MIDNAPORE/KOLKATA: A phone call that Kishanji made on Wednesday night seeking reinforcements from Maoist cadres in Jharkhand proved to be his undoing. Kishanji and Suchitra Mahato, widow of slain Maoist Sashadhar Mahato, were on the run since Tuesday midnight when some 1,000 CRPF jawans and policemen, led by CoBRA commandos, launched a massive assault on a specific tip-off. There were involved in gunbattles all through Wednesday and 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. On Wednesday night, they intercepted Kishanji's call. 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. Police said Kishanji and Suchitra had taken shelter earlier at his home, about 20km from the Jharkhand border. Dharmendra was away but CRPF jawans searched the house and found a laptop bag, allegedly Kishanji's, several maps marking out CRPF camps, and many letters written by Kishanji and Suchitra to Dharmendra. The forces suspect Suchitra had taken shelter there on Wednesday night. Realizing that Kishanji, 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, 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. Kishanji was trapped. 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 top gun. At 5.45pm, with darkness falling, the firing suddenly stopped from the Maoist side. "Our commandos quickly moved in and found a body closely resembling Kishanji," said a CRPF officer. Three more bodies were found. The hunt is on for Suchitra. Bengal DGP Naparajit Mukherjee said an AK-47 rifle and Kishanji's hearing aid lay nearby. At least three more Maoists were killed. Only two Bengal police officers - West Midnapore SP Praveen Tripathy and counter-insurgency force SP Manoj Verma - have seen the latest photos of Kishanji. Both officers were part of the operation.
Kishanji killed: Mamata Banerjee refuses to react
NEW DELHI: Apprehensive of retaliation by Red ultras, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday refused to react to the death of Maoist leader Kishanji, who was killed in an encounter in the state. The CM got the news of Kishanji's death while she was attending the West Bengal Day function at the International Trade Fair at Pragati Maidan on Thursday. It changed her body language, and she was visibly disturbed. Immediately, she got busy with phone calls to get an update on the situation from back home. Railways, headed by Trinamool's Dinesh Trivedi, was put on high alert after the Maoist leader's death was confirmed. The Jnaneshwari Express incident, suspected to be the naxals' handiwork, had occurred last year. Banerjee has recently endorsed the joint operation with the Centre against Maoists in the state. The naxals retaliated by killing several Trinamool activists. Prior to becoming the CM, she had spoken about holding talks with the Maoists to resolve the problem in the state, and even in her party's election manifesto had mentioned it. She had also indicated giving amnesty to those who would leave the Maoist fold and join the mainstream society. If violence in the state spirals, it would only add to the CM's woes in running the state, already reeling under empty coffers and an increasingly sour ties with alliance partner Congress.
Tough job for Maoists to replace Kishanji
NEW DELHI: After Kishanji's death, Kishanda alias Prashanta Bose a 57-year-old Maoist from Bengal is expected to replace the Andhra fighter. Kishanji was in charge of the eastern regional bureau and it will be sometime before the politburo meets and decides on a replacement.
"By the time guerrilla leaders go up in the party hierarchy, they are seasoned members who have seen ups and downs of the movement, know various aspects of its functioning and are privy to its secret activities," said a security expert.
At the 2007 party congress, there were 39 central committee (CC) members and currently there are around 20 CC members left. Of the 13 politburo members, around 7 remain and of them, nearly four have sharp military capabilities - Central Military Commission chief Nimbala Keshava Rao, Tirupathy, Narsimha Reddy and Malla Raja Reddy. Their average age is about 55 and they are based in Chhattisgarh.
In 2011, four CC members were arrested. In 2010, Maoists suffered major reverses. West Bengal unit of the Maoists was more or less decimated. Across the country, too, the Maoists faced a steady attrition rate. In March 2010, Shakamuri Appa Rao, chief of Maoist military intelligence, was killed in Andhra Pradesh's Prakasam district. Maoist spokesperson and CC member Azad was killed in an encounter in AP's Adilabad forests in July 2010. In February 2010, Balraj and Chintan, both CC members were arrested.
