India: Kishanji, top Maoist rebel leader, killed in gunbattle in West Bengal
In a huge setback to Maoists, its top leader Kishanji was today killed in a gunbattle with security forces in a forest in West Midnapore district of West Bengal, a day after he narrowly escaped from there.
The body of 58-year-old Molajula Koteswar Rao, better known as Kishanji, was found and identified after the encounter, a top counter-insurgency force official said.
Kishanji, a Telugu, was a Maoist politburo member, the third in-command of the outfit and in-charge of its armed operations in junglemahal since 2009.