State should come under naxal watchlist: Activists

Bengaluru: At least ten naxalites have been killed since 2003 and 18 gunfights between the police and Naxalites have been recorded and naxalites themselves have killed eight others and raided houses and created fears among the tribal people and farmers, but yet the state has not been cited in the central list of naxal affected states. Vikram Gowda happens to be the 11th person with Naxal background who was gunned down by the ANF.

Chief ministers of the state in the last six National Development Committee meetings have raised the issue but the central home ministry has not taken the cognizance of the problem, former home minister late Dr. V.S.Acharya, former Chief Minister late N.Dharam Singh, H.D. Kumaraswamy, B.S. Yeddyurappa were some of the leaders who have pressed the central government from time to time to include Karnataka into the naxal list. A study says that the central government had included only a few north eastern states into the list, the central government felt that the magnitude of the problem did not warrant such a tag to Karnataka.

The politicians who have been tracking the Naxalite movements in the past wanted the government to not to wait for the armed naxalite take control of the innocent youth of the tribal areas particularly the Kudremukh National Park where the tremendous struggle was going on between the establishment and the tribal societies.

A sizable population of the state have been kept away from getting fundamental facilities, they were not included in government programmes such as food and health security, education, transportation, social empowerment and many other aspects of democratic life. They are easy prey to any new ideologies that are given to them on a platter or driven into them at gunpoint, which we as a civil society have failed to prevent the growth of naxalism.

As the chairman of the state petitions committee, Bhat has examined several hundred petitions for basic facilities from the tribal communities living in the Kudremukh National Park region. Some of them were in the prayer form –for water, land rights, health insurance, rights of livelihood—many of their needs could be easily met by the government by the way of sustained support –both monitoring and administrative. ‘I am preparing a document to be presented to the government that elaborates a ‘coercion free’ modus Vivendi to bring them into mainstream life and stop them from being prey to alien ideologies’, Bhat said.

According to police statistics, eight Naxalites have been killed since 2003 that includes radical Maoists Parvati and Hajima in 2003 in Eedu in Karkala taluk in Udupi district, in 2005 Maoist kingpin Saketh Rajan alias Prem and his associate Shivalingu were killed in an encounter in Menasinahadya in Mudigere taluk in Chikmagalur, in the same year two more – Umesh and Ajit were gunned down for armed aggression in 2006 in Devarabalu in Shankaranarayana police limits in Kundapur taluk, same year Dinesh of Kuthlur in Belthangady taluk was killed, in 2008 three more Manohar, Abhilash and Navin were killed in Kalasa and in 2010 Vasanth was killed

in Kuthluru.

The encounter killing of Naxalite leader Vikram Gowda on Monday has weakened the Naxalite movement in the southern states of Kerala and Karnataka to a great extent, according to the additional director of police (internal security), Roopa Moudgil. She spoke informally to the press correspondents at Hebri on Tuesday

There are two groups operating in western ghats region of Karnataka and the biggest among them was headed by Vikram Gowda. With the end of his run both groups are on the verge of disintegration or will be out of action for a while.The Anti Naxal Force (ANF) will continue its combing the area with the help of the state police.

“There were 100 men from the Karnataka State Internal Security division drawn from Bengaluru and Shivamogga took part in the combing operation since November 10. I confirm that Vikram Gowda is the Naxalite who was killed in the encounter with the ANF. He used to lead the Kabini 2 group of the Naxalites.” Moudgil told

But it was the naxalites who drew the first blood, they had killed a teacher Sheshaiah for being a police informant in 2005. They had torched a KSRTC bus, obstructed forest officials in carrying out their jobs, held the tribal farmers by the gun point and robbed their guns, defaced their houses, torched their motorcycles and houses and now and then killed farmers and landlords in regular intervals. The police estimate that 21 persons have been killed by them on different occasions in three districts Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Chikmagalur.

Kuppuswamy of Tamil Nadu, another dreaded Naxalite was also killed on the western ghat. Kuppuswamy’s accomplices had abandoned all their arms and supplies and escaped. Years later, he was also caught by Satyamangalam police. The Naxalites were married to their guns; they hated to be away from their guns. The ANF will continue to comb the area and try to catch the rest of the group that has escaped into the forests. At present have our group combing in deep western ghats and soon ANF will also enter the Mudigere range.