Maoist militants in India have rejected the government's demand that they surrender their arms before peace talks and slammed a major offensive targeting them, news reports said Friday. In an interview with local news channels in the eastern state of West Bengal Thursday evening, top Maoist leader, Koteshwara Rao, rejected New Delhi's condition for talks and demanded that the government pull out forces from states where Maoists were active.
Asked in what situation the Maoists would sit down for talks with the government, Rao, alias Kishanji, said, "The first and foremost condition is that they must withdraw all forces from our areas." Rao said there were about 250,000 government troops in areas dominated by the Maoists and said there was "no scope for talks" unless 600 jailed Maoist rebels were released.
"Their [the government's] condition is that Maoists should surrender their arms," he said. "Surrendering arms is out of the agenda. We never accepted it as part of our agenda. So we are not ready for peace talks with the government. In the name of peace talks, they declared war."
Rao, 51, is the deputy leader of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), which is spearheading the left-wing insurgency in 20 of India's 28 states. The Maoists claim their armed rebellion is aimed at securing the rights of tribal people and the rural poor and usually targets security personnel and government installations.
Rao is the most wanted man in West Bengal and claimed in June to have "liberated" Lalgarh, a main town in the state's Midnapore district. He said he supports Islamic militancy in the belief that the Islamic upsurge is anti-United States and anti-imperialist in nature. Reacting to the Maoist leader's comments, Federal Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram reiterated the government demand.
"The Maoists have to abjure violence, and then we can work out a process by which we will advise the state governments to talk to them," he told reporters in New Delhi. At least 2,671 people - including civilians, security personnel and rebels - have been killed in incidents related to Maoist violence in India since 2006.