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Naxals gain strength as AP cops duck for cover

Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad

The outlawed People's War Group of Naxalites is wresting back the initiative in its confrontation with the state even as the police seems to be ducking for cover with its defensive posturing on the issue of Naxalite violence.

Director-General of Police H J Dora, with his two-decade-long experience in anti-Naxalite operations, claims that the Naxalite violence in the state has come down by 30 per cent during 1999 compared to 1998 on account of "stepped-up anti-extremist operations".

Naxalites committed 942 offences, including 155 murders, during 1999 as against 1,334 offences, including 233 murders, during 1998.

The DGP contends that the PWG suffered serious setbacks during 1999, with the killing of important functionaries, including three central organising committee members -- Nalla Adi Reddy, Y Santosh Reddy and Seelam Naresh -- three provincial committee members, five district committee members, 18 central organisers ( dalam or armed squad commanders), 26 deputy central organisers and 11 sub- dalam commanders in fierce exchanges of fire with the police.

During 1999, as many as 213 extremists were killed in 200 encounters, while 1,552 cadres were arrested and 364 Naxalites joined the mainstream.

The surrendered Naxalites included two district committee members, 11 central organisers, 25 deputy central organisers, two sub- dalam cadres and 265 dalam members. The police seized 275 weapons and 2,267 rounds of ammunition and a huge quantity of explosives during the year.

A couple of years ago, there were around 1,800 underground cadres of the PWG.

During 1998 and 1999, as many as 900 cadres were neutralised either through arrests and surrenders or encounter killings. At present, the strength of the PWG underground cadres is 1,100, including the new recruits in recent months, according to police estimates.

Despite such claims by the police top-brass, the PWG retains much of its destructive power even now.

Contrary to the claims of the state police that they have dealt a "crippling blow" to the PWG by eliminating its top leaders (including the second-in-command), the outlawed organisation has given sufficient indications that its capacity to indulge in violence at will remains more or less intact.

The dare-devil killing of Madhava Reddy on Tuesday night amply bears this out.

The void caused by the killing of top PWG leaders Nalla Adi Reddy, Y Santosh Reddy and Seelam Naresh in an encounter with the police on December 2 last year has since been filled with new members.

The top PWG panel comprising such members, which earlier had 12 members, was expanded to 15 after the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninst-Party Unity of Bihar merged with the PWG. Those on the panel from Andhra Pradesh include Muppala Laxman Rao alias Ganapathi, PWG central secretary and senior members Mallojula Koteswara Rao alias Prahlad alias Ramji, Raji Reddy, Raj Kumar and N Kesava Rao.

The police claims to have "largely incapacitated" the PWG in the last two years through encounter killings and surrenders and arrests of its cadres.

The police confronted the extremists in inhospitable forest and hilly terrain throughout the state.

Training camps of the PWG had been 'disturbed' in its strongholds. On a number of occasions, entire dalams of the PWG were eliminated in police operations in north Telangana.

Notwithstanding these "setbacks", the PWG has also been striking at will at its targets and continuing with its violent spree against policemen, politicians, alleged police informants and private and public property.

In a daredevil act on September 4 last year, Naxalites gunned down young Indian Police Service officer (Assistant Inspector-General of Police) Ch Umesh Chandra at a busy crossroads at S R Nagar in Hyderabad.

Later, on September 15 last, a sitting legislator and Telugu Desam Party candidate Palvai Purushottam Rao was shot dead along with his three gunmen by the PWG in his home town Sirpur on the eve of the assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

Earlier, on April 13 last year, senior Congress leader and former AP legislative assembly speaker Dudilla Sripada Rao was shot dead by PWG Naxalites at Annaram village in the Naxalite-affected Karimnagar district.

The Naxalites have also resorted to landmine blasts targeting policemen. The police say that Naxalite violence is reported mainly from the north Telangana region (comprising Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal, Khammam and Nizamabad districts) and also from the south Telangana region (consisting of Medak, Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Rangareddy and Hyderabad districts) and partly from the Rayalaseema region (comprising Anantapur, Kurnool, Cuddapah and Chittoor districts).

Fewer incidents of Naxalite violence are reported from the north coastal Andhra region (consisting of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East and West Godavari districts) and south coastal Andhra region (comprising Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore districts).

The PWG activities cover other states such as Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka (all borderning Andhra Pradesh) as well as Bihar where the outlawed organisation has made its presence felt after the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist-Party Unity merged with the PWG.

The killing of Madhya Pradesh Transport Minister Likhiram Kawre in December last year and the spurt in violent incidents elsewhere in Bihar, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh suggest that the PWG will not leave the governments in these states in peace either.

The police forces in these states are not as well-equipped as the Andhra Pradesh police to deal with the extremists.

In this scenario, it will be naive on the part of the state governments or police forces to claim that Naxalites have lost their strength.

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