A fortnight  after they killed 15 anti-naxal commandos in land mine blast, the Maoists on Thursday flexed their muscles once again in Gadchiroli district in eastern Maharashtra by putting up  banners naming their next seven next individual targets and calling for a bandh on May 19 in the naxalite-infested district bordering Chhattisgarh.

In red coloured banners put up along Gurupalli road in Ettapalli taluka and along roads leading to Aalapalli and Bhamragad, the banned CPI (Maoist) has called upon the people the people to participate in a bandh called by them in Gadchiroli district on May 19.

Among other things, the CPI(Maoist) has accused the C-60 commandos of the Gadchiroli of killing two Maoists — one Ramko and Shilpa Dhruva — in a fake encounter on May 2.

In another set of banners put up in Jambia-Ghatta village in Ettapalli tehsil in Gadchiroli district, the Maoists have named seven individuals who were on their  hit lists. These banners have been put near local ITI, Samaj Mandir and Forest department’s inspection naka. The development in Jambia village comes in the wake of killing of one Shishir Mandal, whom the Maoists killed on May 6 after suspecting him to be police informer.

Through these banners, Maoists operating in the forests of Gadchiroli district in eastern Maharashtra bordering Chhattisgarh state once again made their presence felt once again. A day after they killed 15 anti-naxal commandos, the CPI (Maoists) had on May 2 put up banners and posters warning the Maharashtra government, private contractors and firms against building roads and bridges in the region.

It may be recalled that on May 1,  the Maoists had —through a landmine blast —blown up a vehicle carrying the C-60 commandos of the Gadchiroli police, killing 15 of them and a civilian driver.

The security personnel were heading in a vehicle for naxal combing operations, when they found several fallen trees blocking the road leading to an isolated stretch of the road in a forest area. When the security personnel alighted to clear the road, landmines planted by Maoists blew up, leaving dead 15 commandoes and one driver.

The posters and banners – prepared in red and white coloured sheets and clothes —said that water, land, forests and mines belonged to all the people and by building roads and bridges, these were being to be handed over to a few industrialists for their profiteering. The banners had also accused top industrialists and their agents of indulging in the ‘chamchagiri’ of “(Prime Minister Narendra Modi) and Fadnavis” to get such projects for their ‘vikas’.