Bhubaneswar/Hyderabad, Oct. 20: Tension gripped the Maoist bastions of Malkangiri near the Andhra Pradesh border today following an alleged lynching of three rebels, including an area commander, at Korukonda village in the Annavaram police limits last night.
Sources said a 200-strong mob, armed with sticks, rods, sickles and axes, attacked the Maoists, who were holding a kangaroo court (praja court) near the village. The villagers unleashed their collective fury against the rebels after they had killed an innocent tribal youth despite appeals by them to spare his life.
Sources said two tribesmen of the area were also killed in the indiscriminate firing by the Maoists as they fled. The slain Maoists were identified as Korukonda dalam commander Sharat and militia members K. Nageswar Rao and P. Ganapati. Some other rebels are reported to have suffered injuries in the attack but escaped. Police seized an AK-47, a bag full of rebel literature, their party flags, some cash and several live grenades from the spot.
Andhra’s director-general of police J.V. Ramudu hailed the villagers’ courage. Senior police officials in Malkangiri, who did not wish to be named, said the tide in the violence-scarred Maoist belt stretching across the border was beginning to turn with the people ready to strike back.
“What the villagers of Korukonda did is laudable, and I hope their act will inspire every village on the AP-Odisha border,” said Ramudu. Members of the Korukonda dalam or area committee of the outlawed CPI(Maoist) are active in the bordering areas of the two states.
The villagers were angry over the killing of Gemini Sanjeeva Rao, the tribal youth, who got married a few days ago. Enraged, they launched an attack on the rebels sitting below a tree before they could realise or retaliate. While three of them, including Sharat, were killed on the spot, others ran for their lives.
“I saw the Maoists running away and trying to shoot into the mobs in the dark,” a villager later told the police. The Maoist sentries, who stood guard a few yards away, tried to scare people by shooting in the air but ran away as the mob rushed towards them.
The elite anti-Maoist commando force, Greyhounds, reached Korukonda village within hours of the incident and went in hot chase of the rebels, who reportedly fled across the border into the forests of Malkangiri district.
Anticipating retaliatory attacks by the Maoists, the police have rushed extra security forces to the remote village. The tribal village, which has a population of 600, has been kept away from the forests due to fear of the Maoists. Security has also been heightened in areas of Andhra bordering Malkangiri district. “We have set up police outposts in the village,” said Ramudu.
Sources said this was the second time that the Maoists had to face people’s ire at Korukonda village. They have also been facing resistance in parts of Odisha. Last November, the tribal people in the state’s Nuapada district attacked some Maoist hideouts and banned their entry in the Sunabeda sanctuary bordering Chhattisgarh after rebels gunned down a villager on the suspicion of being a police informer.
