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India Today
25-04-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Why Lugu Hills victory is a crucial point in final stretch of battle against Maoists
As the ashen light filtered through trees before dawn on April 21, a joint contingent of the Jharkhand police and CoBRA commandos of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) manoeuvred silently through the tangled undergrowth of Lugu had indicated the presence of a substantial group of Maoist cadre deep within the forest, and at first light, the security forces struck, catching the Maoists off-guard. By the time the sun had fully risen over the canopy, eight Maoists lay dead, among them Prayag Manjhi, better known to the movement as Vivek da, a Central Committee member with a bounty of Rs 1 crore on his precision of the raid—codenamed 'Dakabeda'—was a reflection of months of painstaking surveillance and coordination between local police units and CoBRA, who are specialists in jungle warfare. Acting on 'actionable intelligence', as officers described it, the teams entered the hostile terrain at approximately 05:30 hrs. Their objective: to neutralise senior Maoist leaders and seize any weapons caches that might reveal the strength of the insurgents' operation was meticulously planned. The police had pin-pointed information on exactly who they were targeting and where they had holed up. This is the first time in the state's history that a Central Committee member of the Maoists, carrying such a high bounty, has been eliminated in a single operation. This underlines the strategic importance of Vivek da's death to the broader counter-insurgency campaign. Vivek da's notoriety within the Maoist hierarchy stemmed from his reputed role in orchestrating several high-profile ambushes against security forces over the past two years. Local police officials blame him for planning attacks that left more than a dozen personnel dead in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. His neutralisation, according to Jharkhand police, will deal a significant blow to the operational cohesion of the insurgent network in eastern gun battle extended for over an hour before the Maoists, taken by surprise, were forced into retreat. When the last echoes of gunfire faded, security personnel swept the site, recovering a formidable array of weaponry: one AK-series assault rifle, one self-loading rifle (SLR), three INSAS rifles, a semi-automatic pistol and eight country-made Bharmar firearms. Such an arsenal, officials said, indicated both the insurgents' preparedness for protracted guerrilla operations and their capacity to procure or manufacture arms in remote forest were no casualties among the security forces. The success, according to officers, was due in large part to the element of surprise, rigorous training and the surgical execution of the assault plan. 'This is a decisive strike against Left Wing Extremism (LWE),' declared inspector general of police Amol Vinukant Homkar. 'It demonstrates our unwavering commitment to eradicating Naxalism and restoring the rule of law in every corner of Jharkhand.'The encounter forms part of a nationwide offensive under which the central government aims to eliminate LWE by March 2026. In a post on X, dated April 1, Union home minister Amit Shah highlighted that the number of districts most affected by LWE had halved to six. He added that 'districts of concern' have fallen from nine to six while other LWE-affected districts have decreased from 17 to just six. This, he asserted, reflects the success of combined security operations and targeted development analysts caution that military victories alone will not end the insurgency. The Maoists have long tapped into grievances over land rights, displacement and poverty among indigenous and other marginalised groups. Their guerrilla tactics—ambushes, improvised explosive devices and assassinations—remain a potent threat in forested and mineral-rich terrain where state presence has historically been the families of the slain insurgents, the encounter is a reminder of a conflict that has wrought tragedy on both sides. The government has for years offered rehabilitation and surrender schemes, including vocational training and financial assistance, to Maoist cadre who lay down arms. Yet activists argue that such measures must be expanded and coupled with genuine dialogue on land and labour rights, if the cycle of violence is to be security forces continue combing operations in and around the encounter site, the broader community looks on with a mixture of relief and apprehension. For many villagers, the presence of armed cadre has meant extortion, forced recruitment and the constant fear of reprisals. The removal of key leaders like Vivek da may well disrupt the insurgents' ability to coordinate attacks and recruit new members, but it may also prompt desperate last-ditch efforts by remaining cadre to demonstrate their encounter in Lugu Hills is, for now, a significant chapter in India's protracted struggle against LWE. But a truly historic victory will require not only further eliminations of insurgent leadership but also the forging of a social contract that addresses the deep-rooted inequalities on which the Maoists have long thrived. Only then, advocates say, can the promise of peace and development in states like Jharkhand be fully to India Today MagazineMust Watch
