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Maoists planned Dantewada attack for 6 months

Last updated on: April 08, 2010 21:43 IST

The Communist Party of India-Maoist has in a three-page letter taken responsibility for the Dantewada attack that killed 76 Central Reserve Police Force and Combat Battalion for Resolute Action commandos on Tuesday.

The letter also gives chilling details of how the attack was planned and executed with precision, and has also warned of more attacks in the future.

According to the letter, the attack was meticulously planned over six months and involved only 300 members of the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army.

The statement, signed by secretary Kosa, spokesman of Dandakaranya Special Zone Committee Godsa Usendi and secretariat member Ramanna, also says that eight Maoists were also killed in three-hour long battleĀ -- which includes two section commanders, two deputy commanders and four other members.

Among the 76 personnel who were killed were 15 Cobra commandos.

The Maoists revealed that they also took away 75 weapons, including 21 AK-47s, seven SLR rifles, six light machine guns, one stengun and a two-inch mortar and 38 other weapons.

"We meticulously planned the operation for five-six months after observing the movement and other activities of the security forces," Usendi said in the letter.

Usendi said the attack was to defeat and stop the Operation Green Hunt, which, he said, is aimed at wiping out tribals from forests and uprooting the revolutionary movement so that the Centre could hand over the region to multinational companies for exploitation.

"We also wanted to take revenge of killing of our top leaders like Patel Sudhakar Reddy and Shakhamuri Appa Rao and Kondal Reddy in fake encounters and to save the people of Bastar region", he said.

He alleged the CRPF and COBRA battalion deployed in the Bastar region were killing innocent people, burning villages, raping women and displacing lakhs of people.

He also said that 125 people had been killed in different villages of Dantewada and Bijapur districts.

Usendi said the women Maoists conducted a survey in Dantewada district that revealed that the forces had raped 76 women in 10 villages.

He rejected the statement of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram that Operation Green Hunt was not on.

"This is the biggest joke of 21st century because it is written on the vehicles of forces which move in the region."

He warned that if the operation were not stopped, Maoists would carry out more such attacks.

On the home minister's statement that army would not be used against Maoists, he said that army officers were already involved in training and planning the operation in the region.
Mohammed Siddique in Hyderabad