Ageing hits Maoists in Andhra

By U Sudhakar Reddy
Ageing has hit CPI Maoists from Andhra Pradesh who are now still underground. Around 174 CPI Maoists are now above 35 years and are considered not fit for guerilla warfare.

According to the latest Wanted List of CPI Maoists approved by the State government 408 UG naxals are wanted for the State police. Out of this figure around 28 are killed or arrested or surrendered before the government approved the list after the proposals are sent by the State police.

Around 60 Maoists are above 46 year old as per the list. Most of the Maoists from AP are working in Dandakarnya, Chattisgarh, Andhra Orissa Border, Orissa and a few of them in West Bengal, Karnataka and Maharasthra.
An official of State home department said,”As there are no new recruitments except around 37 from Vishakapatnam there are hardly any new entrants in the State into the left wing extremist movement. This resulted in ageing. They all have to be given less action oriented works. As their physical fitness don’t permit it is difficult to take up guerilla warfare,”
Even many of these old generation naxals are suffering with gastric and knee related diseases.
The wanted list has only one Maoist with Post graduation qualification and three professional courses and 16 graduates. Around 41 of them had primary education, 28 are SSC holders and 25 intermediate and around 25 are illiterate and the Status of 266 is not known.
Warangal tops the list with 84 wanted naxals followed by Vishakaptnam rural with 62 and then with Karimnagar 60 and Adialabad 35.
Nellore and Chittoor has only one naxal each. Seven of the Central Committee members are from Karimnagar and 17 State committee rank naxals and 19 district committee secretary ranks Maoists are from Warangal district.
Central Committee rank naxals carry a reward of Rs 12 lakh and State committee of Rs 10 lakh and the lowest is a dalam member of Rs 20,000.
Maoist supreme Mupalla Laxman Rao alias Ganapati (central committee secretary) is the longest serving with 35 years in the party followed by Katakam Sudarshan for 30 years and Mallojula Koteswara Rao alias Kishenji, Mallojula Venugopal alias Sonu for 29 years each.


Age profile of Underground cadre naxals
25 years and below 62
26-30 years 58

31-35 years 72

36-40 years 66

41-45 years 48

46-50 yrs 29

51-55 yrs 24

55 yrs above 7

Not known 42

Maoists adopt Al Qaeda strategey and shows video

U Sudhakar Reddy

Maoists are adopting the strategy of international terror organisations like Al Qaeda by video shooting their attacks on security forces and distributing them to their party cadres.Video clips said to be of the attack on a base camp in Chhattisgarh were sent to TV channels in the state on Sunday. In the video, the armed Naxals are seen crawling under police vehicles and planting explosives, and later the explosion ripping the vehicle apart. There are also shots of Maoists attacking the camps and the ensuing gunbattle. The video features Tipparti Tirupati, alias Devaji, the top Maoist specialist in military affairs, who participated in the recent Dantewada massacre. Intelligence sleuths who analysed the video clips believe they relate to the Maoists attack on a Salwa Judum base camp in Chhattisgarh and may not be related to the Dantewada massacre as they initially believed.A senior police official said that a similar video had surfaced earlier of a July 2009 attack in which 30 police personnel including a superintendent of police of Rajnandgaon district in Chhattisgarh, Vinod Kumar Choubey, was killed.Experts say that the Maoists may be trying to boost the morale of their cadres in the state by showing visuals of the attacks, a strategy adopted by other terror groups. Al Qaeda has released videos of their operatives blowing up United States tanks, said a police official. It is also part of the propaganda war of the Maoists where training visuals and actual attack shots are mixed, say police officers with experience of Naxal methods.

