37 Maoists killed in Gadchiroli
TWOPRONGED ATTACK Troops of C60, CRPF storm site of clandestine meeting; two top leaders among bodies identified
After gunning down 37 Maoist insurgents over Sunday and Monday, Maharashtra police were on Tuesday trying to ascertain if the supremo of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) — Muppala Lakshamana Rao — also known as Ganapathy, is among them.
“We have specific information that Ganapathy was in the Kaswapur jungle, neighbouring Chhattisgarh, to hold a secret meeting of rebels,” said Ankush Shinde, deputy inspector general of police, who has been supervising the operation in south Gadchiroli since Saturday. “Bodies are yet to be identified. But our information is that when the C-60 attacked the meeting camp, Ganapathy was there,” he said.
Ganapathy is the present general secretary of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and known as possibly the shrewdest and most elusive leftwing extremist.
Shinde said his team has launched a massive search operation in the area and found 15 more bodies from the Indravati river, along with automatic weapons, including AK 47 assault rifles, this morning.
“My team is working there to recover the bodies. We have information that around 15 more bodies were found floating on the river,” said Abhinav Deshmukh, superintendent of police (SP), Gadchiroli said. These bodies are yet to be identified.
On Sunday, security forces claimed to have gunned down 16 Maoists in the Kaswapur jungle near the Indravati river in south Gadchiroli. With 15 more bodies recovered, the toll reached 31. Six more rebels were killed in another encounter on Monday evening, taking the total to 37, Deshmukh said.
The operation in Kaswapur forest was carried out by C-60 commandos of Gadchiroli police, the district police and Battalion 9 of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and seems to have taken a heavy toll on the cadre of the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
The bodies of two senior Maoist leaders, Srinu alias Srikant, who was in charge of the south Gadchrioli division of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), and 32-year-old Sainath, also known as Dolesh Madhi Atram, have been identified. Srikant carried a reward of ₹20 lakh and Sainath ₹12 lakh.
To take down Ganapathy is one of the biggest targets of the security forces in the battle against left-wing extremism. They believe that it would strike a major blow to the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
NAGPUR:
The Naxal meeting was to happen near the ashram of Magsaysay award winning social worker couple Prakash and Manda Amte
Maoists are caught off guard. 1.30: The C-60 team finds 16 bodies. Combing operation suspended at night.
MONDAY
7.30 pm: Villagers inform police that a few bodies were floating on the river Indravati Tuesday, 7 am: Security forces find 15 decomposing bodies, two of them women, in river