Maoists PLGA week ends with no significant incidents of violence and disruption

The annual celebrations about the anniversary of the Peoples Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA), the armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) ended without the occurrence of any significant disturbance across the Maoist-infested regions of the country on Friday, December 8.

The weeklong celebration called up by the Maoists which commenced on December 2 of this month, was the 23rd such celebration by the ultras. Every year, the extremists celebrate its weeklong anniversary, during which the Maoists usually launch attacks on security camps, civilians, and government establishments, disrupting transportation routes such as roadways and railway tracks in Maoist-affected regions of the country.

The outlawed outfit also releases figures of its causalities that occurred throughout the year, making an appeal to the masses to join the ferocious armed group and intensifying the guerrilla warfare during the week.

Peoples Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA)

The PLGA was founded on December 2, 2000 on the first death anniversary of three of their Central Committee members who were killed in an encounter in Koryuu, undivided Andhra Pradesh. Later on, it became the armed wing of the outlawed CPI Maoist, which came into existence in 2004 after the merger of People’s War Group (PWG) and the Maoist Communist Centre of India.

Considered one of the most dreaded terrorist outfits in the world, the CPI Maoist’s PLGA draws its inspiration from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and aims to overthrow the democratic government of Bharat by means of violence to install an authoritarian Communist government.

It is estimated that at its peak, the guerrilla army had a capacity of around 12000 armed cadres, which has been reduced gradually in recent years. According to various sources, it is estimated that the current strength of the PLGA is around 8000 armed cadres while the strength of the militia members is estimated to be between 35 to 40 thousands.

The guerrilla army consists mainly of three forces, categorised as the main force, the secondary force, and the base force, and is controlled by the Central Military Commission of the CPI (Maoist) answerable only to the Central Committee and the Polite Bureau, the highest body of the Ultras.

Further the PLGA composition consists of companies, platoons, Special Action Teams (SAT) or the assassination squads and intelligence units. The guerrilla force has a significant number of female cadres which makes up more than half of its strength.

The cadres of the PLGA are mostly recruited from the insurgency-hit remote regions of the country, where most of them are recruited and brainwashed at an early age. Additionally, first-hand accounts of a number of surrendered female cadres also suggest forceful recruitment and exploitation of the women cadres in the organisation.

Figures pertaining to causalities in the last one year

The Dakshin (south) Sub Zonal Bureau (DSZB) of the outlawed CPI (Maoist) in a press note released on December 01, confirmed that as many as 54 Maoist cadres have been killed in encounters with the security forces between December 2022 to November 2023.

In the press note issued by the Maoist, the DSZB spokesperson, Samta informed that a total of 26 Maoist have been killed in encounters with the security forces in Dandakaranya region while the figures pertaining to casualties remained 9 and 6 in Bihar-Jharkhand and Telangana respectively in the same period of time.

Further the press release read that as many as 4 Moist have been killed in the Maoist’s newly created MMC (Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh) zone while a total of 5 Ultras have been neutralized in Odisha in the same period. The extremist spokesperson also informed that most of the casualties in the Dandakaranya region were reported from Bijapur.

No Significant development reported this year

It is to be noted that no significant activities apart from sporadic incident of dropping leaflets and erecting banners have been reported this year during the much propagated weeklong celebration of the extremists, suggesting the weakened strength of the outlawed banned outfit.

It is worth mentioning that security in the Maoist affected areas had already been beefed up and strict vigilance had been kept in view of any possible disturbance carried out by the Ultras. Additionally, train services between Kirundal and Dantewada had also been kept on hold for a week in view of the PLGA week.