Ganesh Uike, who led Maoists in Odisha, shot dead in Kandhamal gunfight

BHUBANESWAR: ganesha Uike, a Maoist telephone exchange citizens committee fellow member who was in bill of Maoist operations in Odisha, was killed in an overnight gunfight with a joint team of security forces in the state’s Kandhamal district, police said on Thursday.Five Maoists were also killed in the same operation in Kandhamal district, which started on Wednesday.Ganesh Uike was one of the six remaining members of the central committee of the Communist Party of India-Maoist and carried a cumulative bounty of ₹1.1 crore on his head.Police said Uike, 69, was the most senior Maoist operative active in Odisha and his elimination was a significant blow to the Naxal command structure in the region.“Ganesh was a member of the Maoist central committee and played a key role in planning and coordinating armed activities across multiple zones. A central committee member, he was also known by aliases Rupa, Rajesh Tiwari, Chamru and Pakka Hanumantu,” said Odisha’s additional general of police (anti-Maoist ops), Sanjeeb Panda.Union home minister Amit Shah described Uike’s death as a “significant milestone towards Naxal-free Bharat”.“In a major operation in Kandhmal, Odisha, 6 Naxalites, including Central Committee Member Ganesh Uike, have been neutralised so far. With this major breakthrough, Odisha stands at the threshold of becoming completely free from Naxalism. We are resolved to eliminate Naxalism before the 31st of March 2026,” Shah said in a post on X.Panda said Uike, who led the banned outfit in Odisha, was from Chendur Mandal in Nalgonda district of Telangana “He was the only central committee member operating in Odisha,” Panda added.Acting on a tip from the Special Intelligence Wing (SIW), a joint operation was launched by 20 Special Operations Group (SOG) units of the state police, two Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) teams and one Border Security Force (BSF) team, in Kandhamal’s Chakapad police station area and the Rambha forest range in the bordering areas of Ganjam district.When the gunfight ended on Thursday, police said bodies of four Maoists – two men and two women - were found in an extensive search of the area.Two Maoists were also killed by a mobile SOG team from Kotgadh on Wednesday. The police have identified them as Bari alias Rakesh, an area committee member of the Raygda Area Committee under the Bastar-Gadchiroli-North (BGN) division from Sukma district, and Amrit, a platoon member of the Supply Dalam (BGN) from Bijapur district.This year, nine members of the central committee, including four in Chhattisgarh, two each in Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh and one in Odisha have been killed in encounters with security forces.The central committee members who have been killed are Ramachandra Reddy alias Jairam alias Chalapati, Gautam alias Sudhakar, Modem Balakrishna, Raju Dada alias Katta Ramachandra Reddy, Kosa Dada alias Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy, Sahadev Soren alias Pravesh, Vivek alias Prayag Manjhi, Madvi Hidma, Metturi Joga Rao alias Tech Shankar.