By Ed Dalton

Forty guerrilla soldiers of People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA), led by the Communist Party of India (Maoist), seized the town of Timurpalli in the Malkangiri district of Odisha on May 19.

Laying waste to the local government headquarters located in the Panchayat building, the PLGA unit was able to take control with no one being injured. The action was propagated on flyers and leaflets throughout the region, which state that it was carried out in retaliation for the old-state’s anti-tribal activities, including fake-encounters (when the government forces kill mostly unarmed people and claim they are Maoist combatants, a tactic they use to attack poor peasants and suppress political views.)

In Gadchirolli, CPI (Maoist) claims to have annihilated 15 enemy agents of repression (it is unclear whether they were state or non-state enemies). The action was also in response to the state persecuting intellectuals and revolutionary democrats who they claim are “urban Maoists.”

The CPI (Maoist) also carried out several important armed actions during the General Strike in Gadchirolli, held on May 20. They destroyed two warehouses and other equipment, paralyzing production in the district. In an open challenge to the reactionary forces, the Party hung red flags and banners calling for the General Strike in the region.

The revolutionaries used trees and banners to create roadblocks along an important road between Karamphata and Gurupalli, in Etapalli Taluka, attaching the banner to a vehicle the Maoists had burned down a few days ago. Communist flags were seen throughout the area. Markets throughout the region remain closed in observance of the General Strike.

In Ranchi district, Jharkhand state two members of the Special Auxiliary Police were injured during a PLGA ambush.

The armed General Strike was called for in protest of the extra-judicial killings of CPI (Maoist) member Ramko Narote and guerrilla Shilpa Dhurva on April 27 in Gundurwahi.

Every year the reactionary Indian state uses terror against the masses and revolutionaries to try and put an end to the People’s War, and every year they are met with embarrassing failure. The General Strike and armed combative actions prove the Maoists are unrelenting in their struggles to bring New Democracy to the Indian people.