Kishanji: A wily commander done in by his own daring
HYDERABAD: Always clad in a cotton shirt with a scarf around his head and a Kalashnikov dangling from his shoulder, Mallojula Koteshwar Rao alias Kishanji was a wily commander and a rousing speaker. He wore several hats down his 37-year-long revolutionary road before police bullets felled him in West Bengal. A Brahmin by birth from Peddapalli in Karimnagar district, Kishanji (56) was the second son of M Venkataiah and Madhuramma. Venkataiah was a school teacher and Madhuramma lives in Peddapalli. "She would get angry when she saw Kishanji on TV giving interviews. She feared that the police would track him down and wanted him to go deep into the forests," a Peddapalli resident said. Kishanji studied in SRR Degree College in Karimnagar and even dabbled with LLB in 1978 in Osmania University. Although he didn't go underground during the Emergency, he evaded arrest by organizing meetings in Jagityal and Sircilla to highlight the grievances of poor tribals. He was instrumental in sustaining these meetings despite strong-arm tactics of then Congress CM M Chenna Reddy. He brought radical youth under a single platform by forming the All-India Revolutionary Students Forum and held its first seminar in Hyderabad in February 1975. After the People's War Group was formed in 1980, its founder Kondapalli Seetaramayya was so impressed by Kishanji's organizational skills that he made him state secretary of PWG in 1982-85. "He was dynamic and inspired a lot of youth to join the movement," said another Maoist ideologue, Varavara Rao. Kishanji was the architect of the Maoist resurrection in Bengal. In 1994-1995 he became a central committee member of the PWG and was made in-charge of Bengal. In 2001, he attended 9th party Congress at Chhattisgarh's Abujmadh where he was inducted in the politburo as a North Eastern Regional Bureau member. He played a crucial role in the merger of PW and MCC to form the CPI-Maoist in 2004. Although Maoist violence returned to Bengal in early 2000, their first success in mass movement came with the violent anti-land acquisition agitation in Nandigram in 2007. The high point was during the 2008-09 Lalgarh movement. Both these movements grabbed headlines and galvanized rights groups and activists. The Maoists also stepped up violence. Buoyed by his success, Kishanji did what the Maoists leaders strictly avoid. He began appearing on TV channels and spoke to reporters regularly. That helped the security forces to track him.Kishanji killed: Mamata Banerjee refuses to react
NEW DELHI: Apprehensive of retaliation by Red ultras, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday refused to react to the death of Maoist leader Kishanji, who was killed in an encounter in the state. The CM got the news of Kishanji's death while she was attending the West Bengal Day function at the International Trade Fair at Pragati Maidan on Thursday. It changed her body language, and she was visibly disturbed. Immediately, she got busy with phone calls to get an update on the situation from back home. Railways, headed by Trinamool's Dinesh Trivedi, was put on high alert after the Maoist leader's death was confirmed. The Jnaneshwari Express incident, suspected to be the naxals' handiwork, had occurred last year. Banerjee has recently endorsed the joint operation with the Centre against Maoists in the state. The naxals retaliated by killing several Trinamool activists. Prior to becoming the CM, she had spoken about holding talks with the Maoists to resolve the problem in the state, and even in her party's election manifesto had mentioned it. She had also indicated giving amnesty to those who would leave the Maoist fold and join the mainstream society. If violence in the state spirals, it would only add to the CM's woes in running the state, already reeling under empty coffers and an increasingly sour ties with alliance partner Congress.
Tough job for Maoists to replace Kishanji
NEW DELHI: After Kishanji's death, Kishanda alias Prashanta Bose a 57-year-old Maoist from Bengal is expected to replace the Andhra fighter. Kishanji was in charge of the eastern regional bureau and it will be sometime before the politburo meets and decides on a replacement.
"By the time guerrilla leaders go up in the party hierarchy, they are seasoned members who have seen ups and downs of the movement, know various aspects of its functioning and are privy to its secret activities," said a security expert.
At the 2007 party congress, there were 39 central committee (CC) members and currently there are around 20 CC members left. Of the 13 politburo members, around 7 remain and of them, nearly four have sharp military capabilities - Central Military Commission chief Nimbala Keshava Rao, Tirupathy, Narsimha Reddy and Malla Raja Reddy. Their average age is about 55 and they are based in Chhattisgarh.
In 2011, four CC members were arrested. In 2010, Maoists suffered major reverses. West Bengal unit of the Maoists was more or less decimated. Across the country, too, the Maoists faced a steady attrition rate. In March 2010, Shakamuri Appa Rao, chief of Maoist military intelligence, was killed in Andhra Pradesh's Prakasam district. Maoist spokesperson and CC member Azad was killed in an encounter in AP's Adilabad forests in July 2010. In February 2010, Balraj and Chintan, both CC members were arrested.