Date:22/09/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/09/22/stories/2007092258660100.htm

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Top Maoist leader held in Jharkhand

K. Srinivas Reddy

HYDERABAD: Security forces dealt a blow to the Maoist movement in eastern India with the arrest of top ranking Maoist leader Misir Besra in the newly formed Khunti district in Jharkhand on Friday.

The rebel leader is a member of the all powerful Central Military Commission and the Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and is believed to be the architect of several armed actions against the security forces in Jharkhand. These include major attacks in West Singbhum district in 2002 and 2004 in which more than 55 policemen were killed.

Besra, popularly known as Bhaskar and Sunirmal, was also heading the Eastern Regional Bureau, which looks after Maoist activity in Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Eastern Coastal areas. Additional Director-General of Police of Jharkhand Gauri Shankar Rath told The Hindu on phone that the police recovered a loaded pistol, 15 detonators and some Maoist literature from Besra.

According to DIG R.K. Mallik, under whose jurisdiction the arrest was made, Besra went underground in the late 1980s. He was a senior cadre of the Maoist Communist Centre of India before it merged with the CPI (ML) People’s War to form the CPI (Maoist), which incidentally is celebrating its third anniversary of its founding on Friday.

The latest arrest comes close on the heels of a series of arrests of top Maoist leaders in Bihar, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.