Gadchiroli Police eliminate 52 Maoists in five years

By Kartik Lokhande 
Gadchiroli Police, on the basis of credible intelligence inputs and increased patrolling, has been successful in eliminating as many as 52 Maoists in the past five years. This is the highest-ever casualty inflicted upon the Left Wing Extremists in Gadchiroli Police in a span of five years, ever since Naxalism was reported first in this easternmost district of Maharashtra.
In the year 1980, first Naxalite activity was reported in Gadchiroli district. The first Naxalite casualty -- Peddi Shankar, Commander of Shirpur Dalam -- was reported in Maharashtra on November 2, 1980, in an encounter at Moyabinpeta in erstwhile Chandrapur district. In 1982, Gadchiroli was carved as a separate district out of Chandrapur district. In the next few years, the police machinery could not taste similar success against Left Wing Extremists, who were working to instigate tribals to take up arms. However, in 1986, the cops intensified patrolling and there were encounters. In 1986 and 1987, in encounters, the cops killed three Naxalites. In the five years between 1991 and 1995, the cops eliminated 38 Naxalites, the highest number in a span of five years so far.
However, according to Anti-Naxalite Operations (ANO) headquartered at Nagpur, the Naxalites adopted a different strategy and started using innocent tribals as their shield. This gave cops a sort of set-back as they had to be extremely cautious during exchange of fire with the ultra-Leftists. Still, there were some incidents in which cops faced allegations of killing innocent people. Sources said that the cops then decided to evolve Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and improved upon intelligence gathering. Though encounters continued, the cops tasted little success in eliminating the cadres of Naxalites.
This period also saw emergence of various splinter groups of Naxalites, and there were clashes even among them. The period between 2000 and 2003 saw emergence of ‘pseudo-Naxalites’, who were persons posing themselves as Naxalites to extort money from people. By this time, the Naxalite groups had started the process of unification of forces through continued dialogue. Peoples War Group (PWG) active especially in the area of present-day Telangana and Gadchiroli and Chandrapur districts of Maharashtra, started talks with Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI) active in Bihar and other parts. In September 2004, these two major groups along with some other smaller groups, announced their merger to form Communist Party of India (Maoist). Since then, Maoists unleashed a reign of terror.
By this time, sources said, decline in number of violent incidents by the Left Wing Extremists had pushed the cops in a bit of slumber. It took sudden spurt in violence to wake them up. But, there was a lull in intelligence gathering and a network of informers had got disturbed by new reign of terror by Maoists. This posed new challenges for cops. Though the cops killed 44 Maoists between 2006 and 2010, the Maoists killed as many as 52 cops in only one year -- 2009. This affected the morale of police force and there was hesitation in moving out for patrolling. But, this was reversed with firm leadership that Gadchiroli Police got in past three years and the results were quite visible. With increased morale, intensified patrolling, area domination activities, rejuvenation of intelligence network, gathering of actionable intelligence, and valuable inputs from Maoists who laid down arms under Surrender Policy, the cops were successful in eliminating 52 Maoists between 2011 and 2015 (till September 30, 2015).

Naxalites/Maoists killed by cops in encounters
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Year                             Ultras killed
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1980-85                          01
1986-90                          05
1991-95                          38
1996-2000                      07
2001-05                          17
2006-10                          44
2011                                07
2012                                04
2013                                26
2014                                13
2015 (till Sept)                 02
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Total                                164
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(20-10-15)