Thursday, November 24, 2011

KISHAN KILLED, ‘99%’ Identity test waits for rebel prisoners!Kishenji may have been betrayed by his men Published: Friday, Nov 25, 2011, 9:15 IST


Kishenji may have been betrayed by his men

Published: Friday, Nov 25, 2011, 9:15 IST 
By Santanu Banerjee & Manan Kumar | Place: New Delhi, Kolkata | Agency: DNA

In what could be described as a huge blow to the outlawed CPI (Maoist), their senior leader and mouthpiece Mallojula Koteshvar Rao alias Kishenji is believed to be killed in Jamboni's Burisole area of West Midnapore district of West Bengal.

"Most likely it's him (Kishenji), our forces were tailing him continuously. But we have told our men to be 100 % sure. We've rushed latest pictures of Kishenji to the spot for verification," said union home secretary RK Singh in Delhi.

Sources in the security establishment claimed the 59-year-old was betrayed by cadres of the People's Liberation Guerilla Army of the CPI (Maoist) who gave away his whereabouts to the security forces.

Reports reaching from West Midnapore, quoting Gangeswar Singh, IG Western Range, confirmed Kishenji was killed after a 30-minute-gunfight during a joint operation of state police and CoBRA (special anti-Maoist force of Central Reserve Police Force) that were regularly tailing him.

Suchitra Mahato, a senior state level functionary of the CPI (Maoist), was also injured seriously in the gunfight but police were yet to find her.

"Night lights, cameras were put on in the entire area, leaving nothing to chances," a top official said. Sources told DNA that fearing backlash, huge number of security and intelligence personnel have been deployed in and around the area. A red alert has also been issued.

Kishenji was a senior member of the politburo and in-charge of Bengal region (including Bihar and Jharkhand) of CPI (Maoist). To morph identity he was known by several aliases such as Prahlad, Murli, Ramji, Shridhar, Vimal, Pradeep and Jayant Da. In the past, he was also the in-charge of Delhi region.

During the regime of CPM in West Bengal, he led several struggles and was also believed to be one of the architects of Singur and Nandigram stand offs against the government and also said to behind derailment of Jnaneshwari express.

He was also one of the key persons responsible for the merger of People's War Groupwith Maoist Communist Centre and Party Unity that resulted in the formation of a formidable CPI (Maoist).

Till late last year, Kishenji was operating from the forested areas of Jhargram, Junglemahal and Saranada in Jharkhand but decisive action by the security forces forced him to go into hiding and once in an encounter he was even hit in the leg and forced into retirement," said senior home ministry sources.

Believed to be carrying an AK-47, Kishenji was wanted by Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh governments which had put a reward of Rs12 lakh and Rs7 lakh respectively on him. He hailed from Peddapally in Karim Nagar district of Andhra Pradesh and was known to be sharp student before turning a Maoist.

The paramilitary forces which conducted the raid and operation also recovered one AK-47 from the spot. During the battle he was with his trusted lieutenants, including Suchitra Mahato.A former police officer, Rajat Mazumdar said, "The operation proves how successful administration has been in isolating Maoist from local men, like who would supply food and other essential things."

Hunt on for Maoist woman leader Suchitra Mahato

Published: Friday, Nov 25, 2011, 10:21 IST 
Place: Kolkata | Agency: PTI

A day after gunning down Maoist topgun Kishenji in an encounter, joint security forces were today intensively combing the Burisole forest area of West Midnapore district in search of Maoist woman leader Suchitra Mahato and some other associates of the slain ultra.

Suchitra, who was accompanying Kishenji, had fled after the encounter along with some other associates and is believed to be hiding inside the forest. Suchitra and the other ultras are also believed to be seriously injured, reports reaching here said.

Meanwhile, Kishenji's body has been taken to a morgue at Jhargram Hospital under strict security, the reports said.

The joint forces recovered one AK 47 and one AK-M rifle from the spot where the body was found after the encounter. A black bag, a hearing aid used by Kishenji and a jerry can were also found, the reports said.

The entire area was cordoned off by the combined forces who are combing the forest after a brief break last night.

Police said the CRPF DG was likely to visit the spot today. West Bengal DGP N Mukherjee would also reach the area today.

The reports said the police might contact Kishenji's family at Peddapalli town in Karimnagar district of Andhra Pradesh.

A red alert has been issued all over the state to thwart any retaliatory action by the ultras in wake of Kishenji's killing.

The joint forces killed 58-year-old Mollajulla Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji in a fierce gunbattle in junglemahal at Burisole forest yesterday.

