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Gadchiroli op may deter Maoist expansion plans
Saturday’s security op in Gadchiroli, in which 26 Maoists, including possibly some of their key leaders, were killed, was likely to provide forces an edge in the area, officials said
Gadchiroli, located on the eastern border of Maharashtra, holds key logistical importance for the guerilla Maoist movement as its forests and hilly terrain provide a safe route for the cadre and transportation of resources. Saturday’s security operation, in which 26 Maoists, including possibly some of their key leaders, were killed, was likely to provide forces an edge in the area, officials said.
The major offensive came after specific intelligence about the movement of the Maoists from Chhattisgarh to the forests of Mardintola and Kotgul, under the Gyarapatti police station, for a meeting, the officials said.
The site of the encounter is over 900km away from Mumbai and borders Chhattisgarh.
According to officials familiar with the matter, over the past few years, the extremists have been attempting an expansion into the MMC zone (Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh confluence) — a new area adjoining the Kanha reserve that they are seeking to enter.
“After the identification of MMC zone, Milind Baburao Teltumbde alias Deepak Teltumbde was appointed as the head of the zone and Gadchiroli division was tasked to oversee the expansion and consolidation of the MMC zone,” the official added.
Gadchiroli is one of the dozens of Maoist hotbeds in the country.
“Gadhchiroli, after being developed into a strong zone, became the pivotal point in the Maoist dominated areas particularly in Bastar, enabling supply of logistics, medicines and medical treatment to the cadres,” a senior Chhattisgarh Police official said.
In May 2019, at least 15 security personnel and a civilian were killed in an IED explosion triggered by Maoists in the area.
The area also offered a safe passage for Maoist cadres and senior leaders of the outfit’s central committee to travel to MMC zone. “The gradual decimation of Maoists in Gadchiroli will have disastrous impact on growth of Maoists in MMC region. Maoists in Bastar will be isolated with pressure across Gadchiroli, Telangana, AP and Odisha,” another official in Chhattisgarh said.
While the identities of the slain Maoists are yet to be ascertained, people familiar with the matter said that many senior members of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) were killed in the operation and the encounter will have disastrous impacts on the Maoist movement in the area.
Milind Teltumbde, a central committee member who is the secretary of the Maharashtra unit of the CPI (Maoist), is suspected to have been one of the targets in the encounter, the people cited above said.
Maharashtra home minister Dilip Walse-Patil told news agency PTI that the police were verifying if Teltumbde was among the slain rebels.
Teltumbde and his brother, Anand Teltumbde, a Dalit ideologue, are accused in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case. He was instrumental for the growth of Maoist movement in Gadchiroli, Rajnandgaon and Gondia.
“We will be able to provide all the details tomorrow after the identification,” Gadchiroli superintendent of police Ankit Goyal told news agency ANI.
