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Hyderabad: At least 27 outlaws of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) were reportedly killed in an encounter with the security forces in Madh area of the Abujhmad forests in Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh in an operation which is still underway.
The Maoist party general secretary, Nambala Keshava Rao alias Baswaraj, has also reportedly been killed in the fierce encounter that stretched for more than 72 hours.
Other top commanders were known to have been killed in the encounter. However, their identities are yet to be released by the Chhattisgarh government sources.
Chhattisgarh Home minister Vijay Varma has confirmed the number of Maoists killed as 28, and that more were believed to have been injured in the joint anti-Naxal operation conducted by the district reserve guards of Narayanpur, Bijapur and Dantewada based on specific intelligence.
One police spy was killed in the encounter, and a police officer was left injured. However, his condition is known to be stable.
Nambala Keshava Rao has been leading the party since the former head of the party, Ganapathi, resigned in November 2018.
He was known to have orchestrated the sensational Alipiri bomb blast in Tirupathi in 2003, where the then undivided Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his wife Bhuvaneshwari escaped with minor injuries.
Keshava Rao had also masterminded the 2010 Naxal ambush that had killed 76 central reserve police force (CRPF) personnel and eight villagers near Chintalnar village of Dantewada in Chhattisgarh.
He has been carrying a bounty of Rs 1.5 crore in connection with several cases.
Keshava Rao, a native of Jiyyannapeta village of Srikakulam district in the present Andhra Pradesh, had completed his engineering from the Regional Engineering College (REC) in Warangal, Telangana. His father was a teacher.
He was attracted to the Maoist ideology while pursuing his MTech, and was also among the founding members of the banned People’s War Group (PWG) in the undivided Andhra Pradesh, which later merged with the Maoist party.
Trained in guerrilla warfare and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), Keshava Rao (Baswaraj) has been acting as the foremost leader of the Maoist party since Ganapathi stepped down as its supreme leader.
He has been leading the Maoist party’s central military commission, and has been in its politbureau and central committee.
This post was last modified on May 21, 2025 5:48 pm