Kishenji, a Maoist politburo member ranking third in the Maoist hierarchy had led the armed operations in junglemahal since 2009.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1111125/jsp/frontpage/story_14797415.jsp

Mallojula Koteswara Rao

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mallojula Koteswara Rao
BornJuly 1956
Karimnagar district, Andhra Pradesh, India
Died24 November 2011 (aged 55)
West Bengal, India
Nationality  India
Other namesKishenji, Prahlad, Murali, Ramji and Sridhar
OrganizationCommunist Party of India (Maoist)
SpouseSujata[1]

Mallojula Koteswara Rao (c. July 1956 - 24 November 2011 [2]), commonly known by his nom de guerre Kishenji, was a Politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and the group's military leader.[1][3][4] He had previously used Prahlad, Murali, Ramji, Jayant and Sridhar as aliases.[5] He claimed responsibility for the Silda camp attack in 2010. He was active in Lalgarh area of West bengal.

Born in Karimnagar district of Andhra Pradesh, Kishenji oversaw the People's war group's merger with the Maoist Communist Centre of India to form the CPI(Maoist).[1]

On 24 November 2011, Kishenji was killed in an encounter by the joint forces at Burisole forest in West Midnapore district, West Bengal, India.[6]

[edit]Early Life

[7]

Kishenji was born in Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh (AP). In 1973, after a BSc mathematics degree, he moved to Hyderabad in to pursue law. His political journey began with his involvement in the Telangana Sangarsh Samiti, which had been pressing for a separate Telangana state. He launched the Radical Students Union (RSU) in AP. He became a full-time member of thePeople's War Group in 1974.[8] During the Emergency in 1975, he went underground to take part in the revolution. Several things motivated him: Writer Varavara Rao, who founded the Revolutionary Writers Association, India's political atmosphere and the progressive environment in which he grew up. His father was a great democrat and a freedom fighter, also vice-president of the state Congress party. He was Brahmin, but his family never believed in caste. When he joined the CPI (ML), his father left the Congress saying two kinds of politics can't survive under one roof. His father believed in socialism, but not in armed struggle. After the Emergency ended in 1977, Kishenji led a democratic peasant movement against feudalism. Over 60,000 farmers joined it. It triggered a nationwide peasant uprising.

During search operations in 1982, the police broke down his home in Peddapalli village. He could never see his mother since, but wrote to her through Telugu newspapers. After 20 years in the Naxal belt of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, he relocated to West Bengal. His wife oversees Maoist operations in Dantewada.[7]

[edit]See also

[edit]References

  1. ^ a b c Flood, Derek Henry (2010). "Kishenji:A Profile of the Leader of the Indian Maoist Insurgency". Militant Leadership Monitor (The Jamestown Foundation) 1 (4): 8–11. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  2. ^ "Maoist leader Kishenji killed in encounter: Reports". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 2011-11-24.
  3. ^ Basak, Sanjay (28 February 2010). "Kishenji calling: Wrong number". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
  4. ^ "Kishenji claims responsibility for attack". The Times Of India. 15 February 2010.
  5. ^ "List of hardcore naxals prepared". Chennai, India: The Hindu. 29 December 2002. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
  6. ^ Maoist leader Kishenji killed in West Bengal
  7. ^ a b http://www.bannedthought.net/India/CPI-Maoist-Docs/Interviews/KishenjiInterview-091113.pdf
  8. ^ http://www.bannedthought.net/India/CPI-Maoist-Docs/Interviews/Kishanji-091024.pdf
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KISHAN KILLED, '99%'
Identity test waits for rebel prisoners
NARESH JANA AND PRONAB MONDAL

Burishole (West Midnapore), Nov. 24: Kishan, the hooded Maoist mastermind who issued a death threat to a chief minister on TV, was suspected with "99 per cent" certainty to have been killed by the joint forces in a West Midnapore jungle this evening.

A Telegraph reporter, who had seen Kishan earlier this month, said late tonight that the dead man in a photograph from the encounter site "very much" resembled the guerrilla leader.

The body of the middle-aged man was found in the Burishole forest around 5.15pm after a police-Maoist gunfight, director-general of police Naparajit Mukherjee said at Writers' Buildings.

"An AK-47 and a hearing aid (the 55-year-old Kishan used one) were found beside it," Mukherjee said. He added, without explaining how, that the police knew Kishan used that particular AK-47 and so suspected the body was his.

Tomorrow, the body is to be taken to Midnapore town, 100km from the spot, for a "full and final" identification by surrendered and arrested Maoists lodged in Midnapore jail, police sources said.

