Top Naxal commander Madvi Hidma killed in encounter in Andhra Pradesh

Top Naxalite commander Madvi Hidma, who had masterminded several attacks over the last two decades, was killed in an encounter in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday, a breakthrough Chhattisgarh Police described as the "last nail in the coffin" of the insurgency.

Security forces gunned down Hidma, his wife Raje, and four other Naxalites in the Maredumilli forest in Alluri Sitaramaraju district of the neighbouring state this morning, a senior police officer in Bastar confirmed.

Hidma's elimination is the "last nail in the coffin" of severely-weakened insurgency in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh.

"We have received information that Maoist leader Hidma is among the cadres killed on the Andhra Pradesh-Chhattisgarh border. It is a very important development," Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma told reporters in Raipur.

A native of Puvarti village in Sukma district, Hidma's age and appearance remained mysterious until his photograph surfaced earlier this year.

He headed the Maoists' People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) Battalion No. 1, the strongest military formation of the outfit in Dandakaranya, which spans parts of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana, and Maharashtra, apart from Bastar, for several years, officials said.

He was elevated to the Maoists' Central Committee last year.

Hidma joined the banned organisation in the late 1990s as a ground-level organiser. He came on the radar of security agencies after the Tadmetla attack in which 76 security personnel were killed in 2010. He had then assisted another top Maoist commander, Papa Rao, in executing the strike.

Since then, his name surfaced repeatedly after every major ambush on security forces in Bastar.

He had served as a member of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), which orchestrated several deadly attacks in south Bastar.

Expert in guerrilla warfare, Hidma was known to carry an AK-47 rifle, while members of his huge unit moved with sophisticated weapons. His four-layered security ring inside the forests reportedly made him untraceable for years.

However, intensified anti-Naxal operations in the last two years dented and weakened Hidma's security cover, forcing him to flee deeper into the forests along the Chhattisgarh-Telangana and Chhattisgarh-Andhra Pradesh borders to seek shelter, officials said.

Sustained operations by security forces in the Maoist core areas had mounted significant pressure on senior leaders, including Hidma.

Among the major attacks he was involved in was the 2013 Jhiram Valley attack in Darbha, Bastar, which wiped out senior Congress leadership in Chhattisgarh. He is also accused of the 2017 Burkapal ambush that left 24 CRPF personnel dead.

His wife, Raje, was also active in the same battalion and allegedly involved in almost every major Maoist strike.

"Hidma had acquired a heroic image among his cadres, and his elimination is a major step towards eliminating Maoism from the Bastar region," a Chhattisgarh Police officer said.

With this encounter in Andhra Pradesh, nine Central Committee members of the Maoists have been eliminated by security forces in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Andhra Pradesh.

The top cadres killed in Chhattisgarh include Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju (70), the general secretary and top-most operative of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist), and five central committee members.

While two Central committee members were killed in Jharkhand, as many others were in Andhra Pradesh this year, police said.