An ultra-Left students' outfit, RSF, has triggered a row by symbolically naming the venue of its state conference after Maoist leaders killed by security forces. The conference was held at Jadavpur University.
'The biggest game changer has been the belief among Maoists that they can surrender and join the mainstream'
'Handling or mitigating a rebellion is not a corporate plan with quarterly, half-yearly and annual goals and results but an aggregation of the effort of several years.'
A Maoist, said to be a close aide of slain rebel leader Kishenji, has been arrested in Ranchi, the police said on Monday. Acting on a tip-off, Ramdas alias Nandu was arrested from the Ranchi railway station when he was heading towards Lohardaga.
Raising pitch to suspend operation Green Hunt, Naxal sympathiser and Telegu poet Varavara Rao on Sunday dubbed Maoist leader Kishenji's encounter as a "political murder".
Slain Maoist leader Kishenji's body was identified by his niece Deepa Rao at Midnapore Medical College and Hospital morgue on Saturday morning as preparations were on for the post-mortem in the presence of forensic experts, police said.
The Maoists on Friday demanded an independent probe into the circumstances leading to the death of their top leader Kishenji in West Midnapore district.
A close aide of top Maoist leader Kishenji and main accused in the Jharkhand MP Sunil Mahato murder case was arrested from a forest in Salboni in West Midnapore district on Friday.
An alert has been sounded on the Andhra-Orissa border (AOB) and in some Telangana districts of Andhra Pradesh in the wake of the killing of top Maoist leader Kishenji in an encounter.
Accusing Maoist leader Kishenji of failing to address the grievances of the tribals, his long term aide Gurucharan Kisku has formed his own squad. Kisku alleged that Kishenji is an 'outsider' who did not understand tribal sentiments. "Tribals have distinct customs, religion and language and the party is destroying the tribal way of life in Jungle Mahal and other areas," said Kisku alias Marshal, who has been a squad member of the Maoist Communist Centre since 1988.
Rejecting Mamata Banerjee's call to lay down arms before talks, elusive Maoist leader Kishenji on Monday said the Trinamool Congress chief was "welcome without the police".
The Centre on Thursday said the person killed in an encounter in West Midnapore was most probably top Maoist leader Kishenji and it was awaiting a final confirmation from the West Bengal police about the matter. "Most likely it is Kishenji. The officers on the spot said that it is Kishenji and most likely, 99 per cent it is Kishenji," Union Home Secretary R K Singh told reporters while reacting to reports about the killing of the Maoist leader.
A day after gunning down Maoist top gun Kishenji in an encounter, joint security forces were on Friday intensively combing the Burisole forest area of West Midnapore district in search of Maoist woman leader Suchitra Mahato and some other associates of the slain ultra.
Stirring up a fresh controversy for the Trinamool Congress, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek claimed that the state government should be credited for 'murdering' dreaded Maoist leader, Kishenji.
Maoist leader Koteshwar Rao on Thursday asked both the West Bengal and the Union governments to halt police action or risk harm to kidnapped police officer Attendranath Dutta.
Top Maoist leader Kishenji claimed on Tuesday that his oufit was not involved in the May 28 Jnaneswari Express disaster in West Midnapore district that claimed 148 lives.
The body of slain Maoist leader Kishenji would be sent to his home at Peddapalli in Andhra Pradesh by the West Bengal government after conducting a postmortem in Kolkata.
The family members of slain top Maoist leader Kishenji on Friday alleged that he was killed in a fake encounter and demanded that his body be handed over to them for performing the last rites. Molajula Koteswar Rao, 58, better known as Kishenji, was gunned down by security forces in a forest in West Midnapore district of West Bengal. He hailed from Peddapalli in Karimnagar district. =
Telugu poet and Maoist sympathiser Varvara Rao on Friday alleged that top Maoist leader Kishenji was tortured before being killed in a fake encounter and demanded a white paper from the West Bengal government. "Kishenji was subjected to inhuman torture as his body bore marks of several injuries and he was killed in a fake encounter 24 hours after being nabbed. I demand a white paper on the killing," Rao told reporters at the state secretariat.
Top Maoist leader Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji was killed in a gunfight in Kushboni forest in the Jungle Mahal area of West Bengal, according to media reports. On Wednesday, reports suggested that he and a close woman aide had in fact escaped from the area. According to the reports, the gunfight is still going on Jhargram. The police are looking for Kishenji's aide Suchitra Mahato.
Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee welcomed Maoist leader Kishenji's ceasefire offer on Wednesday and said all problems should be solved by diplomatic process.
