32-yr-old Maoist named as Sukma attack mastermind
SUKMA: A 32-year-old battle-hardened Maoist commander has emerged as the likely mastermind behind the massacre of 25 CRPF troopers in Chhattisgarh, police said on Wednesday, as the focus shifted to repeated intelligence failures that have led to severe losses for security forces battling rebels in the hotbed of Left-wing insurgency.
Madvi Hidma, who heads the first military battalion of the CPI (Maoist), likely planned and executed the ambush on the group of CRPF personnel in south Sukma on Monday, police said.
Six other jawans were also injured in the Maoist attack, the worst on security personnel since 2010 when 75 CRPF soldiers were killed in Dantewada.
Hidma, also known as Hidmalu and Santosh, is also believed to have been behind another attack on March 11 that killed 12 security personnel.
Considered one of the most dreaded Maoist leaders in Bastar, the hotbed of Maoist insurgency, Hidma was born in Purvati village of south Sukma. His area of operation comprises south Sukma, Dantewada and Bijapur.
Though diminutive in physique, he has built up a reputation for himself as a ruthless rebel leader who runs a network of dedicated informers across the region, police officials said.
Police officials scouring the site of Monday’s attack for leads said information received so far linked Hidma to almost all big attacks on security forces in Sukma since 2013. “He mostly coordinates with the local area commanders and sangham sadasyas (outfit members) and for many of them he is like god,” an official said. The Maoists, who claim to be fighting for land rights of marginalised tribal communities, are active across 10 states and Chhattisgarh is seen as one of its last remaining strongholds. ISLAMABAD/NEWDELHI: Pakistan on Wednesday turned down a fresh demand for consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav from India, which launched an appeal against the death sentence given to him by a Pakistani military court for alleged involvement in spying.
The demand for consular access — the 16th one — was conveyed by Indian envoy Gautam Bambawale to Pakistan’s foreign secretary Tehmina Janjua at the Foreign Office in Islamabad.
The envoy also handed over two appeals from Jadhav’s mother — one to the Pakistan Army’s court of appeal against the death sentence given to her son on charges of espionage and sabotage, and another asking the Pakistan government to free him.
However, Janjua contended Jadhav was not covered under a bilateral agreement on consular access as he was a “spy”. Consular access is meant for “important prisoners but not spies”, she reportedly said.
Janjua alleged Jadhav “was a serving Indian naval officer, who was involved in nefarious terrorist activities in Pakistan”, staterun Radio Pakistan reported. She added that India was contacted for information about Jadhav but did not cooperate.
The formal appeal against the death sentence, filed under Section 133(B) of the Pakistan Army Act, was signed by Jadhav’s mother. T
he external affairs ministry said in a statement Jadhav “continues to be in detention in Pakistan on concocted charges”.
Bambawale told the Pakistani foreign secretary that Jadhav’s mother had expressed a desire to meet him. India requested Pakistan to facilitate visas for the parents of the 46-year-old former naval officer.