Maoists

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In the rebel hierarchy, Azad was next in importance to CPI (Maoist) chief Muppalla Laxmana Rao alias Ganapathi and M. Koteswar Rao alias Kishan. He is the highest-ranked Maoist leader killed by the security forces.

Andhra has repeatedly shown an ability to strike hard at the Maoists, which the Centre feels is the result of nurturing of local strengths. The state that has fought the Maoists the best has gone about the job quietly, doing its homework and carrying out its plans professionally. Even when the Andhra police have picked up Maoists in Delhi, they have done a good job of keeping it under wraps.

Comment: AP better do that given that most of the maoist leaders are from either AP or WB.

Azad was accused in 16 cases of murder, arson and attacks on the security forces. He was arrested by the Andhra police last March but escaped.

Comment: There was a note that Kishan was injured and managed to sneak out through Jharkhand.

Azad had studied at the Korukonda Sainik School and done his MTech from the National Institute of Technology, Warangal. He had been a Maoist for four decades.

Comment: How many times have we seen this elite-ness connection? Elsewhere,

CRPF inspector-general (operations) M.P. Nathanael arrived in Ranchi today in an attempt to strengthen the paramilitary apparatus in Jharkhand in the wake of the latest Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh. Nathanael, who takes charge in Jharkhand in a post specially created by the CRPF for Maoist-hit states, will look after the 12 battalions — with six companies in each — deployed in Jharkhand to counter the rebels. This apart, a battalion — 18 units with 30 personnel in each — of the Cobra has also been pressed into services while another battalion is to be deputed soon.

The CRPF has already posted two DIG-ranked officers, Bhanu Pratap Singh and B.K. Sharma, in Jharkhand to oversee anti-Naxalite operations in the southern and northern parts of the state described as the epicentre of Left-wing extremism by home minister P. Chidambaram. DIG (CRPF) Alok Raj has been repatriated to his original IPS cadre in Bihar, confirmed senior CRPF sources. In another administrative change, Punjab cadre IPS officer Arun Oraon, with roots in Jharkhand, is likely to hold charge as inspector general (operations) of state police in place of D.K. Pandey, who, along with other senior officials, is leaving for a training programme.

Azad was one of the Maoists’ 12 politburo members and 28 central committee members, most of them believed to be hiding in small towns across India.

Comment: Some (wiki) say the Politburo has 12-14 members. Two members of the Maoists’ 2004 Politburo — Sushil Roy and Narayan Sanyal — were arrested in September 2004. Since Roy’s arrest, the rebels formed a new Politburo during the party congress in Bihar’s Jamui, 140 km from Patna, in 2007. This is the maoist pack of cards from 2007, as much can be gleaned from OSI. Updated post from brf.

Central Politbureau members:
1) Mupalla Laxman Rao alias Ganapathi -- General Secretary and Gen Sec of PWG
2) Mallojula Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji alias Pradip alias Prahlad -- Eastern India "commander"
3) Prasanta Bose alias Kishanda -- second in command and Gen Sec of MCC, heads the outfit’s operations in Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam (Eastern Regional Bureau)
4) Nambala Keshav Rao alias Vasavraj alias Basab Raj alias Gangana -- chief of the armed wing (Military Commission in-charge)
5) Kathakam Sudershan alias Anand alias Mohan alias Birenderji -- Vasavaraj's deputy -- As secretary of the outfit’s “central regional bureau”, he is also in charge of operations in the Dandakaranya forests, north Telangana and the Andhra-Orissa border — a belt where the rebels are perhaps most active. The brain behind the Dantewada massacre. Born to the weaver community in Bellampally, Adilabad district, Sudarshan had studied at a polytechnic in Warangal before joining the People’s War Group of Kondapalli Seetharamaiah in the 1980s. A few years ago he lost his life partner Sadhana, who was secretary of the Maoists’ Adilabad district unit in north Telangana.
x6) Cherukuri Rajakumar alias Uday alias Azad alias Parimal alias Prasanth alias Madhu alias Gangadhar -- Vasavaraj's other deputy and spokesperson of CPI(M) -- neutralized July 2, 2010
7) Misir Besra alias Sunirmal -- member of Maoist Central Military Commission (CMC), was arrested in Jharkhand’s Giridih, 200 km north-east of Ranchi, in September 2007, escaped when taken out of court on June 23, 2009
8) Mallojula Venugopal Rao alias Vivek alias Sonu -- Kishenji's brother, secretary of its Central Regional Bureau of Dandkaranya, appointed official spokesperson in place of Azad on July 7, 2010. A graduate and a resident of Peddapalli in Karimnagar, is also likely to take over Azad’s job of supervising the Maoist publications Vanguard, People’s March and Kranti. Linky
9) Kobad Ghandy -- arrested in Delhi, Sept 22, 2009, obtained bail on June 16, 2010. Linky
x10) Pramod Misra alias Bibiji or Banbihariji alias Janardhanji alias Madanji
-- arrested in Dhanbad, Bihar, May 11, 2008
x11) Ashutosh Tudu -- arrested in Rourkela, Orissa, in March 2009
x12) Amitabha Bagchi alias Anilji -- arrested, Aug 19, 2009
13) Pratap
14) Malla Raji Reddi -- arrested in Kerala’s Angamally, 20 km from Kochi, recently obtained bail from a Kerala court and reportedly went underground. Linky
15) Rajesh Da -- unknown role

