Police gain upper hand in Maoists-affected areas

Visakhapatnam: The Red Corridor, aka Naxal-affected area or Left Wing Extremism (LWE) districts in Andhra Pradesh, is shrinking because of varying factors, including spate of surrenders, arrests and deaths and, more importantly delusion of ideology.DGP Gautam Sawang said that the LWE was presently confined only to Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts in the State. Contrary to earlier times, there was no naxal violence in Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts. He said it was ditto with Anantapur, Kurnool and Prakasam. However, he said that although Maoists’ activities have declined in Vizag and East Godavari districts, CPI (Maoists) still exists in certain pockets in the two districts.

This year, seven Maoists were killed in six exchange of fire while 48 were arrested and 53 surrendered before the police. Over the year, police seized 12 weapons, 90 detonators, 26 landmines, 420 gelatine sticks, among others.

The extremists were involved in 13 offences, including killing of five persons by branding them as police informers and exchange of fires with security personnel during combing operations.

A senior Intelligence officer said that they have been losing their hold in villages while security forces were gaining an upper hand, particularly in the operations post- the killing of Kidari Sarveswara Rao and Siveri Soma, near Livitiput in Vizag Agency. A series of surrenders and encounters have weakened the East Malkangiri Division (EMD), which was the part of AOBSZC (Andhra Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee, the key body of the Maoists in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

The outfit in Galikonda suffered a huge setback with the surrender of 20 Maoists, including four ACM and one DCM rank leaders. This was followed by a heavy exchange of fire in Pemulagondhi area of GK Veedhi in Vizag Agency in September, in which five senior members of the Maoist third platoon were killed, said Vizag Rural Police Chief, Babujee Attada.