ANDHRA PRADESH "GREYHOUNDS" DOG MAOISTS IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L CHENNAI 000110

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/25/2018
TAGS: ASEC IN PGOV PHUM PTER
SUBJECT: ANDHRA PRADESH "GREYHOUNDS" DOG MAOISTS IN
NEIGHBORING CHHATTISGARH

REF: 2007 CHENNAI 500

Classified By: Consul General David Hopper for
reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: Police contacts confirmed media reports
of a joint counter-insurgency operation involving police
units from the Indian states of Chhattisgarh and Andhra
Pradesh. 17 Maoists insurgents were killed in a March 18
raid, including at least one important Maoist leader,
according to contacts. Police also recovered numerous
weapons at the scene, which according to media reports,
suggests that the police had come across an important
Maoist leadership meeting. Andhra Pradesh's elite
anti-Maoist force (known as the "Greyhounds") took part in
the operation in neighboring Chhattisgarh, marking a
welcome new development in intra-state cooperation against
the Maoist threat. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) On March 20 Andhra Pradesh Inspector General of
Police Durga Prasad, who leads the Greyhounds, confirmed
media reports that his unit conducted a March 18 joint
operation with police in neighboring Chhattisgarh. He said
Greyhound units operated in concert with Chhattishgarh
police, ambushing Maoist insurgents in Chhattisgarh's
Bijapur district, approximately ten miles from the Andhra
Pradesh border. Prasad confirmed that the police killed 17
Maoists (including six women) while suffering no fatalities
of their own. He said the dead included one important
state committee leader and that the remains of all of the
dead Maoists had been handed over to villagers. Prasad
noted that the police recovered an unspecified number of
semi-automatic rifles, including AK-47s, from the scene.
Prasad said he expects the Maoists to retaliate for the
killings, especially in light of the fact that the dead
included a leadership figure.


3. (U) Media reports described events of March 18 as a
major setback to the Maoists, saying the 17 deaths
comprised the worst single-day death toll for the Maoists
in sixteen years. The joint police force reportedly came
across a meeting of Maoist leaders and both sides fired
more than 500 rounds in the ensuing firefight. A Times of
India article said "two landmines, one AK-47, three
semi-automatic rifles, and twelve other weapons" were
recovered from the site, adding that "sources also claimed
that the huge seizure of weapons indicated that top state
committee leaders and district committee members had
assembled" for the meeting. It went on to speculate that
Gajerla Ravi (aka Ganesh),a member of the North Telangana
Special Zonal Committee (NTSZC),was killed in the
encounter, noting that the NTSZC is the Maoist's second
most powerful body after the Central Committee. The same
article quoted K Varavara Rao, an unofficial Maoist
spokesman, as condemning the incident as a "fake encounter"
by the police in which Central Reserve Police Force units
(central
government paramilitary forces) participated along with the
Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh police. Rao reportedly
said he was not aware whether any Maoists leaders were
killed on March 18.


4. (C) COMMENT: The Greyhounds are the first, and most
successful, state police force specially established to
defeat the Maoists. They have had considerable success,
more or less pushing the Maoists out of Andhra Pradesh
(reftel). But Andhra Pradesh's success has become the
problem of its neighboring states. Chhattisgarh has had
particular difficulty dealing with the Maoists who have
retreated there from Andhra Pradesh. Greyhounds chief
Prasad told us in August 2007 that he worried about
Chhattisgarh's ability to handle the Maoists and that his
unit was helping train the police there. But at that time
he also said then that his forces confined themselves to
policing on their side of the border. The events of March
18 -- with the Greyhounds bringing their more skilled and
better equipped forces over the border into Chhattisgarh to
take the fight to the Maoists -- are a welcome development
in the generally spotty record of intra-state cooperation
in the fight against the Maoist threat. END COMMENT.
HOPPER