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The picturesque Araku valley in the eastern ghats of Visakhapatnam district — one of the hot tourist destinations in Andhra Pradesh — was utterly desolate on Monday, as Maoists on Sunday shot dead the sitting MLA, K Sarveswara Rao, and the former MLA, S Soma, both Telugu Desam party leaders.
Bandh was observed in the Araku valley and the nearby areas on Monday in protest against the killing of the two leaders, who were cremated with State honours. State Home Minister and Deputy Chief Minister N Chinarajappa said, “It is a reprehensible, desperate act by Maoists in the area to show that they are still a force to reckon with. We will take all steps to tackle the problem.”
The incident sent shock waves not only in Andhra Pradesh, but also the neighbouring Telangana, as it was generally believed that the two Telugu states had succeeded largely in bringing the problem under control for the past six to seven years, in the years preceding bifurcation as well as the four years afterwards. But Sunday’s incident has come as a wake-up call to the police in both Telugu states.
Grey hounds
A crack force — christened Grey hounds — was formed by the police in the united state of Andhra Pradesh to tackle what then was known as the “Naxalite problem.” It is felt that Grey hounds were successful in bringing the problem under control, though the human rights activists and left-leaning intellectuals allege that a large number of Maoists were killed in fake encounters during the past 20-30 years.
Agency area
The Maoist influence in the present AP, after bifurcation, is largely confined to a large tribal tract in the Eastern ghats in East Godavari and Visakhapatnam district on the Andhra-Orissa border. During the British regime, this area was administered by an agent appointed by the Government and hence it was known as the agency area.
The agency area is rich in bauxite and laterite reserves and the Maoists, along with several other groups, have been opposing the proposal to exploit the bauxite reserves in Visakhapatnam district in particular. It is speculated that Sunday’s killings may have something to do with the bauxite mining controversy raging for some years in Visakhapatnam district.
Retaliatory strike
It is also speculated that the Sunday’s incident may be a retaliatory strike by the Maoists in response to the encounter which took place at Ramaguda in 2016 on Andhra-Orissa border in which 31 Maoists were gunned down by the police.
Sunday’s incident has triggered a debate on the role of Maoists in the State and many are blaming the alleged failure of intelligence agencies and the police are shown in a poor light.
N Sambasiva Rao, the former DGP of AP, said in a television interview that “unfortunately, people’s representatives in Maoist-affected areas always do not heed to our warnings not to stray into certain danger zones. They say they have to be amidst people, which is also right. We succeed most of the time, which goes unnoticed, in protecting their lives. But we fail sometimes, as we are also human, and then we have to take the blame.”
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