Naxals to get reward for surrendered arms too : Andhra to implement centre's policy

U Sudhakar Reddy
The state government has decided to implement the Centre's amended policy of Maoists surrender and rehabilitation.
As part of the amended policy, cash rewards will be given for weapons and ammunition surrendered by the Maoists apart from the reward they carry on their heads.
If a Maoists gives up an AK-47 or AK-56, he will be given Rs 15,000 apart from the reward on his head. A pistol or revolver will fetch him Rs 3,000 while a rocket will make him richer by Rs 1,000.
Similarly, the government will give a Maoists Rs 500 for surrendering a grenade and Rs 3 for a round of ammunition.
For an improvised explosive device, a Maoists will get Rs 1,000 and Rs 3,000 for mines. A satellite phone will fetch him Rs 10,000 while a VHF communication set will earn him Rs 5,000. Any Maoist who lays down a UMG or a sniper rifle will get Rs 25,000.
However, this incentive will be kept in the form of a fixed deposit in the name of surrendered Maoists and the state government nominee.The Maoists will get the amount only after three years of surrendering, subject to good behaviour.
The surrender-cum-rehabilitation policy is on the lines of the package offered in Jammu and Kashmir and NE states.
The new guidelines are applicable to Maoists who surrender with or without arms. "The eligibility of surrender Maoists for assistance under the scheme would be scrutinised by the screening-cum-rehabilitation committee constituted by the state government.The Centre will reimburse the funds to the state," a police official said.
The surrendered Maoists will be eligible for a monthly stipend of Rs 2,000 each for a maximum period of 36 months and an immediate grant of Rs 1.5 lakh. The Maoists will also be given free legal service after the surrender.

Guerilla warfare: Jungle Craft Range in Andhra Greyhounds Academy

By U Sudhakar Reddy

With the motto 'Fight a guerrilla like guerrilla' the Jungle CraftRange coming up at Greyhounds training institute in Premavathipet in City outskirtswould soon be a feather in the cap of the elite anti naxal force

Taking lessons from Indian army and from Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan the Jungle CraftRange would train the Greyhounds and other police personnel in jungle warfare againstPeoples Liberation Guerrilla Army fighters of CPI Maoists.Union Home Minister P Chidambaram earlier laid foundations stone to this jungle craftrange to train anti naxal forces as masters in jungle craft like hit-and-run guerrilla strikesand ambushes, and how to use the thick jungle terrain to their advantage.A senior police official of State police headquarters said ,"all the experiences includingour own Greyhounds, North East and Punjab and elsewhere in the world are taken intoconsideration while designing the jungle craft range. This would further improvethe Greyhounds personnel who are already trained to survive in jungles for nearly aweek living on the rations they carry," Every commando carrying a haversack weighing nearly 20 kg and weapons andammunition is trained to take long patrols.Sources said that the jungle craft range is basically designed on the lines of the CounterInsurgency and Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS) of Indian Army in Vairengte in Mizoram.The troops will be trained to survive from poisonous snake bites and techniques totackle wild life attacks.A police official said ,"the troops are taught to live in difficult and hostile terrain, eat andsleep like the guerrillas and strike as silently as the guerrillas. Element of surprise inattacks , selecting the site for counter ambush, observing the discipline of when exactlyto open fire, how to remain undetected, and improvising within a given situation will bepart of that,"Jungle reflexive shooting and how to prevent cross fire are part of the jungle craft range.Jungle atmosphere with thick canopy, water holes, surprise traps will be part of itsources said.Home Minister P Chidamarbam during his recent visit to Greyhounds was keen to knowabout the jungle craft range. Greyhounds is already training the anti naxal commandosof various naxal infested states like Chattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand and centralparamilitary forces like COBRA battalions.

Maoists spread out in 'Red corridor' to engage security forces

By U Sudhakar Reddy
CPI Maoist armed cadres are now distributed in different key areas of the "red corridor" in India, in order to make it more difficult for the police who have to engage them simultaneously in different war zones.
Sources in the state police said that platoons of the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) and others are now scattered in different states to launch an offensive simultaneously.
The Centre has given additional paramilitary forces, the COBRA and CRPF, to the states and their deployment has begun. An official at the state police headquarters explained, "When we analyse their documents over the past four to five months, we find that they are deployed in more places to see that the security forces are not concentrated in a specific area like Dandakaranya."
The recent offensive and killings in North Telangana indicate their strategy. Says a senior IPS official involved in anti-Naxal operations, "They don't want to face the police in the Andhra-Orissa border (AOB), so they have started an offensive in North Telangana. AOB, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, the Jharkhand-Bihar border, Gadchiroli in Maharasthra and North Telangana are now the key areas where trouble from Maoists is anticipated."
The tactical retreat and movement of Naxal companies to less affected areas is part of the strategy says the police. "They want to resort to one or two murders and get out," observed an official. There are six to eight companies of the PLGA in Dandakaranya in Chhattisgarh and on the AOB. "The hype over the Abhujmad operation in Chhattisgarh may be another reason for distribution of Maoist forces," said the official.
Maoists have been claiming that 4,000 CRPF, BSF and STF and Greyhounds forces and 400 commandos of COBRA are now engaged in an offensive in Dandakaranya. CPI Maoist central committee spokesperson Azad says that a unified command was set up to co-ordinate the police forces of seven states besides the central forces. (Include West Bengal in Map)

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.

