The Hindu : National : Top Maoist leader held

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 22, 2007
ePaper

National

National

Top Maoist leader held

K. Srinivas Reddy

HYDERABAD: Security forces dealt a blow to the Maoist movement in eastern India with the arrest of top ranking Maoist leader Misir Besra in the newly formed Khunti district in Jharkhand on Friday.

The rebel leader is a member of the all powerful Central Military Commission and the Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and is believed to be the architect of several armed actions against the security forces in Jharkhand. These include major attacks in West Singbhum district in 2002 and 2004 in which more than 55 policemen were killed.

Besra, who is popularly known as Bhaskar and Sunirmal, was also heading the Eastern Regional Bureau (ERB), which looks after Maoist activity in Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Eastern Coastal areas. Additional Director-General of Police of Jharkhand Gauri Shankar Rath told The Hindu on phone that the police recovered a loaded pistol, 15 detonators and some Maoist literature from Besra.

According to Deputy Inspector-General R.K. Mallik, under whose jurisdiction the arrest was made, Besra went underground in the late 1980s. He was a senior cadre of the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI) before it merged with the CPI (ML) People’s War to form the CPI (Maoist).

The latest arrest comes close on the heels of a series of arrests of top Maoist leaders in Bihar, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National