NEW DELHI – A daylight Maoist rebel attack on a police camp that killed at least 24 people has raised a storm of criticism that India is unable to guard against rising militant violence in some key industrial and mining areas. Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, who came to the post after his predecessor quit over failing to prevent the Mumbai massacre in 2008, said there were signs of failure in how police were caught off-guard in a camp described as a "picnic spot." The Maoists struck just two days after a bomb blast hit a tourist hangout in the western city of Pune, the first major militant strike since Mumbai. An unknown Pakistan-based group claimed responsibility. Public anger has flared against both the federal government and the administration in West Bengal state, where the camp is located, for failing to equip police to tackle Maoist rebels. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called the rebels the biggest threat to India's internal security. The revolt started off as a peasant-based uprising in the 1960s, but has now spread to large swathes of countryside in more than 20 out of 28 states, especially around mineral-rich eastern and central India. Monday's strike was 60 km (40 miles) west from where India's third largest alloy maker, JSW Steel Ltd, wants to build a massive steel plant. "The attack ... was a blatant warning that Maoist violence has no intention of stalling and going into a huddle while the central and state governments firm up strategic and logistic details of countering the menace," said the Hindustan Times. Three newspapers used the phrase "sitting ducks" to describe the encampment, which reportedly lacked proper sentries, and was host to a public market and toilet. Home (Interior) Ministry Secretary G.K. Pillai said the site was tantamount to a "picnic spot".