"We demand the resignation of Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Union Home Secretary G K Pillai, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah and state Director General of Police Girish Kumar in connection with Azad's murder," Maoist leader Kishenji told PTI over phone.
The West Bengal government said on Friday that the police and intelligence agencies had got information about Maoist leader Kishenji hiding in the state and that he was likely to be arrested soon.
The National Human Rights Commission on Monday asked its investigation unit to collect facts and requisite reports on the killing of Maoist leader Kishenji within six weeks.
Elusive Maoist top gun Kishenji was on Thursday killed in an encounter with joint forces at Burisole forest in West Midnapore district, a day after he narrowly escaped from there.The body of 58-year-old Molajula Koteswar Rao, better known as Kishenji, was found and identified after the Jungle Mahal encounter, a top counter-insurgency force official said.
Senior Indian Police Service officer Manoj Kumar Verma was appointed the new Kolkata Police commissioner, replacing Vineet Goyal, on Tuesday, a day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held a meeting with agitating junior doctors and agreed to their demands in a bid to resolve the more than a month-long impasse over the RG Kar hospital incident.
Hours after the deadly Naxal attack left 73 CRPF personnel dead in Chhattisgarh, Maoists on Tuesday claimed for the first time that their top leader Kishenji was alive and well.
"I cannot say for sure. There are several people who are known as Kishenji. There is also a possibility of existence of dummies," West Midnapore SP Manoj Kumar Verma told PTI.
Top Maoist leader Vekanteshwar Reddy alias Telugu Dipak, a close aide of Kishenji who was arrested in Kolkata on Tuesday, had focused on Nandigram, where a land war had been fought in 2007, besides adjoining Khejuri and Kolkata, a senior police official said.
"Kisenji is hiding in the district and is injured. His associate Bikash and woman leader Tara are hiding along with him," Midnapore SP Manoj Verma told PTI.
Opposition Communist Party of India-Marxist in West Bengal on Thursday said that the loss of one individual with the killing of top Maoist leader Kishenji would not greatly affect the ultras as they have the support of "anti-national" forces.
In a candid conversation with rediff.com's Indrani Roy Mitra from an undisclosed location late on Wednesday night, Kishanji talked about his party's ideology, the road of violence, problems of tribals in Lalgarh among other things.
Claiming that Union Home Minister P Chidambaram was not interested in holding talks, Kishenji said both sides should sit for dialogue while ensuring that there was no state-sponsored terrorism and revenge tactics.
Maoists on Saturday called for a 48-hour bandh in five states from May 18 to protest against a slew of decisions taken by the Centre, including those concerning some public sector units. The bandh call has been given in Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh."Maoists will observe a bandh on May 18 and May 19 in the five states to protest against the Centre's decision to sell ten per cent government's stake in 10 profit-making PSUs,"Maoist leader Kishenji said.
A group of four activists from Andhra Pradesh led by revolutionary writer Vara Vara Rao left for Kolkata on Friday morning to bring home the body of the senior Maoist leader Mallojula Koteshwara Rao alias Kishenji, who was killed in an alleged encounter in West Bengal on Thursday.
Five Maoists, including a top aide of the outfit's senior leaders Kishenji and Telgu Dipak, were arrested from the outskirts of Kolkata on Tuesday. Acting on a tip-off, five Maoists were arrested from South 24 Parganas, adjoining the metropolis, said Inspector General of Police Neeraj Nayan. Of the arrested ultras, Madhusudhan Mondal alias Narayan, Rajesh Mondal, Sachin Ghosal were arrested from Amtala, while Siddhartha and Sanjay were arrested from Garia, he said.
A shrewd fighter and a marksman, top Maoist leader Kishenji spent three decades of his life in hiding, waging a relentless, bloody war against the state to emerge as the biggest security headache for the West Bengal government and the Centre.
The Communist Party of India - Maoist on Thursday rubbished charges leveled by the Communist Party of India Marxist, that the Trinamool Congress was patronising Maoists, saying the Left Front party was trying to keep itself afloat by making such allegations. "There is no need for us to have the CPI-M or the Trinamool Congress as allies," Maoist leader Kishenji said while reacting to the CPI-M's allegations that the outfit was protected by the TC.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Saturday demanded that Maoist leader Kisenji's post-mortem report be made public, saying the controversy over his killing could be set at rest only by it.
Referring to the arrest of military operations leader Venkatshewar Reddy alias Telugu Dipak on March two from Howrah, Maoist leader Kishenji said: "The arrest will strengthen our resolve to fight state sponsored terrorism. We will make our movement in the country stronger and sharper."
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