Other assorted maoists:
16) Tushar Kant Bhattacharyya -- released from jail on Nov 19, 2009 due to lack of evidence, re-arrested Jan 8, 2010
17) Katta Ramachandra Reddy alias Gudsa Usendi -- Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee official spokesman

Big catches from the last \approx one year:
1) Satyendra Kushwaha alias Naresh alias Dadan -- arrested Feb 25, 2009
2) Patel Sudhakar Reddy alias Suryam alias Vikas alias Srikanth -- killed May 24, 2009
3) Amitabha Bagchi alias Anil, founder of the erstwhile CPI(ML)-Party Unity -- arrested Aug 19, 2009 (Former Politburo member and secretary of the central military commission of the outfit)
4) Tauhild Mula alias Kartik -- arrested Aug 19, 2009
5) Kobad Ghandy -- arrested Sept 22, 2009
6) Tushar Kant Bhattacharya alias Srikant -- arrested Jan 8, 2010
7) Saswati Panda alias Subhashree alias Mili -- arrested Jan 15, 2010
8) Balraj alias Arvind alias B. Prasad Singh -- arrested Feb 8, 2010
9) Banshidhar alias Chintan Da alias Banshidhar Singh -- arrested Feb 8, 2010
10) Lalmohan Tudu -- killed Feb 23, 2010
11) Venkateshwar Reddy alias Telugu Deepak -- arrested Mar 2, 2010
12) Shakamuri Appa Rao and Kondal Reddy -- killed Mar 11, 2010
14) Marshal Topno -- arrested Mar 16, 2010
15) Bapi Mahato -- arrested June 21, 2010
16) Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad -- killed July 2, 2010

The success has been achieved by a two-pronged strategy of development in the tribal areas, to win the rural population over from the rebels, and well-planned raids on Maoist hideouts following sound intelligence — by state police rather than the central forces. “The Maoist-hit states should realise that only state police can be effective in the fight against the rebels. They are sons of the soil and they know the people, but the central paramilitary forces don’t,” a senior Andhra police officer said.

His advice for the other states: “Back it (the security operations) up with focused development and plan for the next 20 years; the problem will not be over soon.” Between 2005 and 2007, the state police virtually drove the guerrillas out of Andhra, a key role being played by the Grey Hounds, a special unit trained in counter-insurgency and jungle warfare. The CRPF has formed its anti-Maoist commando force, Cobra, on the lines of the Grey Hounds.

When the Maoists, facing the heat in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, began efforts to set up bases in Andhra again, the state police started Operation Octopus. They killed many of the returning Maoists in recent months. On the development front, Andhra set up a “remote and interior areas development ministry” in the 1990s — a move that contrasts sharply with Chhattisgarh’s decision to set up vigilante group Salwa Judum that alienated the tribals further. Also, Andhra stopped harassing Maoist sympathisers in the villages. In 2007, it dropped all the cases against civil rights activists.

Senior officers say the lessons of 35 years of fighting the Maoists had come in handy. They recalled how the movement started by Kondapalli Seetharamaiah had spread from the regional engineering college in Warangal. Azad, too, had done his MTech from Warangal. Today, the former rebel capital is not even among the four districts the state wants the Centre to include in the list of 134 worst Maoist-hit districts. Rosaiah met Union home minister P. Chidambaram today and urged him to include Vijayanagaram, Vizag, East Godavari and Srikakulam. Khammam is the lone Andhra district on the list now.

Comment: Apart from the snide one-upmanship on the Raman Singh government of Chattisgarh, some of the lessons are clear. Neither Shibu Soren and his JMM nor the JVM(P) seem to have the werewithal to fight the maoists on a long-term basis. With the imposition of President's rule in Jharkhand, things seem to have gotten a little better, but it will be too early to make a statement on how soon the maoist cadre can be ruthlessly eliminated. The same can be said about Bihar where Nitish Kumar walks off from showing his face in anti-maoist plan meetings. Naveen Patnaik and Raman Singh show the balls to stand up and oppose the maoists, but that has to be backed up by training and pulling the local police out of the rut it is. The wide gap between an action plan and its realization, and the lack of the necessary political will to bridge this gap has ensured that many have died in a gruesome manner at the bestial and uncouth violence initiated by the maoists. And the writing on the wall is that the maoists will be neutralized, slowly but steadily, as the entire might of the State will be used against these terrorists in a step-by-step escalation. But till the political will arises and a consensus forged, those who die a sorry death will have to blame their fate for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.