Top Maoist From AP Gunned Down In WB Jungles
Midnapore/Kolkata: The man who controlled eastern India’s Maoist operations, Kishenji or Koteswara Rao, was cornered and killed in a massive security operation after a two-hour gunbattle involving 500 CRPF combatants and commandos, backed by local cops, and 150-odd guerrillas in the dense jungles on the Bengal-Jharkhand border on Thursday. The recovery of Kishenji’s AK-47 rifle and a hearing aid the CPI-Maoist politburo member is known to have used lent credence to the claim that the yet unclaimed body was that of the feared commander, but officials said they needed to close a 1% gap to make a formal announcement.
“Most likely it is Kishenji. The officers on the spot said that it is Kishenji and most likely, 99%, it is Kishenji,” said Union home secretary R K Singh. “We have said that we have to be certain before we declare. We have sent the latest photographs of Kishenji for comparison.” The West Bengal government, however, reacted cautiously. At a press conference at Kolkata’s Writers’ Buildings, DGP Naparajit Mukherjee said, “We are in the process of identifying the body…. An AK-47 and a hearing aid was found along with the body. Since Kishenji used AK 47, it is being assumed it’s his body. But unless we are 100% sure, we cannot say it was him.” The trophy killing comes at the peak of WB CM Mamata Banerjee’s war on the Maoists, an operation triggered by a series of attacks by the Naxals, once seen as allies of Trinamool Congress, on her partymen in the Maoist-infested districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia. Mamata, who was in Delhiwhen news of the success came in, declined to comment.
The operation that netted Kishenji began on Tuesday night. It culminated in what was perhaps one of the biggest and fiercest battles in Jangalmahal with some 500 CRPF jawans and anti-Naxal commandos taking on the Maoist guerrillas. Thousands of rounds were fired during the gunfight in Kushboni jungle in Jhargram, 200km west of Kolkata. What made this operation different — and what probably made the difference — was that the CRPF was completely in control and there was precise coordination with CRPF forces in Jharkhand who quickly sealed off all escape routes. Kishenji was trapped.
Abody “closely resembling Kishenji” was found around 6pm, in fading light. Bengal DGP Naparajit Mukherjee said that an AK-47 and Kishenji’s hearing aid lay nearby. Police said at least three more Maoists were killed. The forces are hunting for Silda attack accused Suchitra Mahato, who may have been injured.
Kishenji has had many close shaves in the past and was reportedly injured in an encounter in Hathilot forest in March last year. He vanished after that, sparking speculation that he had been killed, until TOI interviewed him.
Sources said the break came from accurate information from a Trinamool-led vigilante group and a call intercepted late Wednesday night. Kishenji and Suchitra, widow of slain Maoist leader Sashadhar Mahato, were on the run since Tuesday midnight when some 1,000 CRPF jawans and policemen, led by Co-BRA commandos, launched a massive assault on a specific tip-off. There were running gunbattles all through Wednesday in which Suchitra was reportedly injured. The forces kept up the pursuit using night vision goggles, concentrating on the Jamboni-Binpur area, particularly Kushboni jungle and the nearby hamlets of Jhumuria, Lalbag, Bakshole, Dharsha, Urdhapur and Sankahara.
BIG GUN SILENCED
Mallojula Koteshwar Rao in Karimnagar secondin-command of CPI (Maoist), next only to Ganapathy
some 500 CRPF jawans and CoBRA commandos identified by AK-47 and hearing aid
Prashanta Bose (57) Red alert in AP districtsAred alert has been sounded in north Telangana and Andhra-Orissa Border (AOB) in the wake of Kishenji’s death in an encounter in Bengal. All police stations in the border districts of Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Maharashtra have been put on high alert, while special police forces have intensified combing in the Vizag Agency areas as a precautionary measure against possible Maoist attacks. While people of Peddapalli in Karimnagar, where Kishenji was born, came out on the roads to discuss his killing, his associates and comrades maintained a stoic silence, probably numbed by the loss of their friend. “We have alerted all the border police stations. Cops have been placed on high alert to respond to any retaliatory attack,” Warangal district SP Rajesh Kumar said. P6 We will catch Suchitra: CRPF
‘She Is Injured & Can’t Run Far’
Police said they intercepted a call from Kishenji late Wednesday night, seeking reinforcements from the Jharkhand units to break out of the siege.
