Kathmandu: The Maoists had not even dreamt of that their November 23 rd attack made last month at the Military cantonment in Dang would awake the “‘sleeping lion”, that is the Nepal’s army, to their own peril.
Not only that particular event brought the military force on the highest ever alert but compelled the government under Sher Bahadur Deuba to bring into effect a state of emergency so that the Maoists insurgents could be tamed for quite long time to come.
The Dang event also facilitated the establishment to enact a law to take harsh penal actions against all those men involved and engaged in acts of creating terror and violence which the government armed itself through the use of a Royal Ordinance.
Majority of the population in the country now opine that the state of the emergency and the act on terrorism have been solely brought by the Maoists themselves for they consider that if the insurgents would have continued the negotiations with the government, the present situation would have been avoided.
Presumably the Maoists leadership calculated that the military force would not come out of their respective barracks and retaliate to their attacks. However, things became different suddenly and the army took up the task of taming the insurgents from day one of the imposition of the state of emergency. Since then media reports and the military sources reveal that the army has come heavily down against the Maoists insurgency by pouncing upon their possible hide-outs and centers. In the process, expectedly, the Maoists insurgency appears to have lost hundreds and hundred of their hard core cadres.
Unsubstantiated media reports have it that the insurgency has already lost some very powerful central committee members of its organization thereby causing colossal damage to the party, organizationally speaking. Some even claim that top leaders of the insurgency such as K.B.Mahara, Badal, Bogati and a few more who were considered to be the brains of the insurgency have lost their lives.
Rumors have it that the remaining top leaders of the insurgency have exhibited their desire for the resumption of the talks with the government with a view apparently to minimise the loss.
However, the government under Deuba remains determined to root out terroristic activities of the Maoists come what may. This notwithstanding, high placed government sources say that the government could go in for talks only if the insurgents lay down the arms. But then looking at the present mood of the establishment, one could fairly predict that the military attacks on the insurgents will continue for long.
The government has reasons to think on those lines. The fact is that most of the friendly countries in the globe, including India, China, Japan, Russian Federation, United States and the entire European Union members, have all come in favor of the establishment who in their statements have not only condemned the Maoists activities unleashed of late but have also hinted the establishment to deal with the “terrorists”‘ with firm hands.
This means that the Deuba establishment is completely equipped with the needed international support. There is every possibility that the government will continue the “cordon and search” and “combing operation” against the Maoists insurgency until it feels that the terror unleashed by the insurgents were totally under its grip.
Visibly, the Royal Nepal Army is concentrating its efforts in the western region of the country where the Maoists are talked to be in quite good numbers, numerically speaking. Places like Rolpa, Salyan, Jajarkot, Syangja, and Gorkha are taken as the strongholds of the Maoists and hence the army’s mobilization to those areas is fully understandable.
Be that as it may, local intellectuals predict that the military actions against the Maoists insurgency could be a long drawn affair, which will cost the nation in more ways than one. These intellectuals also suggest the government to look into other equally pressing developmental efforts of the country rather than taking the Maoists issue the one and the final agenda of the nation. Containing the threats of the insurgency is indeed a top priority. However, the nation must not neglect the matters of its own overall development even at times of crises of this sort.