Orissa: 52 Maoists killed in encounters in 5 yrs

Moiast activists carry drinking water from a village well in the Abujh Marh in the central Indian state Chhattisgarh April-13-2007

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government, which is under fire from the Opposition political parties for its failure to tackle the growing activities of the Naxalites, also had many successes in their fight against the Left wing extremists (LWEs) during the last five years.Security forces killed 52 Naxalites in various encounters and recovered 950 weapons during five years from 2004.

Besides, 616 Naxalites including some top-level activists were arrested during the period.The arrest of Sobha (chief of the women wing of the CPI-Maoist) on October 7, 2006 is considered to be one of the most significant achievements of the Orissa Police in their anti-Naxalite drive. Several key members of the organisation who were involved in the killing of Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati were nabbed during the period.

Asutosh and Uday, two top functionaries of CPI-Maoist, were involved in the killing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader. This was stated by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the Assembly recently while replying to the discussion on the Home Department budget. The Opposition MLAs who criticised the State Government for its `inaction’ in tackling the menace, alleged that their base has grown to more than 15 districts in 2009 from six when Naveen assumed power.

Asutosh, a member of the central committee and central military commission and the head of the eastern politburo of CPI-Maoist, was involved in a number of incidents in Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and Bihar. He is also stated to be involved in the Nayagarh attack.

The other arrested Naxalite Uday was involved in Upalda police camp attack in Gajapati district in 2001, R.Udaygiri attack in 2006, Nayagarh attack in 2008 and the murder of the VHP leader. Several other key functionaries including Sriramul, chief of Malkangiri divisional committee of CPI-Maoist, Damdev, commander of Sambalpur-Deogarh-Sundergarh zonal committee of CPI-Maoist and Anna Reddy, central committee member and chief of CPI-ML-Janashakti were nabbed during the period.

The Chief Minister said that security personnel foiled designs of Maoists to carry out serious acts of violence by timely recovery of 2,005 landmines and similar kind of explosive devices. Besides, 21 Maoist cadres, including Ghasiram Majhi alias Akash, surrendered before the police during the five-year period, he said.

Indian Express