At 9am on Thursday, joint forces raided the house of a college student Dharmendra Mahato in Bakshole. He is a final-year geography student at a Jhargram college and a Maoist supporter, said police. He was a PCPA activist and had campaigned for Chhatradhar Mahato — Sashadhar’s brother — in the last assembly election. Police said Kishenji and Suchitra had taken shelter earlier at his home, about 20km from the Jharkhand border.
Police questioned his father who said Dharmendra had gone to meet his sister in a neighbouring village. CRPF jawans searched the house and found a laptop bag, allegedly belonging to Kishenji, several maps marking out CRPF camps, and many letters written by Kishenji and Suchitra, where they had addressed Dharmendra as ‘Chandan’ and b h a i p o (nephew) although they are not related.
The forces suspect Suchitra had taken shelter there for the night. Realising that Kishenji, too, couldn’t have gone far, the forces accelerated their hunt. Five companies of the CRPF 187 Battalion, led by CoBRA commandos, moved into Burishole jungle, which spills into Jharkhand.
At the same time, the CRPF units in Jharkhand were alerted and moved quickly to seal off escape routes in the vicinity of Ghidni railway station. CRPF forces converged from both sides, trapping Kishenji’s team. Around 4pm, the encounter started.
Thousands of rounds were exchanged. The Maoists fired mostly from automatic rifles, strengthening the forces’ suspicion that it was a heavily armed unit protecting a big gun. Also, the Maoists rarely move in such huge numbers and it’s even rarer for them to engage in such a long encounter unless there was an important leader in the group. “The volume of gunfire was incredible. Both sides simply poured fire on each other,” said an officer involved in the encounter.
At 5.45pm, with darkness falling, the firing suddenly stopped from the Maoists. “Our commandos quickly moved in and found a body closely resembling Kishenji,” said a CRPF officer. Three more bodies were found. The hunt is on for Suchitra. “She is injured and cannot have gone far. We will get her,” said an officer.
Apart from a few photographs, police have some top secret video footage of Kishenji taken recently. Only two Bengal police officers — West Midnapore SP Praveen Tripathy and counter-insurgency force SP Manoj Verma (former West Midnapore SP) — have seen the latest photos of Kishenji. They were both in the operation.
Midnapore/Kolkata: The man who controlled eastern India’s Maoist operations, Kishenji or Koteswara Rao, was cornered and killed in a massive security operation after a two-hour gunbattle involving 500 CRPF combatants and commandos, backed by local cops, and 150-odd guerrillas in the dense jungles on the Bengal-Jharkhand border on Thursday. The recovery of Kishenji’s AK-47 rifle and a hearing aid the CPI-Maoist politburo member is known to have used lent credence to the claim that the yet unclaimed body was that of the feared commander, but officials said they needed to close a 1% gap to make a formal announcement.
“Most likely it is Kishenji. The officers on the spot said that it is Kishenji and most likely, 99%, it is Kishenji,” said Union home secretary R K Singh. “We have said that we have to be certain before we declare. We have sent the latest photographs of Kishenji for comparison.” The West Bengal government, however, reacted cautiously. At a press conference at Kolkata’s Writers’ Buildings, DGP Naparajit Mukherjee said, “We are in the process of identifying the body…. An AK-47 and a hearing aid was found along with the body. Since Kishenji used AK 47, it is being assumed it’s his body. But unless we are 100% sure, we cannot say it was him.” The trophy killing comes at the peak of WB CM Mamata Banerjee’s war on the Maoists, an operation triggered by a series of attacks by the Naxals, once seen as allies of Trinamool Congress, on her partymen in the Maoist-infested districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia. Mamata, who was in Delhiwhen news of the success came in, declined to comment.
The operation that netted Kishenji began on Tuesday night. It culminated in what was perhaps one of the biggest and fiercest battles in Jangalmahal with some 500 CRPF jawans and anti-Naxal commandos taking on the Maoist guerrillas. Thousands of rounds were fired during the gunfight in Kushboni jungle in Jhargram, 200km west of Kolkata. What made this operation different — and what probably made the difference — was that the CRPF was completely in control and there was precise coordination with CRPF forces in Jharkhand who quickly sealed off all escape routes. Kishenji was trapped.
Abody “closely resembling Kishenji” was found around 6pm, in fading light. Bengal DGP Naparajit Mukherjee said that an AK-47 and Kishenji’s hearing aid lay nearby. Police said at least three more Maoists were killed. The forces are hunting for Silda attack accused Suchitra Mahato, who may have been injured.
