Andhra Pradesh (Maoist Insurgency): Timeline (Terrorist Activities) -2010

The Maoists have called for a bandh on January 3 in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh to protest alleged Police atrocities and violation of human rights and price rise. An alert has been sounded in West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia fearing violence during the bandh. Read less...

Times of India quoted Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram as saying on January 5 that the extremists would be happy if political parties failed to hammer out a solution on Telangana. Appealing to Andhra Pradesh leaders at the all-party meeting on Telangana to "show accommodation and goodwill and help the Centre find a solution", Chidambaram said, "I wish to caution all political parties that there are forces waiting on the wings who ridicule the parliamentary form of democracy and who would be happy if we collectively fail to find answers to the issues that concern us." Without identifying Maoists as such "forces" in his opening statement, Chidambaram said, "We should not give any room for these forces to gain strength or credence." Emphasising that law and order must be maintained in the state, he said, "While we deliberate on these issues and take forward the process of consultations, we must recognise the fundamental importance of restoring normalcy in Andhra Pradesh. There must be a halt to agitations and bandhs." Read less...

A woman cadre of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) Ravva Sathamma alias Bandi and four others – all members of a village-level committee floated by the outfit – surrendered before M. Raghuram Reddy, Additional Superintendent of Police (Khammam), Bhadrachalam, on January 6, reports The Hindu. Sathamma, one of the dalam (squad) members, vigorously campaigned for the People Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) and played a key role in motivating and forcing youth to join the outfit in the tribal pockets in the District. She joined the dalam a few years ago under the influence of a militia ‘commander’ Sirumaiah. Sathamma admitted that she had undergone training along with 30 others in weapon handling in Balamtogui forests. She worked for some time along with Nagesh, ‘deputy commander’ of the CPI-Maoist Sabari area committee for forming village-level committees in the tribal pocket. She also worked in the Area Rakshaka Dalam (ARD) for about one year. She was the driving force behind the activities taken up by the village panel of Amudalapadu floated by the Sabari area committee of the party. As decided by the leadership of the Sabari area committee, the village body constructed a mini tank over the Chinavagu, a forest stream. The committee tried out community farming concept in the village by involving all families in joint cultivation in their lands under the newly built tank. The Maoists advocated non cooperation with the Government agencies and the Police. The village committee was in involved in felling of trees for blocking vehicular movement at Boddugudem on the Bhadrachalam- Chintoor road. Sustained efforts made by the Police to counsel the villagers helped in weaning them away from the Maoist fold. In the process, Sathamma also came out of the party with a resolve to join the mainstream. Four others – Ravva Raju, Kovvasi Sinaiah, Kovvasi Dulaiah and Podium Kosaiah – all belonging to Gothikoya tribe and aged between 18 and 26 years surrendered before the Police. Read less...

Five more Districts — Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal, Kurnool and Chittoor – have been added to the list of those affected by extremist activity for the purpose of seeking Central funds for development of roads. A similar request for Central funds to improve roads citing left wing extremism was earlier made in respect of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and East Godavari Districts. However, in the case of Khammam, work has begun following sanction of funds by the Centre in response to an earlier plea. Minister for Roads & Buildings Galla Aruna said on January 6 that a letter would soon be addressed to the Centre with a request for release of funds for proper development of road facilities in the District prone to Maoist activity. Read less...

Andhra Pradesh Police arrested Tushar Kant Bhattacharya alias Srikant (50), a top leader of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), from Warangal on an unspecified date and was produced in a Warangal court on January 8, reports Telegraph. Unspecified sources said the Maoist was arrested in Hyderabad city two days ago but the Police had kept the news under wraps till the evening of January 8. Bhattacharya, a Bengali from Andhra Pradesh’s Adilabad District, is chief of the "Triple U" unit, the CPI-Maoist militant wing that operates in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and "Uttar" (north) Bihar. He is also a member of the Maoist outfit’s "international forum", which interacts with foreign rebels and rights groups. Read less...

Karimnagar First Additional Sessions Judge S.M. Rafi remanded CPI-Maoist’s Maharashtra State committee member Ogge Chandramouli alias Mahender alias ‘CM’ in judicial custody till January 19. Read less...

