It is a question of survival for Maoists in AOB area

VISAKHAPATNAM: With many of the top leaders surrendering to the authorities and others getting eliminated in police encounters, the naxal movement in AOB is facing its most severe test of survival in recent times.
It was on this day (September 21) in 2004 that the People's War Group (PWG) merged with the Maoists Communist Centre (MCC) to form new outfit the CPI Maoists.
The dearth in the leadership, lack of recruitment of educated and intellectual persons, as well as abandoning the movement by seniors has forced the Maoists to go back to the drawing board. " In the past 12 years, their major success was the Balimela ambush in which they killed 37 Greyhounds personnel and another 17 persons at Malkangiri in a span of one month in June 2008. Since then, we have struck back and many top Maoists have either been eliminated or given up their arms. We are also seeing increasing disilliusionment among the cadre over the movement and many leaders facing health issues due to living in remote areas. We believe the AOB movement is considerably weakened," a senior cop involved in anti naxal operations said.
On their part, the Naxals charge the state with deception and duplicity. "The peace talks with the then YSR government had proved costly to the movement in undivided AP. And in recent days, the police repression and excesses have only increased," said a former naxal on condition of anonymity.
After the PWG and MCC merged and CPI Maoists came into being, they lost their former AOB secretary and central committee leader Vadkapur Chandra Mouli alias Devanna and his wife in an encounter in 2007. Prior to this, senior leader and division committee member of East Division Kadari Ramulu was killed in an encounter. For a brief period, the Naxals got a new lease of life after the Balimela ambush which led to the police bosses suspending the combing operations for months together, sources said.
Naxals had many squads in the early 90s and 2000s, but their numbers dwindled subsequently. By 2004, squads such as The Local Guerilla Squads (LGS) and Local Organisational Squads (LOS) had vanished due to shortage of manpower and increasing repression from the cops. The Srikakulam division of Maoists was merged with the Koraput division committee while the East and Visakha division committees too were merged. In a pointer to the reducing hold of the Maoists, they have not been able to revive the Visakha city committee for the past one decade after city organiser Ankalla Bhaskar's encounter, the sources said.
The area of operations of the Naxals and also the number of formations have been greatly reduced. Now, the red guerrillas are totally dependent on their military wing PLGA, which was earlier called the People's Guerilla Army (PGA). "The scenario has changed since the 1990s. The state government had focussed on development in the interior areas. We have also learned how to deal with the guerrilla warfare of the naxals. The people too have changed their atttitude to the Naxals after many innocent villagers were branded police informers asnd killed. The state managed to hijack the development agends from the Maoists. That is why the Naxals are on the run and we hold the upper hand in the Agency area," Rural SP Rahul Dev Sharma told TOI.
Key points of Maoists incidents
Reds faced severe jolt with the encounter death of Vadkapur Chandramouli and his wife Karuna in 2007. East Division member Kadari Ramulu was killed in 2006. Four Maoists killed in Gunukurai encounter in 2006 and again another three killed in the same area in 2008.
Naxals ambushed 37 Greyhound personnel in June 29, 2008, while the security parties were coming in a boat in Balimela river. Naxals of Malkangiiri killed another 17 secuirity personnel within one month of the Balimela incident.
Naxals killed 15 security personnel and looted arms at Nayagarh armoury and other ammunition depots in Orissa in February 2008.
Reds Kidnapped Malkangiri Collector Vineel Krishna in 2011, but failed in materialising the incident due to severe pressure from the public about the release of collector.
The arrests of senior leader of AOB Chedda Bhusanam, AP state committee leadesr Sriramulu Srinivas alias Sri Sri, Gopu Sammireddy alias Jogal, former east division secretary Jagadeesh, AOB committee leader Chandu and the surrender of senior leaders Ponnoju Parameshwar alias Nandu, Sarita and others, encounters of AP state committee leader Valluri Mastan Rao, Golla Ramulu alias Madhav, Epe Swamy alias Narendra and Chinna Mahender, the death of Kudumula Ravi resulted in severe setbacks to the movement.