Kolkata:
Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji is a top Naxal leader, known to have carried out many deadly attacks. He is believed to be behind the latest attack on the Silda Camp in West Bengal.
Born in an Andhra village, the 52-year-old is the son of a freedom fighter. He has spent the last 34 years in war against the state, having gone underground a year after Emergency. In 1980, he co-founded the People's War Group in Andhra Pradesh.
Kishenji then became a politburo member and held charge of Telangana. In the 1990s, the Maoist leader moved into Bihar and Jharkhand and rose to be one of the top Naxal leaders in the eastern region.
He is known to be media-friendly and always ready for interviews and there has been much debate on how he seems to contact journalists with ease, and takes calls from them, but has not been apprehended.
Kishenji recently offered a conditional 72-day truce to the Indian government after the Centre asked Naxals to give up violence for 72 hours.