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The Assistant
Inspector General of Police (AIG), Umesh Chandra, owed a huge blood-debt to the
people of AP, particularly North Telangana; to the CPI (ML)[People’s War] and to
the entire revolutionary movement. On September 4 this year, a Special Guerilla
Squad of CPI (ML) [PW], acting upon the wishes and the demands of the
revolutionary masses of AP, paid back the blood-debt that had accumulated over
the years.
The daring day-light
guerilla operation took place in the heart of Hyderabad, the capital city of AP.
At about 11 a.m. on September 4, as the van in which the AIG was travelling
along with his bodyguard, came to a halt at a busy traffic junction for the
green signal, the guerillas attacked, killing two of the inmates on the spot.
The wounded police officer tried to escape but was chased on the busy road and
shot dead. Later, the guerillas retreated safely. The panic-stricken govern-
ment of AP sounded a red alert in the state, sealed off the borders of the city,
searched all vehicles going out of the city, conducted search operations in
several residential areas, but found not a trace of the guerillas. It showed the
support enjoyed by the CPI (ML)[PW] in Hyderabad, notwithstanding the series of
losses the party had suffered in the city over the last two years.
Umesh Chandra began
his bloody record in North Telangana when he was an Assistant Superintendent of
Police of Warangal in 1993-94 and continued it during his tenure as Additional
SP, Operations, in the same district. Several party cadres and activists of the
revolutionary movement were killed in Warangal during this period. He later
served as an SP of Cuddapah district in the Rayalaseema region in 1995-97 and
again took charge as SP of Karimnagar district in North Telangana in June 1997.
In April ’98, he was suspended for having failed to control the orgy of violence
indulged in by the police in Karimnagar town in the wake of his transfer (infact,
it was the SP himself who instigated the hooliganism, loot and destruction in
the town through his loyal goons in the police department). The lawlessness of
the police in Karimnagar town had become so abominable and drew such a public
outcry, that even Chandrababu Naidu who has close family relations with the
Karimnagar SP, could not stop his suspension orders. But soon, he was reinstated
in November 1998 as an AIG in the DGP office in Hyderabad.
Wherever he was
posted, he served as a faithful dog of the big landlords and comprador
bourgeoisie; led the campaign to annihilate the armed guerilla squads of
People’s War, eliminate the activists of the various mass organisations and even
sympathisers who provided food and shelter to the party cadres; and particularly
targeted the leadership of the PW.
It was during his
tenure as SP of Cuddapah that the Guttapalli "encounter" took place. Guttapalli
is the place where four important comrades of PW including Com. Reddappa, a
state committee member of AP, Com. Venkataswami, a regional committee member of
Rayalaseema, and two others were killed on April 14, 1996 after having been
arrested from different places a few days earlier.
An even more
despicable and heinous role was played by Umesh Chandra in the short period of
less than an year when he served as SP of Karimnagar. He was the mastermind
behind the covert operation in the district in April, 1998 that led to the
murder of Com. Malkapuram Bhaskar (Ramesh, Vijay), a member of the North
Telangana Special Zonal Committee. Upon the SP’s instructions, Jadala Nagaraj, a
former member of a PW squad who had earlier surrendered to the police, was
released from the jail; made to join the squad by pretending to make
self-criticism for his earlier surrender; and asked to eliminate anyone from the
top leadership when they visit the guerilla areas. Accordingly, the scab Nagaraj
rejoined the PW squad after expressing "repentance" for his past weakness, and
on April 11, when all the guerillas were fast asleep, this dog, who was on
sentry duty at the dead of the night, picked up the weapon of Com. Bhaskar and
shot him while he was in deep sleep. The dog ran off in the darkness to meet his
master, Umesh Chandra. For this "brave" deed, the traitor was given a huge
reward, police protection, licensed revolver and a shelter in the police
quarters in Hyderabad — all according to the plan hatched by Umesh Chandra.
Through such incentives and by providing police protection and even jobs in the
police department, Umesh Chandra and his likes in the anti-Naxalite wing of AP
Police and the Greyhounds force or Special Striking Force, thought that they
could engineer more defections from the revolutionary movement and deploy them
as their secret agents to carry out the covert war with the aim of eliminating
the top leadership of the party. During his tenure he killed more than 2-score
PW cadres and sympathisers in "encounters".
The daring day-light
operation by the guerillas of People’s War in the heart of the state’s capital
city had sent shivers down the spines of the notorious police officers and top
bureaucrats and politicians whose hands are stained with the blood of the
martyrs in North Telangana and other parts of AP. For over an year, DGP Dora and
his masters, Chief Minister Naidu and Home Minister Madhava Reddy, have been
boasting that they have almost "finished off" the PW’s initiative to retaliate
by inflicting severe losses on the party and the revolutionary movement in AP;
that it is only a matter of time before the movement is going to be completely
wiped out as had happened during the end of the ’60s in Srikakulam, so on and so
forth. The continuous losses suffered by the PW in Hyderabad city for the past
two years had temporarily boosted the morale of the enemy and the police agents
who felt that Hyderabad was the safest haven for them after committing
undescribable atrocities in the countryside.
The September 4
guerilla action, which was meticulously planned and executed without any
casualty on the side of the guerillas or even leaving a clue, shattered the
illusions harboured by the enemy. The demoralisation in the enemy camp is
discernible by the numerous reports and editorials in several daily papers. At
the same time, it had enthused the revolutionary masses of AP, particularly
North Telangana, where the tyrant unleashed a brutal campaign of terror during
his brief tenure.
The daring urban
guerilla action has shown that there is actually no "safe" haven for the hated
class enemies and notorious police officials and police agents, and that no
bodyguards of X, Y, Z categories can save them forever: the people’s guerillas
are determined to pay back the blood-debts of the enemies whatever be the risks
involved. And the September 4 action has demonstrated precisely this grit and
determination of the guerillas.
— Vinay, Our Correspondent from A.P.
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