Kishenji has had many close shaves in the past and was reportedly injured in an encounter in Hathilot forest in March last year. He vanished after that, sparking speculation that he had been killed, until TOI interviewed him.
Sources said the break came from accurate information from a Trinamool-led vigilante group and a call intercepted late Wednesday night. Kishenji and Suchitra, widow of slain Maoist leader Sashadhar Mahato, were on the run since Tuesday midnight when some 1,000 CRPF jawans and policemen, led by Co-BRA commandos, launched a massive assault on a specific tip-off. There were running gunbattles all through Wednesday in which Suchitra was reportedly injured. The forces kept up the pursuit using night vision goggles, concentrating on the Jamboni-Binpur area, particularly Kushboni jungle and the nearby hamlets of Jhumuria, Lalbag, Bakshole, Dharsha, Urdhapur and Sankahara.
BIG GUN SILENCED
Mallojula Koteshwar Rao in Karimnagar secondin-command of CPI (Maoist), next only to Ganapathy
some 500 CRPF jawans and CoBRA commandos identified by AK-47 and hearing aid
Prashanta Bose (57) Red alert in AP districtsAred alert has been sounded in north Telangana and Andhra-Orissa Border (AOB) in the wake of Kishenji’s death in an encounter in Bengal. All police stations in the border districts of Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Maharashtra have been put on high alert, while special police forces have intensified combing in the Vizag Agency areas as a precautionary measure against possible Maoist attacks. While people of Peddapalli in Karimnagar, where Kishenji was born, came out on the roads to discuss his killing, his associates and comrades maintained a stoic silence, probably numbed by the loss of their friend. “We have alerted all the border police stations. Cops have been placed on high alert to respond to any retaliatory attack,” Warangal district SP Rajesh Kumar said. P6 We will catch Suchitra: CRPF
‘She Is Injured & Can’t Run Far’
Police said they intercepted a call from Kishenji late Wednesday night, seeking reinforcements from the Jharkhand units to break out of the siege.
At 9am on Thursday, joint forces raided the house of a college student Dharmendra Mahato in Bakshole. He is a final-year geography student at a Jhargram college and a Maoist supporter, said police. He was a PCPA activist and had campaigned for Chhatradhar Mahato — Sashadhar’s brother — in the last assembly election. Police said Kishenji and Suchitra had taken shelter earlier at his home, about 20km from the Jharkhand border.
Police questioned his father who said Dharmendra had gone to meet his sister in a neighbouring village. CRPF jawans searched the house and found a laptop bag, allegedly belonging to Kishenji, several maps marking out CRPF camps, and many letters written by Kishenji and Suchitra, where they had addressed Dharmendra as ‘Chandan’ and b h a i p o (nephew) although they are not related.
The forces suspect Suchitra had taken shelter there for the night. Realising that Kishenji, too, couldn’t have gone far, the forces accelerated their hunt. Five companies of the CRPF 187 Battalion, led by CoBRA commandos, moved into Burishole jungle, which spills into Jharkhand.
At the same time, the CRPF units in Jharkhand were alerted and moved quickly to seal off escape routes in the vicinity of Ghidni railway station. CRPF forces converged from both sides, trapping Kishenji’s team. Around 4pm, the encounter started.
Thousands of rounds were exchanged. The Maoists fired mostly from automatic rifles, strengthening the forces’ suspicion that it was a heavily armed unit protecting a big gun. Also, the Maoists rarely move in such huge numbers and it’s even rarer for them to engage in such a long encounter unless there was an important leader in the group. “The volume of gunfire was incredible. Both sides simply poured fire on each other,” said an officer involved in the encounter.
At 5.45pm, with darkness falling, the firing suddenly stopped from the Maoists. “Our commandos quickly moved in and found a body closely resembling Kishenji,” said a CRPF officer. Three more bodies were found. The hunt is on for Suchitra. “She is injured and cannot have gone far. We will get her,” said an officer.
Apart from a few photographs, police have some top secret video footage of Kishenji taken recently. Only two Bengal police officers — West Midnapore SP Praveen Tripathy and counter-insurgency force SP Manoj Verma (former West Midnapore SP) — have seen the latest photos of Kishenji. They were both in the operation.
No comments:
Post a Comment