New Delhi: Drawing the attention of state security heads towards the ''existing vulnerabilities'' in India's security system, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Monday said Left-wing extremism, with its imprint across 20 states, is the new face of terror within the country.
Stressing that ''on terrorism, our stance is zero tolerance'', the Home Minister said while raising our level of preparedness to fight terror, our response in this regard will be ''swift and decisive''.
Coming out firmly with the country's resolve to fight terror in all its forms and manifestations, especially left-wing extremism, Chidambaram said, ''There is no place for an armed liberation struggle in a Republican democracy'' while adding that the government was open to talks on ''matters relating to governance, development, cultural identity, etc''.
Addressing state police heads on the first day of the three-day 'DGPs/IGPs Conference 2009' here, the Home Minister said groups of this radical form of communism, ''adhering to outdated ideology'' were seeking alliance with secessionist and terrorist elements to expand their network.
Pointing towards naxal menace, which has claimed 580 lives this year alone and where CPI (Maoist) was the most potent of all the operating groups, he said these extremists were spreading their tentacles into newer areas while intensifying their ''mass resistance'' in existing areas.
''CPI(Maoist) remains the most potent of the naxal groups with a presence in 17 states and a 90 per cent share in naxal violence.''
Besides targeting the police and the so-called class enemies, they were attacking economic and development infrastructure and inflicting more casualties through sophisticated Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), he said.
''Altogether 231 security force personnel were killed in naxal violence in 2008 while another 250 have lost their lives this year.''
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