Home town Pedapalli mourns Kishenji
The Pedapalli town of Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh is mourning the death of its favourite son. He was the only prominent person from the Mallojula clan after the death of his grandfather, who was ironically a freedom fighter.
Kishenji was from a poor Brahmin family which eked out a living on priesthood in near by temples.
Madhuramma, the ailing mother of Kishenji, collapsed when she learnt that her son had been killed in an encounter far away in West Bengal.
Madhuramma said she had not heard or seen much of him since 1980 when Kishenji climbed up the ladder in the revolutionary organisation after he finished his B Com from SSR College at Warangal.
“He used to bring home poets like Sri Sri, Kaloji Narayan Rao and Varavara Rao. I was very sympathetic towards the poor and deprived,” she said.
The family in Pedapalli is worried about the whereabouts of Kishenji’s wife, Maisakka, alias Sujatakka of another Telangana district Mabubnagar.
She joined him in the Maoist movement with him. Revolutionary poet P Varvara Rao, who was also upset at the news of Kishenji’s death, recalled the time when Kishenji joined the movement at a young age because he wanted to fight for the rights of the oppressed.
Meanwhile, anticipating revenge attacks by Maoists in the wake of the killing of their top leader, the police in Andhra Pradesh have been put on high alert.
The police in Andhra Pradesh have stepped up security, especially on the Andhra-Orissa border.
A police officer said politicians and others on the hit-list of the Maoists have been asked to be careful.
Additional police forces have been mobilised on the north coastal Andhra Pradesh bordering Orissa.
The elite anti-Maoist force, Greyhounds, has launched combing operations as a precautionary measure. Police were also checking vehicles in the tribal areas.
