The police have pointed to three major reasons behind Wednesday's attack in Gadchiroli that claimed 16 lives — revenge, regaining lost clout and marking the dominance of Basavaraju, the new Maoist party chief. Security forces had on April 22 last year killed 40 naxals after which the cadre had been told to respond in kind.

Posters released by the naxals last month mentioned that they were celebrating the Kasnur incident for their martyrs from April 22 to 28, and will "fulfill their martyrs' dreams." Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju, 61, was appointed as the new CPI (Maoist) general secretary last November, after which the state intelligence officials predicted that the banned outfit might become aggressive. Basavaraju took over from Muppala Lakshmana Rao alias Ganapathy, 71.