Over the past year the government in Delhi has run a sustained campaign to wipe out the Maoists in India, and almost all the top leaders of the Maoist organisation have either been killed in gun battles with police or arrested. Several hundred Maoist commanders and cadres have been killed in encounters. The party’s only surviving politburo member, Misir Besra, remained in hiding in the forest. A bounty of 1 crore rupees had been announced on his head.
Police finally arrested the Maoist leader in Jharkhand on Tuesday. Two other commanders were arrested with him. It is being seen as a major success towards the goal of a Maoist-free India.
Police sources said Misir had been on the run for nearly two decades, evading police and central forces. Police recently received information that the senior Maoist leader was hiding with several companions in the forest near the Parasnath hill in Jharkhand. The CRPF and police from Giridih and Dhanbad then began a joint search.
Police caught him and his companions at about 9pm on Tuesday as they tried to escape through the forest on the Dhanbad-Giridih border.
Misir was arrested once before in Jharkhand in 2007. In 2009, however, police took him to the district court in Lakhisarai in Bihar to appear in a case. Maoists launched a sudden attack in the court precincts at the time and took the Maoist leader from police custody. Although Misir Besra is his real name, he was also known in the party as Bhaskar and Sagar.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report