"If the dead man is indeed Kishan, we will have made a massive breakthrough," an officer said. The Telugu-speaking guerrilla leader, whose real name was Mallojula Koteshvar Rao, is believed to have planned most of the major rebel operations in Bengal in recent years.

Asked if it was Kishan, Union home secretary R.K Singh told reporters in Delhi: "Most likely… 99 per cent it is him because our forces were tailing him. But we have told our men to be 100 per cent sure."

The body — and that of another slain guerrilla — lay in the forest late tonight, the police waiting for forensic experts to arrive and examine them even as a gun battle continued at a nearby spot.

The dead man suspected to be Kishan had his face wrapped in a gamchha — a Kishan trademark during his TV interviews, in one of which he had declared that then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was on the rebels' hit list.

Bhattacharjee's successor learnt the news of the Maoist leader's probable death as she stepped out of the Bengal pavilion at a Delhi trade fair around 6pm. Mamata Banerjee carried on walking around the fairground, waving at the crowds and shaking hands, but her eyes were fixed on the messages bombarding her mobile.

"I have no confirmation or information," she told reporters before walking off to watch inmates from Bengal jails enact Tagore's Balmiki Pratibha, the story of a forest bandit's transformation to a man of peace.

Kishan had apparently grown so confident that last week he had told a Telugu news channel that the "useless and worthless" Bengal police were incapable of catching him.

Today, the CPM described his elimination as an "achievement'' for the Trinamul government.

Director-general Mukherjee said the walls began closing in on Kishan two days ago when the police were tipped off about a Maoist leader's movement in the Kushboni forest that adjoins Burishole.

"We suspected that Kishan and Suchitra (guerrilla leader and wife of slain Maoist top gun Sashadhar Mahato) were leading the squad and planning an attack on the joint forces," he said.

The forces raided a village in Kushboni yesterday and arrested three people who revealed that a woman and a man, guarded by armed commandos, had been staying in the village but had fled just before the police arrived.

The police suspected the duo were Kishan and Suchitra. This morning they raided several nearby villages on the chance that the rebels could be hiding in one of them since the forest was swarming with police.

In one village, some residents led them to the home of a college student who they claimed had Maoist links. The police found some maps, a laptop and letters written by Maoists. "We decided that Kishan must have left them behind in his hurry to flee. He couldn't have gone far as there were too many policemen around," an officer said. "So we decided to raid Burishole forest."

About 1,000 policemen formed a five-ring cordon around the forest and slowly closed in on the rebels. Around 3.30pm, the forces came up against firing from inside the forest and a gun battle began. The rebel guns fell silent around 5.15.

The police waited a while before moving in cautiously. They found the body of the middle-aged man. He wore a jacket and a thick shirt made of warm material.

"Everything about him fitted the descriptions of Kishan that we had," an officer said, adding the dead man's face matched the police photographs. Home secretary Singh said Kishan's latest photos were being sent to Bengal.

Late in the night, officers said the remaining members of the guerrilla squad were still firing at the forces from a nearby point.

"Jawans saw a woman limping away. We believe it was an injured Suchitra," an officer said.

The police have begun appealing over the public address system for Suchitra to surrender, assuring her the state government would take care of her treatment.

Home ministry sources said Kishan may have been "betrayed" by some of his aides. If he is indeed dead, it further depletes the Maoists' higher rungs.

Three central committee members have been arrested this year alone. "The number of central committee members has dropped from 38 to 22, which will certainly affect the CPI (Maoist)," a North Block official said.

Over the past two years, the official number of Maoist-hit districts has fallen from 223 to 182, though the total area of "liberated zones" has increased.

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  • KISHAN KILLED, '99%'
  • Time to strike at border villages
  • Prisoner alleges denial of treatment
Time to strike at border villages
SUMAN K. SHRIVASTAVA

Ranchi, Nov. 24: Police officers here see Kishan's death as an opportunity for Jharkhand to launch an immediate operation to seize control of areas in East Singhbhum district bordering Bengal.

"We should make the most of it as it will matter a lot for the anti-Naxalite operations in Jharkhand," IG (operations) S.N. Pradhan told The Telegraph.

"As it will be a body blow to the Maoist outfit, it will help us in taking total control of remaining areas of Saranda and its adjoining areas bordering three districts of Bengal, Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore," he added.

Kishan, the media face of CPI(Maoist) and a politburo member of the banned outfit, is said to have been killed in an encounter in a West Midnapore village after a massive search for him was launched on Wednesday.

