India's top court bans anti-Maoist militia

India's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the central state of Chhattisgarh to disband a militia force founded to combat Maoist guerrillas who control large areas of the country. Salwa Judum, or Peace March, was set up in 2005 as a civil society movement to campaign against left-wing violence in Chhattisgarh, but some members were later armed by state authorities.
Chhattisgarh administrators were criticised for encouraging vigilantes to operate outside the law, after they also recruited about 3,000 so-called special police officers to take on the rebels. "How will employing and arming ill-equipped youngsters help to combat insurgency?" Supreme Court judges B. Sudershan Reddy and S.S. Nijjar said in an order.