Police strategy against naxalites pays off

By Our Staff Reporter

NIZAMABAD, JULY 25. The surrender of a district committee member (DCM) and a couple of dalam commanders of the People's War Group in the last few days has caused further concern among the cadre of the underground outfit which is likely to witness more surrenders in the near future.

The going for the PWG district committee seems to be tough this year since making its foray into the district more than a decade ago, because of largescale surrenders of the cadre. More importantly, the surrender of top leaders has created a strong impact among the lower rung cadres, who appear to be in a state of confusion whether to continue in the armed struggle or call it a day.

The three-pronged strategy of the police to ensure surrenders and simultaneously carry out anti-extremist operations has paid rich dividends. To compound the PWG's woes, blocking of the supply of weapons to the armed groups by the police has been largely successful in the last few months with the recovery of thousands of explosives in different parts of the district. So much so that the PWG which was running an arms manufacturing unit in the district shifted its machinery to the neighbouring district but could not prevent the police from laying hands on its machinery.

Encouraged by the surrenders, the police are using the former extremists to get back at the PWG cadre with whatever information they are getting through various sources. If the surrenders are a serious setback to the movement, the loss of cadre in the exchanges of fire has been another cause of worry. So far, 14 dalam members had been killed in encounters in eight exchanges of fire with the police till the end of July second week.

The district committee had already suffered a serious setback last year due to the desertion of a former district committee secretary, Haribhusan, former DCM, Sunita, squad commander, Naresh and his wife, who were subsequently expelled from the party. Even as the party was slowly coping with the unforeseen pressure, the spate of surrenders has landed the movement in the district in a piquant situation.

A look into the surrenders would reveal that 165 extremists had decided to join the mainstream in the last six months alone with the District Committee member, Ajay, heading the list followed by three squad commanders - Ramanna, Jyothakka and Kishore. Incidentally, Jyothakka happens to be the wife of the District committee secretary, Gajarla Saraiah alias Azad. In all 14 dalam members, one member of the North Telangana forest division military squad also gave themselves up besides 116 Viplava Rythu Coolie Sangham activists and 29 militants.

By far the surrender of Ajay, Kishore, Ramanna and Jyothakka, is certainly a severe setback to the underground movement. Barring Jyothakka, the other three leaders had served the party for the last decade and successfully faced the onslaught of the police force. All the three had led the squads and were militarily efficient. At least Ajay and Ramanna had single handedly planned out the Papannapet police station attack and succeeded in their plan.

The desperate situation of the PWG was evident when the police recovered some documents from the site of an encounter. In one of the document, the district committee had made a request to the Sirnapalli squad commander, Ramanna, not to surrender immediately. Ramanna was reportedly asked to defer his surrender for a few months so that the PWG could make some alternative arrangements.

Sources pointed out that Kishore, Ramanna and VRCS regional secretary, Modegaon Raj Reddy alias Jeevan, were all close confidants of Haribhushan and it was the former DCS, who is learnt to have written to his followers to quit the movement. The surrender of the three leaders has only strengthened the doubts among the PWG leadership.

The police on their part are confident that the PWG would be in the grip of a further crisis in the coming few months. They said the strength of the armed squads in the district had come down to 34. There are seven local guerilla squads and two special guerilla squads working the district committee. The strength would come down drastically, the police said adding that the top district leaders were not able to plan strategies because most of them hailed from outside the district.

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Section  : Southern States
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