Explained: How Ramanna ran his empire of terror, what now for Maoists in Chhattisgarh
The Indian Express
R K Vij
In February 2006,
Ramanna led the NMDC magazine attack in Kirandul, Dantewada, in which eight
CISF personnel were killed and 19 tonnes of explosives were looted.
Ramanna, also known as Narendra and
Ravulla Srinivas, the central committee (CC) member of the CPI (Maoist) and
secretary of Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), died
recently of acute diabetes and high blood pressure.
When Ramanna took over the reins of
the DKSZC from CC member Kosa alias Kadari Satyanarayan in 2011, the “people’s
liberation guerrilla army” (PLGA) was already a strong force. This wasn’t due
to the capabilities of Kosa or Ramanna per se — rather, the ground was prepared
by the Salwa Judum movement that had risen against the Maoists in the Kutru
area of Bijapur in June 2005. The Maoists succeeded in brainwashing a section
of local people who were opposed to the Salwa Judum, into joining them.
From 2005-10, Maoist recruitments
peaked, and they strengthened themselves militarily, politically and
organisationally. New Maoist divisions emerged, and military formations were
created to step up attacks on security forces and special police officers
(SPOs). Realising the challenge from the Salwa Judum, the CPI (Maoist) at its
9th (Unity) Congress in 2007 decided to crush it ruthlessly.
Ruthless, indiscriminate
Unleashing terror through
indiscriminate killings was Ramanna’s signature style. He was extraordinarily
brutal — wrists and ankles were cut to strip fallen security personnel of
watches and shoes. He had an improvised explosive device (IED) embedded in a
jawan’s body, intending it to go off during the autopsy. Thirty-five civilians
were killed and more than 200 hutments were burnt in his attack on the Errabore
relief camp in Sukma in July 2006 — not even children or cattle were spared.
Petrol bombs were used in the March 2007 attack in Ranibodli, Bijapur, which
left 55 policemen dead and many bodies charred beyond recognition. Ramanna
never hesitated to kill sick, off-duty, or defenceless jawans.
In February 2006, Ramanna led the
NMDC magazine attack in Kirandul, Dantewada, in which eight CISF personnel were
killed and 19 tonnes of explosives were looted. The April 2010 attack
engineered by Ramanna, which killed 76 CRPF troopers and one local policeman
near Tadmetla in Sukma shook the nation. During the attack on the Congress’s
“Parivartan Yatra” in Jheeram Ghati
in May 2013, senior leader Mahendra Karma was stabbed over 70 times after he
had surrendered himself before the Maoists. Ramanna did not confine his violence
to the security forces; during the 2013 elections, an ambulance and a civilian
bus were blown up to spread terror.
He used IEDs extensively — in such
attacks, victims’ bodies are often torn apart so violently that it becomes
difficult to ascertain identities. After an electricity department vehicle was
blown up in Narayanpur in June 2007, the body parts of the private mechanics
had to be collected in bags to be sent to their families for last rites. Faced
with a shortage of ammunition, Ramanna, in the DKSZC’s 15th meeting in August
2019, asked cadres to use “S-B-R”, i.e., sniper attacks, booby traps, and
remote IEDs.
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