Top Maoists Meet in Jungle in Telangana-AP Border, Prepare Strategy to Regroup: Intel

Raipur: Top Naxals including CPI (Maoist) general secretary Thippri Tirupati alias Debuji reportedly met in Nallamala forest along Telangana-Andhra Pradesh border last week to chalk out strategies to revive the beleaguered banned outfit, weakened by the neutralization of many senior cadres in form of encounter deaths and surrenders in recent times, intelligence sources said.

‘Top Maoists including Debuji, Madvi Hidma, Deva, members of Telangana State Committee and senior cadres of south Bastar camped in a remote area in the interstate Nallamala forest along Telangana-Andhra Pradesh border on October 20 to discuss strategies to revive the beleaguered Naxal movement. The meeting formally assigned different charges of the red outfit among the top-level leaders”, a senior police officer quoting the intelligence reports told this newspaper on Tuesday on condition of anonymity.

Telangana State Committee is said to be opposed to the idea of shunning armed struggle, floated by some senior cadres, causing a vertical split at the higher hierarchy of the outlawed outfit.

This led to the surrender of top leaders such as Abhay alias Sonu Dada alias Venugopal, the politburo member who was considered the number two in the organization, and Central Committee member Rupesh alias Vasudev Rao, recently.

Intelligence sources said the meeting of top Maoists in Nallamala forest gave a stamp of approval to charges given to some top-level leaders.

Debuji was made head of the Central Committee of the outfit as general secretary and Madvi Hidma was given the charge of military commission of the organization.

Deva, another key leader in the Maoist hierarchy, was formally made the commander of the battalion number one.

Hidma who has proved elusive for the security forces in Bastar in Chhattisgarh for the past two and half decades was the commander of the battalion number one, the formidable military unit of the Maoists.

The development comes in the wake of Rupesh questioning the appointment of Debuji as the CPI (Maoist) general secretary arguing that only a CC meeting can make such an appointment, after his surrender a couple of weeks ago.

The battalion number one of Maoists had once a strength of 1,000 armed Naxals. It has now been reduced to 150.

Hidma was believed to have slipped to Telangana during the 31-day anti-Naxal operation launched in Karregutta Hills along Chhattisgarh-Telangana border in March-April this year.

A senior police officer however dismissed the impact of the recent meeting on the top Maoists, saying that the outlawed organization has weakened beyond the remote possibility of revival.