Dantewada attack: top Maoist leader suspected

A day after the Dantewada bloodbath in Chhattisgarh, the Andhra Pradesh Police has named Katakam Sudarshan alias Anand, one of the country’s top Maoist leaders, as the brain behind the daring attack. Middle-aged Sudarshan is a short, bespectacled widower and is one of the nine top leaders of the Maoists and a part of its politburo. He is the secretary of the outfit’s central regional bureau and is also in-charge of operations in the Dandakaranya forests, north Telangana and the Andhra-Orissa border. According to police sources, 53-year-old Sudarshan is a stocky man who is just 5’2″ tall. He is dark-complexioned and has thick hair and greying sideburns.

Police say Sudarshan is a brilliant strategist who plans every detail of an attack with clockwork precision. He is wanted in at least 17 criminal cases in Andhra Pradesh, including several murders, and carries a reward of Rs 12 lakh on his head. Sudarshan joined the erstwhile People’s War Group of Kondapalli Seetharamaiah in the 1980s and for the past three decades, has been leading the Maoist movement from north Telangana. In a recent interview Sudarshan had sharply reacted to Operation Greenhunt and had alleged that the Centre wanted to neutralise the top Maoist leadership.

(http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/91671/India/Dantewada+attack:+top+Maoist+leader+suspected.html  07/04/10, India Today)