The Print
21-04-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Wanted in 37 cases, Maoist Prayag Manjhi killed in Jharkhand was ‘big headache' for security forces
In the Lugu hills in the Lalpania area of Bokaro district, Vivek, along with two other top Maoist leaders and five others, died in an exchange of fire with a joint team of the CRPF Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) and the Jharkhand Jaguar. The operation started early Monday morning and lasted for roughly two hours, ending in arguably the biggest catch for the forces in the state. Jharkhand Police recall that Vivek da was the 'biggest' Maoist commander in the state and 'successor' to Communist Party of India (Maoist) politburo member Prashant Bose alias Kishan da, arrested in November 2021. New Delhi: An ideologically strong commander among the Maoists, Prayag Manjhi, commonly known as Vivek da, kept the entirety of Jharkhand on its toes and ruled the jungles in the Parasnath area at the peak of the Naxal movement in the state, senior officers say, while describing the top Maoist leader killed Monday. Responding to the operation, Home Minister Amit Shah reiterated his objective to eliminate Naxalism from the country. 'Our march to eliminate Naxalism continues unabated. Today, security forces achieved another significant success in the ongoing operation to uproot Naxalism,' the Home Minister said in an X post while announcing the death of eight Maoists, including Vivek, who carried a reward of Rs one crore on his head. Hindi Language graduate to Maoist Born in a tribal family in the Dalbudha village of Dhanbad to father Charku Manjhi and mother Badki Manjhiyain, Vivek graduated from Katras College. According to details that security agencies have on him, Vivek had graduated in Hindi Language by 1988. While the current crop of police personnel could not pinpoint the year he joined the Naxals, quite a few of them recall having read about him due to the number of attacks he carried out in the state. He married a Special Area Committee member of the CPI(Maoist), Jaya Di alias Chintha Di, who was the president of Nari Mukti Sangh (NMS), an alleged frontal organisation of the CPI(Maoist), according to police records. She was arrested in 2024. Senior officers who tracked the rise and fall of the Naxal movement in Jharkhand say that nearly all attacks by the Maoists in the Parasnath jungles could be traced to Vivek. '[For the forces], he [Vivek] had been a big headache. He was behind many attacks on the police stations and posts in the Dhanbad, Giridih, Bokaro and Koderma districts. He was behind nearly all the attacks in the Parasnath belt, making it impenetrable for the forces,' a senior police officer, privy to Vivek's rise to the Maoist commander post, tells ThePrint. According to Jharkhand Police, there had been 37 cases, naming Vivek as the prime accused. However, considering his command over the Maoist cadre, he was possibly behind many more cases, say 100, officers claim. Officials do not rule out his hand in high-profile cases—the killing of ex-chief minister of Jharkhand Babu Lal Marandi's younger son and an attack on the CISF camp in 2007. In the case of Marandi's son, a group of Maoists indiscriminately fired on a cultural gathering at Chilodih village in Koderma, leaving 20 people, including Anup Marandi, dead in October 2007. Months earlier, a group of nearly 400 Maoists had attacked a CISF camp, leaving six officers dead. Two years before that, Maoists allegedly attacked a home guard training centre in Giridih town, leaving five persons, including four home guards, dead in 2005. The Bokaro district police booked Vivek in August 2015 for allegedly putting 24 trucks from the firm of Ravindra Pandey, then-MP from BJP in Giridih, on fire. Sources aware of the development say Vivek's stature within the Maoist cadre rose further after Kisan da was jailed in 2021. However, sources also claim, Vivek had a limited role and influence as CPI(Maoist) Central Committee member, not at par with other senior CCMs. 'He was the biggest Maoist cadre in the state, but his influence was too limited, for a CCM. He was [the] operations man in Jharkhand, whose job was to extort money from people in the coal field business and contractor ships,' a source aware of his profile tells ThePrint (Edited by Madhurita Goswami) Also Read: Despite 3 SC orders, Bihar, Jharkhand owe employees of undivided Bihar Rs 500 cr. Inside 25-yr feud
