The recent series of arrests of the ‘Urban Naxals’ seems to have been a major setback for Maoist terrorists. Interestingly, it took a new turn when the police recovered banners from banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) outfit’s Perimili Dalam supporting recently arrested Naxal sympathisers.
According to a report by Times of India, this is the first time that any left-wing terror groups operating in the Tribal areas have openly supported the alleged over-ground Naxal sympathisers/members living in urban areas.
The police have recovered banners at Perimili near Gadchiroli, put up by the Maoists, which appeals to the masses to condemn the arrest of 10 Urban Naxals for their alleged role in Bhima-Koregaon violence. The Maoists have demanded the immediate and unconditional release of their fellow comrades. The Reds have also urged the masses to condemn the BJP-RSS government for labelling the activists as ‘Maoists’ to deprive them of their rights.
Reportedly, the banners were found near Arenda phata, around 2.5km from Perimili, they had names of the 10 ‘Naxal sympathizers’ including the five arrested– Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, and Arun Ferreira, who were arrested by the Maharashtra Police in a nationwide crackdown against ‘Urban Naxals’.
The banner also contains names of arrested Naxal sympathisers-Shoma Sen, advocate Surendra Gadling, Gadchiroli-based Mahesh Raut, Delhi’s Rona Wilson, and Mumbai’s Sudhir Dhawale, who were arrested by Pune police for their alleged involvement in a plot to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Maoists interestingly refer the arrested sympathisers as ‘social workers’.
Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP), Naxal range, Ankush Shinde, said the banners would be sent to Pune police for further investigation.
The present NDA government has started a massive crackdown on the left wing terrorism-against both armed Maoist Guerrilla units in the tribal areas and also against the ‘Urban Naxals’ masquerading in the cities as Social activists, professors, and Human Rights’ defenders. We had earlier reported on the series of nationwide raids conducted by the Police to arrest more than 10 Naxal Sympathisers.
In the first raids, the police had arrested Delhi based activist Rona Wilson, advocate Surendra Gadling, professor Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut from Nagpur and Mumbai’s Sudhir Dhavle in connection with ‘Elgar Parishad’ held in Pune leading to Bhima-Koregaon riots. The police then went on to arrest few more-Gautam Navlakha in Delhi, P Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, ‘activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Pereira in Mumbai, ‘civil rights’ lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj in Delhi, civil rights ‘activist’ Anand Teltumbde in Goa and ‘activist’ Stan Swamy in Ranchi in connection with an alleged plot to kill the Prime Minister.
Earlier in a shocking report, it was revealed that Varavara Rao, one of the five arrested Urban Naxals had allegedly attended the funeral of a top Maoist terrorist Kapuka Prabhakar, killed in the Gadchiroli encounter in April this year.
In a series of reports published, we had put forward the nexus between the so-called civil society organisations, human rights activists and the left-wing terrorism. The reports suggest that the phenomenon of ‘Urban Naxals’ is very deep and enjoys a wide range of support from a network of active Human rights organisations.
