25 Maoists killed in Bastar op were members of Basavaraju’s protection detail
Officials said the 25 Maoists killed in the operation were members of People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army’s (PLGA) Company number 7
NARAYANPUR: The 25 Maoists killed in Wednesday’s fierce gunfight that led to the killing of Communist Party of India (Maoist) general secretaryNambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur were members of his elaborate protection detail, officials said on Thursday.
Apart from Basavaraju, Jangua Naveen, a member of the special zonal committee, was also killed in the gunfight.
Officials said the 25 Maoists killed in the operation were members of People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army’s (PLGA) Company number 7 that was assigned to protect the party general secretary and top central committee members. These fighters usually operated in the dense jungles of Abujhmad.
“Twenty-five cadres of People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) company number 7, who were given the responsibility of guarding Basavaraju, were killed in the encounter. We believe that they were about 35 in number and the rest of them managed to escape,” a senior police officer said.
Among the weapons found at the encounter site were 12 automatic weapons and three under-barrel guns.
A senior intelligence officer said the operation was launched following an intelligence input.
“Since Basavaraju and other senior leaders have a team of guards, they usually camp near water bodies in Abujhmad in summer. A local input came to police that the members of company number 7 were seen near Boter village after which the operation was launched,” said the intelligence officer.
The intelligence officer suggested that the first encounter started on Tuesday evening. “Basavaraju managed to escape from the first encounter spot but ran into another encounter around four kilometers away as the force had cordoned off a radius of 10 km,” said the officer.
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It was in the second gunfight that he was killed at about 3am on Wednesday. But it was only several hours later on Wednesday morning that some surrendered Maoist cadres identified Basavaraju’s body.
Chhattisgarh director general of police Arun Dev Gautam said all the 27 Maoists killed in the operation have been identified.
Bastar inspector general (IG) P Sundarraj said Basavaraju had a direct or indirect role in all Maoist attacks in the Left-Wing Extremism-affected states over the last few years.
“The security forces carried out this operation very tactically, which resulted in the death of CPI (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju... This is a great achievement for the security forces... Peace and normalcy will be restored in the area, and the people of the country hope that Naxalism will be eradicated. Peace and normalcy will prevail in the area,” the IG said.
Chhattisgarh chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai told a press conference in state capital Raipur that Basavarju’s killing was the proverbial last nail in the coffin of naxalism.
“For the first time in three decades, a Maoist of general secretary rank of the banned outfit has been neutralised. This is an extraordinary achievement and a clear indication that we have put the last nail in the coffin of Naxalism,” Sai said in a press conference here.
Our government’s policy has been to answer bullets with bullets and talks with talks, he added.
The chief minister said, security forces have killed more than 400 Naxalites and arrested 1422 Naxalites in the last one and a half years,