Maoist blogs fox cops

U. SUDHAKAR REDDY
ANONYMOUS BLOGS GIVE SECURITY AGENCIES SLEEPLESS NIGHTS

The Maoist blogs are put into several mirror sitesMaoists can host a replacement if law enforcing agencies hack or block the original. The police had earlier blocked two naxal websites
Maoists and their sympathisers are resorting to anonymous blogging using the latest software that disguises the Internet Protocol address. This is giving sleepless nights to the intelligence agencies in tracking the bloggersThe anonymous blogging lessons are also taught on pro-Maoist blogs like www.naxalrevolution.blogs pot.com and bloggers have cautioned the “revolutionary supporters” to use hushmailThe Maoist blogs are put into several mirror sitesThey can easily host a replacement if law enforcing agencies hack or block the original. The Intelligence Bureau and the AP state police earlier blocked the Peoples’ March website and naxalrevolution.blogsp ot.com. Sources in the state intelligence department said the naxals are looking for techies with hacking skillsA document available with this newspaper states, “We should make use of computer and Internet to further the military objective of the revolution. We should set up units to damage the military and other important networks of the enemy. This depends on development of urban mass movement and ability of urban party to draw in comrade with those required skills.” There are several maga zines of the pro-Maoists like the CPI(Maoist) Information Bulletin, Peoples’ Truth carrying the interviews of top naxal leaders and analysis of the movements in the country and the state available online on bannedthought.netSources said data is being tapped and intercepted by the reactionary governmentsAs part of Internet security, the posts on the site will guide on how to secure the means of communicationA cyberforensic expert of AP Forensic Science Laboratory said, “Hushmail keeps online communications private and secureEach message is uniquely encoded. Even the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Carnivore project or the state police sniffer software can’t detect the communicationWithout an order from the Supreme Court of British Columbia and Canada, www.hushmail.com will not give information to the agencies.

Maoists set up bunkers and dig tunnels for a prolonged battle

Maoist can stay longer with ammunition and supplies in the bunkers. The strategy is to fight for a longer period.
An encounter does not last for a few hours.” Senior police officerAre Maoists get ting ready for a full-fledged war against the police forces and the state? It seems so if one goes through a military document of the CPI Maoists which mentions about setting up bunkers and digging tunnels across the Andhra-Chhattisgarh and Andhra-Orissa borders to fight a longer positional warfare.
Adopting the strategies of the LTTE and other terror groups, these bunkers and tunnels are coming up at key bastions on the borders.
Positional warfare is next to guerrilla and mobile warfare in which the forces fight with the police head on for days.
The police were able to confirm this plan of the Maoists from the documents related to military tactics which were found with the slain Central Military Commission member, Patel Sudhakar Reddy. He was killed in a police encounter in Warangal recently.
It was also found that a mighty military batallion of CPI Maoists was formed in Chhattisgarh and Maharasthra borders.
A senior official in the state police said: “Setting up bunkers is not anything new for them. Earlier, when they were strong in the state they set up makeshift bunkers in Nallamala and North Telangana as part of positional warfare. In Chhattisgarh Dandakaranya, they have now set up more bunkers and dug tunnels to escape and facilitate essential supplies.
They now have expertise in it.” Naxals hiding in the bunkers attack police parties carrying out combing operations.
“They can stay longer with ammunition and other supplies in the bunkers. An encounter does not last for a few hours. The very strategy of setting up bunkers is to fight for a longer period. It may run into a few days to cause maximum loss for the police forces,” the official said. Police said that in Chhattisgarh and other districts in Orissa, the area are not under the control of the state due to various reasons.