Many Maoist sympathisers surrender to police in Bhadrachalam Agency in 2020

Two key Maoists were killed in ‘exchange of fire’ in the year that passed; police focus on improving infrastructure

As many as 39 Maoist militia and village committee members surrendered before the district police this year as against four Maoists, who gave themselves up before the police last year.

In May this year, six members of the Revolutionary People’s Committee (RPC) of the outlawed CPI (Maoist) from the interior Kurnapalli village turned themselves in before the Charla police.

A total of 33 militia and village committee members of the banned organisation surrendered before Superintendent of Police Sunil Dutt in the district headquarters town of Kothagudem in November this year, police said. They hailed from two border villages Battinapalli and Kistarampadu in Charla mandal.

They were allegedly involved in separate incidents of Maoist violence, including blasting of a road and torching of road construction equipment in the Agency mandal, police added. Police claimed that they quit the violent path “disillusioned” with the Maoist ideology.

Since September this year, as many as six Maoists were killed in five separate incidents of “exchange of fire” (EoFs) with the police in the district, police added.

Two key Maoists, including Dudi Devalu alias Shankar of the rank of the area committee member (ACM) and the Charla Local Guerrilla Squad (LGS) commander Sodi Jogaiah, were among those killed in the “EoFs” in Gundala and Charla mandals in September this year.

Last year, two Maoists were killed in two separate “EoFs” in the district.

As many as 106 persons including Maoists, the alleged couriers and sympathisers of the banned outfit were arrested in various parts of the district this year.

The forest areas along the inter-district border with Chhattisgarh saw escalation of tension in the fag-end of the year following the renewed attempts by the Maoists to gain a foothold in the forested region of Bhadrachalam Agency and the stepped up anti-Maoist operations by the police.

In October, Maoists allegedly killed a villager from neighbouring Mulugu district identified as Eshwar by branding him as a “police informer” at Gorukonda in Charla mandal. The rebels also blasted a road at Pedamidisileru and set ablaze a road roller and a dozer at Battinapalli in Charla mandal in July this year.

The district police launched a poster campaign in the interior tribal pockets accusing Maoists of unleashing “mindless violence” and “obstructing” development in the remote tribal areas of the district.

The rebels too put up wall posters in the far flung areas of Bhadrachalam Agency condemning what they termed as “fake encounters” in Agency areas.

The inauguration of a firing range, battle obstacle and assault course (BOAC) track by Director General of Police M. Mahender Reddy at the district police headquarters in Kothagudem over a week ago marked the Police department’s renewed focus on strengthening the anti-Maoist operations training infrastructure in the border district.

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