The Hindu : Front Page : Operation Nayagarh was waiting to happen

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Operation Nayagarh was waiting to happen

K. Srinivas Reddy

Orissa was in the crosshairs of the central military commission of Maoists for carrying out a major raid

— Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty/AP

OUTRAGE: Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik flew to Nayagarh on Saturday within hours of the naxalite raids on police arms depots. (Right) Relatives of the victims throng the district headquarters hospital.

VISAKHAPATNAM: Intelligence agencies and police forces in different States were aware of the Maoists’ plan to launch synchronised attacks on security forces in Orissa, after the arrest of a top Maoist leader Misir Besra in Jharkhand in September last.

Not only Besra’s disclosures, but several Maoist documents seized in different parts of the country also indicated that Orissa was in the crosshairs of the central military commission (CMC) of the Maoists for carrying out a major raid like ‘Operation Nayagarh.’

Besra, who used the codename of Sunirmal, as a member of the CMC had talked about the plan to carry out a massive raid on the police headquarters in Bargarh district where at least 300 to 500 weapons could be looted.

Following this disclosure, security had been stepped up in Bargarh. However, now Intelligence agencies wonder whether this information was a red herring. “There are two possibilities. Besra could have told us the truth. Subsequently, the Maoists could have abandoned the Bargarh raid and planned these raids in Nayagarh,” a senior official involved in counter-Maoist operations in Andhra Pradesh conceded.

It was not just Besra’s confession that spoke of Maoist plans for synchronised attacks. A document detailing the resolutions passed in the meeting of the CMC, held sometime after January 2007, spoke of plans, albeit in code language. “Joint Operation must be conducted in 1-C, BJ-O. An operation must be conducted in …to seize weapons,” the resolution number two stated. Officials, well-versed with the cryptic language used by Maoists analysed that 1-C could have been Chhattisgarh, while BJ-O could refer to Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa.”

Besra, a prize catch for police in 2007, revealed that the rebel party had spent anywhere between Rs.20 lakh to Rs.30 lakh for Operation Bargarh and that Asuthosh, his colleague in CMC, was to supervise the attack. Asuthosh had taken shelter in Devgadh town while his three member recce team had been on the job from May 2007 onwards.

“In retrospect, we feel the attack could have been averted or repulsed, if only the Orissa police had been more alert,” was another senior officer’s comment.

Nayagarh, though largely unaffected by Maoist activity, borders with Ganjam and Kandhamal districts which have witnessed intense rebel activity in the recent times.

Police officials surmise that Maoist cadres operating on the Andhra-Orissa borders along with some rebels from neighbouring Chhattisgarh could have participated in the synchronised attacks on three police stations, armoury, police training college and on police posts in which more than 1,100 weapons and nearly one lakh bullets were snatched.

Orissa, one of the most affected States, technically falls in the Eastern Regional Board (ERB) of the CPI Maoists. Latest Maoist documents reveal that the strength of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) in Orissa is three companies (60 guerrillas in a company) in addition to 17 platoons (each having 21 to 27 fighters).

Friday’s raid, police sources said, had the participation of a large number of people’s militia raised by the Maoists.

In similar raids on Koraput town in February 2004, more than 525 weapons were snatched. In R. Uadayagiri town of Gajapati district, Maoists snatched 17 SLRs in 2006. Attacks involving people’s militia took place in Giridh of Jharkhand where 185 rifles were snatched in 2005.

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