Killing of MLA, ex-MLA exposes laxity on the part of security forces.
Sudden spurt in Maoist activity and broad daylight killing of Andhra Pradesh MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former MLA Siveri Soma in Araku valley of Visakhapatnam district on 23 September, has underscored the laxity on the part of the police and paramilitary forces. Now, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) foresees escalated Maoist threat to Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh that will go to elections soon.
The audacious manner in which 60 Maoists, mostly women and youth below 25 years, took away the MLA and an ex-MLA along with their gunmen in the presence of a dozen of their followers, barely 20 km from Araku town and conducted a 15-minute kangaroo court roadside and gunned them down, indicated the utter unpreparedness of the cops. Both the MLA and ex-MLA are tribals (STs).
A detailed investigation is on by the MHA, but a preliminary inquiry by Andhra police has revealed that the Araku police had failed to notice the movements of the large number of Maoists in military uniform for the last two days and also couldn’t save the MLA and ex-MLA even after having enough forces and weapons in the police stations.
Sarveswara Rao and Soma knelt before a woman commander of Maoists, now identified as Aruna, alias Venkata Ravi Chaitanya, 39, and begged her not to kill him, adding he was ready to do whatever the Maoists wanted. Soma, too, wept before the Maoists, but their pleadings went in vain, say eyewitnesses. Incidentally, the MLA was elected on YSR Congress ticket in 2014, but later defected to the ruling TDP.
When the Maoist commander conducted a brief “public hearing” gunning them down, the main charges against the duo were that they were carrying out bauxite mining in the agency area and that they were informing the police of Maoist movements in the Andhra-Orissa borders. She also questioned the MLA on defecting to the ruling party, betraying the trust of the voters.
Both the MLA and ex-MLA told the Maoist squad leader that they were ready to close limestone quarrying and claimed that they never owned bauxite mines. They even told her that they would never again talk to the police and would cooperate with the Maoists. However, the commander was unrelenting and shouted Mee Khel Khatam (your game is up) and gunned them down.
Appa Rao, personal assistant of Sarveswara Rao and Swamy, gunman, along with a few other personal staff were present while their leaders were killed by the Maoists. The Maoists snatched away the weapons from Swamy and other gunmen who ran away from the place once the Maoists pulled the MLA and ex-MLA aside the road and held a public hearing.
The Maoists, after killing the two leaders, walked away into the forests that connect the Orissa border 15 km away. Though the police got first information about abduction of the MLA at 12 noon, they could not visit the place till 6 pm, for fear of being overpowered by the Maoists or planted landmines. They couldn’t rush additional forces from Visakhapatnam too.
On the other hand, hundreds of angry tribals attacked and set on fire the police station at Dumbriguda and beat up the constables for failing to rescue their MLA and former MLA. They demanded that Visakhapatnam rural SP Rahul Dev Sharma visit the scene of killings and tender an apology to them for his failure to protect the lives.
Talking to The Sunday Guardian on phone from Visakhapatnam, Appa Rao said that three gunmen who accompanied the MLA and ex-MLA were shocked to see a large number of armed Maoists suddenly emerging from the bushes and stopping the vehicles. “We were in a shock; they took away our weapons and mobiles. We never imagined that they would kill our sirs,” Rao said.
He said that the some Maoists were using mobile phones and talking to some people briefing about the situation and apparently killed the duo only after taking clear instructions from the other end. The DGP, too, told the media later in Visakhapatnam that the police couldn’t notice the movements of Maoists and track their mobile conversations.
The MHA and the top brass of other paramilitary forces that comb the forest areas are obviously taken aback by the Araku killings of public representatives. Two high level teams from Delhi have visited the area and held discussions with the officials of Andhra police. Similar meetings were held in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur and Telangana’s Hyderabad.
The preliminary assessment is that Maoists, after the pressure mounted on them by the forces in Chhattisgarh this summer, moved over to the Andhra-Orissa border and recruited a large number of local women and youth. The onset of election season and somewhat relaxation in combing operations by the forces had helped them recoup.
The killings came as a blow to the forces at a time the MHA recently stated that Maoist-related violence has come down and that the affected districts have gone down from 120 to 30 in the country. As per police claims, the Andhra-Orissa border is almost Maoist free and the number of their cadre has come down drastically.