Bhubaneswar, 25 December (H.S.): In a major blow to Maoist leadership, senior Central Committee member Ganesh Uike, who carried a cumulative bounty of Rs 1.10 crore, was killed in an encounter with security forces in Odisha’s Kandhamal district on Thursday. In two separate encounters carried out as part of intensified counter-insurgency operations, a total of six armed Maoists were neutralised, officials confirmed.
The first encounter took place in the Guma forest area under Belghar police station limits, where two Maoists were killed during a combing operation based on specific intelligence inputs. Both were armed and attempted to evade security forces using the dense forest cover.
The second and more decisive encounter occurred later the same day in the Chakapada police station area, resulting in the deaths of four Maoists, including top leader Ganesh Uike. Officials confirmed that two of the four Maoists neutralised in this encounter were women cadres.
The operation involved joint teams of the Special Operations Group (SOG), District Voluntary Force (DVF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and Border Security Force (BSF). Security forces carried out the operation after receiving credible intelligence about the movement of senior Maoist leaders in the forested region.
Ganesh Uike, aged approximately 69, was a top Maoist leader active in eastern and southern India. He was a senior member and commander of the banned CPI (Maoist) and had a cumulative bounty of Rs 1.10 crore announced by various states. Security officials said Uike played a key role in planning and coordinating Maoist activities in Odisha and neighbouring states.
According to police sources, this operation followed an encounter a day earlier in the same district. On Wednesday, two Maoist operatives were killed in the Guma forest area under Belghar police station limits. The deceased were identified as Bari, also known as Rakesh, an Area Committee Member of Rayagada under the Bansadhara-Ghumsar-Nagabali (BGN) division and a native of Sukma district, and Amrit, a member of the Supply Dalam from Bijapur district. Bari carried a reward of Rs 22 lakh, while Amrit had a bounty of Rs 1.65 lakh.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Monalisa Panda
