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A tribal from Kishtapur village in Aheri tehsil, 42-year-old Bimala Chandra Sidam alias Tarakka has earned a place in the regional Naxal hierarchy by leading audacious attacks on the police, such as the one on October 8 under the Laheri police station area of Gadchiroli. With no formal education, she started as a Naxal in 1985 to rise to the position of member of the South Gadchiroli Divisional Committee three years ago.
In fact, Tarakka is one of the many women Naxal cadres now leading dalams in Gadchiroli and the area the Naxals call Dandakaranya. Police believe about 40 per cent of dalam cadres are women.
Other women Naxal commanders in Gadchiroli include Jyoti (Tipagadh), Raneeta (Chatgaon), Sujita (Deori) and Ranjita (Surjagarh). Saroja, who was commander of the Jimalgatta dalam, was arrested last year. Her husband Lanka Papi Reddy, who was a Central Committee member, later surrendered before Warangal police in Andhra Pradesh. Radhakka, a senior Naxal working in Bastar for many years, hails from Rajaram Khanla village in south Gadchiroli.
Tarakka’s own division is headed by Narmada, a 52-year-old from Andhra Pradesh said to be fluent in seven languages including English. Due to health problems, she no longer takes part in attacks.
Tarakka’s first photograph was found during a raid in Nagpur’s Hivri Nagar area in 1992 where two Naxals, Amar and Sudershan (son-in-law of Naxal ideologue Varavara Rao), had holed up.
She is believed to have commandeered the Aheri, Perimili and Bhamragarh dalams, planning and executing many attacks. Police suspect her hand in the 1991 Tadgaon blast near Bhamragarh in which 10 State Reserve Police personnel died and believe she masterminded the 1994 landmine blast near her native village that killed five policemen. In 2003, four policemen died in a blast allegedly masterminded by Tarakka.
Of late, she is believed to have been working with company dalam commander Giridhar. It is 38-year-old Giridhar who is believed to be the man behind recent Naxal successes, including the Markegaon ambush that claimed the lives of 15 policemen in February, the Mungner ambush that killed three policemen in March and the Hattigota (Murumgaon) ambush where 16, including five women constables, lost their lives in May.
Tarakka and Giridhar, say police, masterminded last Thursday’s attack too.
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Those who would name their child after a scriptural/mythological VILLAIN must be evil of heart, and would only have inculcated the child with such ideas!
Your reporter cannot resist making a celeb out of this illiterate woman who has nothing to lose, so goes all out to grievously harm people and property. There is nothing heroic in that, when you have nothing to lose. So what if she is beautiful, she might be emitting fetid odors to miles around her, with no bath for weeks and months. I suggest your reporter should go to engage in some constructive osculation with this person, and come back alone to tell the story.
The areas where Naxals have arisen are primarily where the way of life of our Vanvasi citizens has been interfered with by evangelist corrupting forces. Unless the evangelist activities by $$$ rich but merciless and moralless evangelicals in our tribal areas are immediately stopped, vanvasis will have no other option but to protest with whatever means they have. Congress government must work for the sake of India and vanvasis, rather than the evangelicals in the guise of "Pandit" Nuhroo khandan.
Sir,The terror by Naxals in Gadchiroli for nomber of years.The Govt ignored the terrorists and neglected devolepment abuse of power by Govt officials and the politicians.They are forced to act when the electronic media exposed the negligence on the part of the Govt which led to the repeated massacre of the police force.The police and revenue official on their part alienated the tribals by their high handedness in dealing with the tribals resulting no inteligence input to take corrective action.Now that the Govt is forced to act let them eliminate the Naxals on war footing .Along with this let there be an introspection what led to this state of affairs and fix responsibility on those responsible for such criminal neglect.Let the introspection be done by eminent persons with good track record who have no political leanings .Let their findings be made public.Only then we can expect that the politician/Govt officials nexus in mismanagement get exposed and remedy can be thought of