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Maoist leader Vikram Gowda gunned down
In first such operation in the southern state in 13 years, the ANF of the Karnataka police gunned down senior Maoist leader Vikram Gowda during an encounter in the Kabbinale forests of Udupi district
The anti-naxal force (ANF) of the Karnataka police on Tuesday gunned down senior Maoist leader Vikram Gowda during an encounter in the Kabbinale forests of Udupi district, the first such operation in the southern state in 13 years, said senior officers aware of the matter.
According to police, the encounter took place when five Maoists reportedly visited a village to procure daily supplies. Acting on intelligence inputs, the force launched an operation, resulting in an exchange of gunfire around 1.15 am on Tuesday.
A 46-year-old Maoist, Gowda, who led the Netravati Naxal group, was killed on the spot, as four others escaped.
Officers said police were on the lookout for Gowda, a major cog in the rebels’ operations in the state, for two decades.
Gowda, a resident of Kabbinale village in Hebri taluk, was a prominent figure in the Maoist movement and had been active in organising and leading operations in the region for years.
“Vikram Gowda had been leading the Naxalite operations in south India for over two decades. He had taken shelter in Kerala and Tamil Nadu and had visited Kodagu (in Karnataka) many times,” an official said.
After the movement, state home minister G Parameshwar told reporters: “All of a sudden they (Gowda and associates) have fired on the police. During the return fire by the police, he was killed. Two or three others who were with him have escaped, ANF police have continued the combing operation.”The minister said Gowda was active and was moving from state to state.
When asked whether an encounter was necessary and could he have not been brought to the mainstream, he said: “He (Gowda) has fired at the police as soon as he saw them, so they had to retaliate.
IGP Rupa Moudgil said the killing of Gowda has weakened the Maoist movement in Kerala and Karnataka to a great extent.
There are two groups operating in western ghats region of Karnataka and the biggest among them was headed by Gowda, she said. With the end of his run, both groups are on the verge of disintegration or will be out of action for a while, Moudgil said. She said the team conducted the combing operation continuously for 10 days.
The last significant anti-Maoist operation in the state was in February 2005, when top rebel leader Saketh Rajan was killed near Kalasa in Chikkamagaluru district. After Rajan’s death, the Maoists designated February 5 as “Red Salute” day.
Though Maoists in the state have been muted over the past 13 years, some officers said that their activity had ticked up over the past few months, especially in the forests of Dakshina Kannada and Chikkamagaluru.
Meanwhile, security forces intensified their operations in Chikkamagaluru district, with ANF launching an extensive combing operation in the Sringeri and Koppa taluks, following intelligence suggesting renewed Maoist activity in the region.
With PTI inputs
