Naxals declare Nayagarh a success

PARALAKHEMUNDI, March 5: The Naxals have claimed their Nayagarh operation on 15 February as a grand success and a red letter day for the movement. For the first time since the daring strike the radicals conceded two deaths in a fire exchange with security forces at Gasama forests of Ganjam district.
These claims were made in a letter purported to have been penned by Sunil , secretary of the CPI(Maoist) Orissa state organization committee which reached reporters of Gajapati district today .
The letter, written in Oriya, has denounced the government for adopting pro-MNC policies and depriving the poor of their land. The government will never succeed in robbing people of their land holdings and we will oppose it as we have done in Orissa and Nandigram, it said.
Admitting the death of two comrades, the letter says we salute to the two cadres who have laid down their lives for the movement , and their contribution will never be forgotten.
The content of the letter also reveals that the radicals had managed to escape with lot of arms and ammunition.
Significantly, it also regrets the death of a common man during the Nayagarh operation and the subsequent cat-mouse game with security forces. The said 'person' had tried to be heroic by nabbing them , and they had no other option but to kill him, it said .
This letter also criticizes the efforts of the government propaganda machinery for spreading misinformation of heavy casualty on the Naxal side.
The success of the operation is not limited to the loot of the armoury but also the retreat and escape, it stated.
The operation was carried on by cadres of the Peoples Liberation Guerilla Army and the militia affiliated to different groups who had been trained for the attack , it informed.
It may be noted that the combing operations in the forests of five districts are on ever since 16 February with greyhounds of AP, CRPF, Special Operation Groups and the state police. Helicopters were also pressed into service and an impression has gathered ground that the Naxals had suffered heavy casualties. Speculations were that the radicals were holed up and surrounded in the forests.
Chief minister Mr Naveen Patnaik had also claimed that more than 60 per cent of the arms and 70 per cent of the ammunition looted from the armouries had been recovered during the combing operations.