Maoists get on FM Radio

U. SUDHAKAR REDDY
HYDERABAD
STATION COVERS 50-KM ZONE OF DANDAKARANYA RED BASTION The FM radio broadcasts revolutionary songs, folk songs and instrumental music played by Adivasis as well as the speeches of the Maoist top leaders
The CPI Maoists have set up a FM radio in in their fortress Abujmad in the Dandakaranya forests of ChhattisgarhSetting up of the station was masterminded by Satyanarayana Reddy alias Kosa, a top Maoist from AP who is special zonal committee secretary in DandakaranyaMaoists who are running a “parallel government” in Dandakaranya already have a public distribution systemThe FM radio broadcasts revolutionary songs, speeches by top Maoist leaders and reports on Maoist “success stories.” Entertainment is in the form of Advasi folk songs and instrumental music The station covers a 50km radius in the thick jungles of DandakaranyaPolice suspects that the radio equipment is also used to intercept police communications“Policing and administration is affected in Bijapur, Dantewada, Narayanpur, Bastar and Kanker districts that comprise the Dandakaranya zone,” said an intelligence officerThe police hasn’t made much of a breakthrough in the Abujmad area of Chhattisgarh near the Maharashtra border. Several Maoists including AP top guns are stationed in Dandakaranya. “Abujmad is for the Maoists what Jaffna was for the LTTE,” said the officialIn 2006, the Medak and Nizamabad police in a joint operation foiled a naxal plan to start an FM station in Andhra Pradesh. The police had then arrested arrested N. Raji Reddy, who holds diploma in electronics, and two others.