Pradhan said security forces of Jharkhand weren't part of the West Midnapore operation that may have killed Kishan but Bengal police had alerted the state for back-up.

Kishan, a member of the Bihar-Jharkhand Special Area Committee and Eastern Bureau Regional Committee headquartered in Saranda, was also secretary of Jharkhand-Bengal-Bihar-Odisha special area committee. "He provided intellectual leadership and was the media face of the CPI(Maoist)," Pradhan added.

The IG said Kishan was always the main conduit for Jharkhand Maoists when they crossed over to Bengal. "Kishanji used to take care of all of their necessities… the moral support of rebels from here will be missing now."

IG (provision) and state police spokesman R.K. Mallick admitted Kishan's death would be a blow for Maoists, but added there were others Jharkhand needed to be wary of.

"Prashant Bose, alias Kishan Da, who happens to be the No 2 in the organisation continues to be our main challenge," he said.

Kishan, Mallick added, was also responsible for establishing an alliance between the CPI(Maoist) and the anti-national organisations active in the northeast.

"Being a member of the Eastern Bureau Regional Committee, earlier headquartered in Saranda, we had information he used to visit Jharkhand, though his main operational area was in Bengal," he said.

In fact, during Operation Anaconda in Saranda in August, the police had stumbled upon several incriminating documents that clearly established a connection between the CPI(Maoist) in Jharkhand and Revolutionary People's Front (RPF), the political wing of the outlawed People's Liberation Army (PLA) in Manipur.

Kolhan DIG Naveen Kumar Singh had then said that the security forces recovered as many as eight boxes of papers, which after verification, confirmed the link between Maoists and RPF. "The Manipur organisation was training

rebels in the jungles of Jharkhand," he had added.

A mission with 'precision'
Baton beckons rebel brother
PRONAB MONDAL
Venugopal

Calcutta, Nov. 24: The CPI (Maoist) is likely to ask Venugopal Rao, Kishan's younger brother, to take charge of the Bengal unit.

Venugopal is the chief of the intelligence wing of the outfit and also a politburo member. He started visiting Bengal since March 2009, during the Lalgarh movement.

According to sources in the government's Intelligence Branch, Venugopal visited the remote villages in and around Lalgarh, Belpahari, Salboni and Goaltore along with Kishan. This was part of the Maoist strategy to mobilise opinion in favour of the rebels.

Venugopal began to visit Lalgarh and other Jungle Mahal areas in West Midnapore more frequently after Kishan was reportedly injured in a gun battle with the security forces inside the Hatilot forest near Lalgarh in March last year.

"One of the factors that is likely to make Venugopal the most eligible candidate for the Bengal post is his knowledge of the topography of West Midnapore's Jungle Mahal. He knows the area better than the others in the party," an IB official said.

The CPI (Maoist) leadership is expected to hold a discussion on Kishan's successor at a politburo meeting. If names other than Venugopal's are proposed, they too will be considered. With Kishan's suspected death, there are 11 politburo members at present.

According to IB sources, Venugopal's ability to organise mass movements could tilt the scales in his favour. The sources said since the CPI (Maoist) had not been able to create a liberated zone in Bengal as it had done in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and parts of Odisha, the rebels depended on organising mass movements to spread its ideals in Bengal.

The 'wily fox' of Jungle Mahal
PRONAB MONDAL AND G.S. RADHAKRISHNA
Head covered with a towel, Kishan speaks to journalists in Lalgarh in 2009

Nov. 24: He was the "wily and dangerous fox of Jungle Mahal" to police, "Dada" to his followers in the Maoist ranks in Bengal and the "voice without a face" to many in the media who would frequently receive calls from him.

But so far, till the police are believed to have shot him dead in West Midnapore's Burishole forest, Mallojula Koteshvar Rao, popularly known as "Kishanji", had escaped from one police trap to another, displaying his skills as the "master of manoeuvre".

Only last week, Kishan had bragged to a Telugu news channel reporter that the "useless and worthless" Bengal police were incapable of catching him.

Known to be a shrewd planner who had successfully executed a number of operations in Bengal in the past few years, including the raid on the Eastern Frontier Rifles camp in Shilda and the abduction of Sankrail officer in charge Atindranath Dutta, Kishan was also an ace shooter, carrying a rifle with him wherever he went.

Beginning his political career with the People's War when he was barely out of the Government Degree College in Andhra Pradesh's Pedapalli, the 55-year-old Kishan went on to become a politburo member of the CPI (Maoist) and the chief of the guerrilla squad of the party.