Two area committee members of CPI-Maoist, Puvvala Mohana Rao alias Kumar of Vanakabadi village in G.L.Puram mandal (administrative unit) and Ariki Chinnammi alias Sarada of Dibbaguda in Sitampeta mandal in Srikakulam District surrendered before Superintendent of Police Y. Gangadhar and OSD (Vizianagaram), Navin Gulati on January 8, reports The Hindu. Read less...

The central secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) K. N. Ramachandran on January 9 said no one is shedding tears for the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) in Andhra Pradesh because they had created a culture of extortion through individual squads, according to Express Buzz. The CPI-Maoist base stands highly eroded in Andhra Pradesh and the extremists are not getting any support anymore because they have deviated even from the basic tenets of Maoism, he maintained. “The CPI (Maoist) cannot call itself a Naxal outfit because they have moved away from the Naxal ideology. The Maoists are an individualistic and anarchist lot,” he said. He added that the CPI-Maoist has created units which are allowed to function on their own and they are targeting the people and their utilities. They have become extortion squads which is why no one is now sympathising with them in Andhra Pradesh. Ramachandran who had joined CPI-ML during the Naxalbari movement of 1960s is known to have been very vocal against means of the armed struggle adopted by the CPI-Maoist. Read less...

About 30 Naxalites (left wing extremists), at least 15 of them Gothikoya tribals, set ablaze a porcelain and a tractor of a civil contractor near Puligundala village under Dummugudem Police Station in Khammam District at around 11.30pm on January 10, reports The Hindu. They also set ablaze a tractor engaged in road-laying work. Police sources said the extremists were out to scuttle the progress of road works taken up on the inter-State border with Chhattisgarh. Read less...

Superintendent of Police Ch. Srikanth gave a cheque for INR 200, 000 to surrendered woman Naxalite (left wing extremist) G. Vijayalakshmi in Kurnool District on January 12, The Hindu reported. Vijayalakshmi who worked as member of Nallamala Forest Division Committee and District Committee surrendered before the Deputy Superintendent of Police on January 26, 2009 after the death of her husband Givinda Naik alias Sanjeev in an encounter in Prakasam District. She was wanted in three important cases. Read less...

Taking advantage of the prevailing volatile political situation in Andhra Pradesh, the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) may try to strengthen their base, Police officials have warned, according to PTI. The Maoists, who have reportedly supported the Telangana agitation, may utilise the current unrest to strengthen their base in the backward region, once a stronghold of Maoist activity, they said. There is always a danger of Maoists coming back to the State and regaining the lost ground, given the turmoil prevailing in the last few months, according to an unnamed senior Police official. The Andhra Police is worried about the heightened activities of the Maoists in neighbouring Chhattisgarh and Orissa. Police in Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam, bordering Orissa, and Khammam District adjoining Chhattisgarh have been put on a high alert, Police said. Read less...

A former Naxalite (left wing extremist) was hacked to death by his rivals near the Ngarajunasagar Project Guest house in the Khammam town late in the night of January 17, The Hindu reported. The Police said that Nallamothu Venkateswarlu, 38, had earlier been associated with the Praja Pratighatana group of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist). Read less...

The Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) now has developed the expertise to clone sophisticated weapons, including assault rifles of AK series, according to Times of India. Security agencies came across the Maoists’ innovative skills when a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) team neutralized an arms manufacturing unit in the forests close to Gobardaha village in the Chatra District of Jharkhand and recovered a number of ‘duplicate’ AK-47 and AK-57 rifles of “high standard”. The CRPF also seized as many as 59 different types of instruments, which were used to manufacture and assemble these rifles and various types of pistols. An unnamed official said, “Though Security Forces have busted other arms manufacturing units of the Maoists in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh in the past, they have for the first time come across such sophisticated weapons of high standard, manufactured by the ultras.” The first big arms manufacturing unit of the Maoists was neutralized by Andhra Pradesh Police in 2006 when they recovered a huge stock of rocket shells and launchers in the State. Probe later revealed that the Maoist’s ‘technical wing’ designed the launchers and initially made them at a foundry in Chennai. Read less...

The Communist Party of India- Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres set a passenger bus, which was bound for Rinthada in Visakhapatnam District, ablaze on January 29, reported The Hindu. According to the Police sources, Maoists stopped the bus bound for Rinthada. After making the passengers alight, the Maoists set the bus ablaze. Before leaving they also set ablaze a shop. The incident occurred at around 7pm. Read less...