maoists killing 39 people, including 23 policemen, in two separate attacks in central and eastern India.

Also causing alarm is the link with the long-running Maoist insurgency in neighbouring Nepal, where thousands of people have been killed.

Officials say rebels in Nepal and India are known to be helping each other with arms and training and the two groups this month announced they would join hands.

"We will ask for ISRO help to track guerrilla hideouts through satellite imaging," said Ram Vichar Netam, home minister of the central state of Chhattisgarh, referring to the state-run space agency, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

"We also want the army's counter insurgency-trained soldiers," he told Reuters.

Maoist rebels set off a land mine under a security vehicle in Chhattisgarh this month, killing 23 policemen and a civilian.

Last week, they killed 15 villagers in neighbouring Jharkhand state, all members of a village security group.

The rebels are active in seven other states as well -- Bihar and West Bengal in the east, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Karnataka toward the south, central Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra in the west.

Officials in these states say they need funds to buy bullet-proof jackets, modern rifles and to launch anti-poverty schemes in Maoist strongholds.

Security officials in Andhra Pradesh said they were already using helicopters and satellites to trace rebel hideouts, but needed small unmanned aircraft and more federal forces.

So far, Indian states have been divided in their fight against the Maoists and have even blamed each other after rebels have struck in one state and fled to another.

New Delhi has said Monday's meeting was expected to help end this squabbling draw up a new "action plan."

"We have called the meeting to work for better coordination ... in dealing with the problem," federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil said.