Even from his People's War days, Kishan had always been a hardliner, being a follower of Kondapalli Seetharamaiahi who maintained that a revolution could only be won through bloody battles.

Kishan had been opposed to peace talks with the Andhra Pradesh government and when the talks failed, he was the first to say he knew all along that they would not succeed.

In an interview with The Telegraph in the jungles of Bhadrachalam bordering Chhattisgarh in early 2006, Kishan had said: "People in villages know that issues can only be settled through the sword and not empty talk."

Kishan left Andhra Pradesh about two decades ago, flitting in and out of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand and Bengal, organising mass movements wherever he went. He headed the eastern regional bureau of the Maoists, co-ordinating guerrilla activities in these states.

Kishan entered Bengal in 2004, after the People's War and the MCC merged to form the CPI (Maoist) and he set up base in Purulia's Ayodhya Hills. Like he had done in the other states, he began organising people's movement against the neglect of the tribals by the government and instigating them to rise against the state.

"He used to begin very peacefully, indoctrinating the poor tribals, pointing out the government's neglect and failure and preparing them for a long struggle for their rights," a police officer tracking Kishan said. "When he felt that the tribals were prepared, he would impart arms training and urge them to wage war against the state, planning every move carefully."

The big opportunity in Bengal for Kishan came in November 2008 when, following an IED blast on then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's convoy near Salboni, the police mindlessly beat up and jailed poor tribal women and children.

"That marked the beginning of the Lalgarh movement and something that Kishan exploited to the hilt," the officer added.

Kishan moved in with his trusted band of Maoists to Lalgarh and successfully kept the police out for several months and used this window to train the local youths in arms and strengthen the movement.

"Kishan was very wily and clever, which is why we called him the fox of Jungle Mahal," the officer said. "For him, the police brutality was a godsend and he swiftly moved in to capture the entire area and increase his sphere of operation."

Kishan also used mainline Opposition parties to his advantage, like supporting the Trinamul Congress during the Assembly elections, in the hope of gaining respite to rebuild his forces.

Only, in Bengal, the party he supported turned out to be his nemesis.

"There is no reason to believe that the rebel menace has now come to an end in Bengal. Since the outfit has a strong organisational set-up and believes in armed struggle against the government, it keeps the next set of soldiers ready," an officer said.

'Achievement' pat from CPM
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Calcutta, Nov. 24: The CPM today described the operation that led to the killing of Kishan as an "achievement'' on the Trinamul government's part but added that it was made possible by the administration's "course correction''.

"The Trinamul government was initially against the deployment of joint forces in Jungle Mahal. That provided a fillip to the Maoists, who gradually began regrouping in various parts of West Midnapore and Purulia,'' CPM state secretariat member Mohammad Salim said.

"But as the months passed by, there was a change in Trinamul's political thinking. The leadership changed its mind and initiated a course correction after the rebels began killing their (Trinamul's) people."

He added: "So, the new government decided to re-launch the operation by the joint forces and that yielded results. The operation is a success, an achievement. But the battle against the Maoists is a long-drawn process and must continue both politically and administratively."

Salim said the CPM "would always stick to its stand" that the killing of innocent people in the name of ideology would have to be countered "at any cost" and that the Trinamul government shouldn't hesitate to step up its operations.

"Our government had launched Operation Lalgarh (in 2009) as villagers were being killed by them (the Maoists). The Salboni blast (of 2008) was triggered by the Maoists; it was an attempt on Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's life. So we are always for (anti-Maoist) operations…. This government should intensify it,'' he said.

Kishan had threatened to kill then chief minister Bhattacharjee in early 2010, prompting the Left government to seek the Centre's help to tackle the Maoists.

Union home minister P. Chidambaram had then come to Calcutta to meet Bhattacharjee and senior home department officials and review the situation in Maoist-hit districts.

However, despite several attempts by the police to catch Kishan, he remained at large.

Asked whether the CPM viewed this as a failure of its government, a party leader said: "During our tenure, the Maoists killed hundreds of CPM workers. At that time, Trinamul used to provide ground-level and logistical support to the Maoists and brief Kishan's men on when and how to move out of the jungles. So our government's operations faltered to some extent.''

Leader of the Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra said the Maoists should realise that their ideology "can never do any good to society".

"I feel sorry for the unfortunate family of Kishan. They will have to bear the loss of his life," Mishra said.

"But he was a senior Maoist leader and was responsible for several killings. He had even threatened to kill Bhattacharjee. But today, let us not go into who achieved what by killing him.''

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