As a relevant topic of discussion, the COVID-19 scare has now been replaced by the reported movement of Maoists in the interior areas of former composite Adilabad district. The focus has shifted thanks to reports of Maoists visiting villages located in the dense forest which forms part of the core and buffer areas of Kawal Tiger Reserve in Adilabad, Nirmal and Kumram Bheem Asifabad districts and the police appearing in the villages a few days later based on inputs received from informants.
That the extremists have been elusive for about two months now is a pointer towards the weakened network of informers which had once been crucial in wiping out the Maoist movement. “The informants are giving us false inputs just to earn some money,” revealed a top police officer of the changing times.
The supposedly false information coming from the rickety informant network has also generated a lot of speculation with regard to surrender of top Maoists Mylarapu Adellu alias Bhaskar and his wife Kanthi Lingavva alias Anitha. “Even we have heard the talk, which remains unconfirmed so far,” observed Nirmal district Superintendent of Police C. Shashidhar Raju while responding to the rumour that the naxalite couple had preferred to lay down arms in his presence.
Army of informants
Human intelligence had played a significant role between 1999 and 2005-2006 when the Maoist movement was at its strongest in these parts. The Police Department had meticulously raised the army of informants in those days when communication in this much backward area was in a primitive stage.
The strength of the network can be deduced from the fact that an exchange of fire followed within hours of inputs being received by the anti-naxalite force present in a given area. Between 1989 and 2002, there were 33 exchanges of fire between police and Boath dalam of the Maoists, then known as CPI (ML) People’s War Group in which 9 extremists were killed.
‘Intelligence inputs’
“Five of these encounters had taken place between 1997 and 2002 in which the extremists lost six leaders and cadres, the incident occurring based on intelligence inputs from the field. Boath area has been mentioned here because Adellu, a Maoist Divisional Committee member, hails from Pochera village in Boath mandal of Adilabad district and he is leading the currently elusive band of naxalites mainly staying in the area that falls in the Boath Assembly constituency.
It is the information emerging from these villages that seems to be untrustworthy. This phenomenon has so far cost the Police Department precious time and effort in carrying out searches, a veteran in the department pointed out.