Human intelligence, infighting among Maoists helped track down Kishenji

Human intelligence and infighting among Maoist cadres helped security forces eliminate dreaded Maoist commander Kishenji in an encounter in West Bengal, official sources said here today.

Taking full advantage of the intenal bickering among Maoists, the security forces were able to penetrate into the cadres of the CPI (Maoists) which gave significant inputs about the movement of Kishenji, the sources said.

"The security forces followed the inputs and after meticulous planning tracked down Kishenji and killed him in an encounter. In the whole operation, human intelligence played a significant role," a source said.

The old suspicion that Maoist leadership has been exploiting the women cadres has also been proved correct during the operation as it has been found that Kishenji was moving around and living with Suchitra, the wife of slain ultra leader Sasadhar Mahato, the sources said.

They said though security personnel were sure that the slain Maoist was indeed Kishenji, they were yet to declare it formally as they were waiting for his family members to arrive from Andhra Pradesh to identify the body.

The latest photographs of the Maoist leader sent by the Home Ministry match the body, they said.

Sources said the West Bengal and Central forces were following Kishenji for quite some time after getting information about him and Thursday's encounter was the result of that effort.