Deep within jungles, near the Sukma-Bijapur region, born in the Puverti village under the police station of Jagargunda, Madvi Hidma is a crucial member of the CPI(Maoist). As a prominent but mysterious commander in the Left-Wing Extremism movement (Naxalism), he is the youngest member of the Central committee of the party, and generally moves with a band of 250-300 Maoists. Apart from the latest attack in Sukma-Bijapur border on the security forces, Hidma has been a part of many such attacks earlier. He has been a mysterious leader with a folklore following in the Naxal movement, with some saying that he is a 28-year-old boy, others saying that he is 35-45 years old, while others stating that he is a 55 years old man. Hidma belongs to the Muriya tribal community of Bastar, who are known to be aggressive. He is the commander of the Maoist people liberation Guerrilla Army battalion 1. Additionally, he is also a member of the Dandakaranya Special zonal committee which leads the Maoist operations in Chattisgarh.
The LWE battalion led by Hidma operates in districts of Bijapur, South Bastar, Sukma and Dantewada. Hidma had been a close confidante of an older Naxal leader, Ravula Srinivas also known as Ramanna. Ravula was accused of killing more than 150 security personnel from 1989 to 2015 and had died in 2019 due to cardiac arrest.
In the pursuit of Hidma, about whom the security forces had received specific inputs about his presence in areas around Silger & Bodaguda, a total of 2000 security personnel had launched a joint operation on April 02. The security personnel were comprised of personnel from Special task force, District Reserve Guard, CRPF & the CoBRA units.
Hidma, also known as Hidmalu is believed to have joined the LWE in early 2001. Sources assert that he rose the ranks within the Naxal movement as he is extremely disciplined, clever, sharp and brutal. As commander of the Battalion 01, he is known to have meticulous planning of operations against the security forces and the high success rate. Hidma has been linked to as many as 27 attacks, since 2004, including the 2010 Dantewada attack which took lives of 76 CRPF personnel & the 2013 massacre of Darbha valley (Jhiram ghati) which had wiped out prominent congress leaders including Mahendra Karma, the organizer of the Salwa Judum movement. Hidma is known to run a network of dedicated and efficient informers which keeps him at an advantageous position with respect to security forces. He is also known to be a battle-hardened commander, whose pursuit by the forces turned out to be a bait of false intelligence. Hidma is known to have received his guerrilla warfare training in Phillipines. He is also known to be repellant for attention with an inner circle of heavily armed guards formed mostly of his childhood friends.
The recent attack is supposedly an approach to counter the plan of Chattisgarh state police to open a security camp in Silger village, ahead of the Terrem jungle, which could connect Sukma and Bijapur. Other important aspects of the mysterious Naxal commander as described by surrendered LWE operatives are anticipation of movements of forces and understanding of changing technology. The surrendered Maoist-men describe Hidma as being calm under escalating situations and as a leader who speaks with cadres on equal terms. Though many of the top leadership in Naxalism in Chattisgarh are from Telangana, most of the ground-level cadres and operatives working at operational level under Hidma are local natives. So, there is a disconnect among the top commanders and the ground-level Maoist operatives, who get training in ideology at Bal Sangham level. For the top and bottom of the Naxal pyramid in Chattisgarh, Hidma is the connecting link, who provides an inspiration to the ground-level cadres. Security officials believe that nabbing Hidma would demoralize the ground-level operatives of the Naxals in the area and would snap the spine of the LWE there. Since he has grown in the area, he has an intricate knowledge of the terrain and the demography of the region, which makes him difficult to catch. Apart from having an entourage of 250-300 people to move with, he moves with a “5-km security ring” coordinating with locals, which makes him difficult to trace.
It remains to be seen when security personnel will be able to finally nab the mysterious Hidma, who has been responsible for numerous cataclysmic attacks.
