16-11-2021 The Asian Independent

14 16-11-2021 to 30-11-2021 NEWS
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
Milind Teltumbde: From coal miner to
top Maoist commander of central India
Mumbai/Gadchiroli : The excitement
in security circles was palpable as
news trickled late on Saturday that one
of the 26 Maoists gunned down could
be of the top leaders Milind B.
Teltumbade.
Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil
officially confirmed the development on
Sunday, that indeed, the 57-year-old
dreaded Red insurgent and head of its
Central India operations, was among
those felled by the security agencies'
bullets in the Gadchiroli forests in the
November 13 encounter.
A Dalit, Milind Teltumbde, 57, was
the brother of human rights activist and
scholar Anand Teltumbde - who is the
brother-in-law of Vanchit Bahujan
Aghadi President Dr Prakash
Ambedkar. Anand Teltumbade is among
the group of so-called "Urban Maoists"
who were raided in early and mid-2018
in connection with the Koregaon
Bhima-Elgar Parishad cases - in which
even Milind Teltumbade was "wanted" -
and is currently lodged in the Taloja
Jail, Raigad.
Born in Yavatmal, Anabd
Teltumbade studied upto SSC and then
completed his ITI course before starting
life as ordinary electrician in the
Padmapur open cast coal mine in 1984-
1985, officials said.
A couple of years later, he came in
touch with lawyer Sujan Abraham, who
was state secretary of Akhil
Maharashtra Kamgar Union with far-
Leftist leanings - his maiden forays into
what would later become a long and
bloody career as an insurgent.
Milind Teltumbade was gradually
attracted to the Maoist ideology and
joined the coal workers' movements
through the Mazdoor Sangathan, the
Indian Mine Workers Federation and
then even as President of Naujawan
Bharat Sabha. All the time, he worked
Covid: UK firm to trial new
skin patch vax targeting T-cell
London : A UK-based company is soon
set to begin clinical trials of an easy-toadminister
skin patch against Covid-19, the
media reported.
While Covid vaccines target antibody
responses -- getting stuck to the virus and
stopping it from infecting cells -- Emergex's
vaccine uses T-cells to find and kill infected
cells thus preventing viral replication and
disease, the Guardian reported.
The vaccine will be administered as a skin
patch the size of a thumbnail bristling with
micro-needles that releases the shot within
seconds. It can last for up to three months at
room temperature, unlike other jabs that
need to be stored in the freezer or fridge.
The skin patch consists of tiny gold particles
coated in peptides (bits of proteins)
designed to generate the T-cell response in
the body, the report said.
Other Covid vaccines developed by Pfizer
and AstraZeneca also produce a T-cell
response, but to a lesser extent.
Further, the currently available Covid
vaccines mainly elicit an antibody response
that wanes over time, meaning people need
booster shots. But, Emergex's vaccine works
differently. It kills infected cells quickly,
which means it could offer longer lasting
immunity -- possibly for decades -- and
could also be better at fighting virus mutations,
Robin Cohen, the firm's chief commercial
officer, was quoted as saying. The Swiss
drugs regulator has granted approval for
Emergex to conduct the initial human trial in
Lausanne. The trial involves 26 people who
will receive a high and a lowdose
of its experimental Covid-
19 vaccine, starting on January
3. Interim results from the trial
are expected in June. However,
the Emergex shot will not be
available until 2025 at the earliest,
the report said.
"This is the first time a regulator
has approved a Covid vaccine
to go into clinical trials
whose sole purpose is to generate
a targeted T-cell response in
the absence of an antibody
response and those T-cells look
for infected cells and kill them,"
Cohen said.
"The virus is the asteroid: it
fires into the planet and a viral
code, a signature for that virus,
is rapidly displayed all over the
surface. These signatures are
read by T-cells as foreign, and
the T-cells kill the cell before it
can produce new live viruses," he explained.
According to Danny Altmann, a professor
of immunology at Imperial College London,
a T-cell vaccine may not "do the job on its
own" but could complement the current vaccines
as boosters as T-cell vaccines might be
more impervious to virus mutations.
"Antibodies are very sensitive to mutations
while T-cells can see many other parts
of the virus. Maybe that's a selling point for
T-cell vaccines," Altmann was quoted as saying.
Emergex is also testing another T-cell
vaccine against dengue fever on humans in a
separate Swiss trial, with initial results due in
January. The firm also wants to deploy its T-
cell vaccines against influenza, Zika, Ebola
and other infections.
in the field and rural areas to recruit volunteers,
and also played a critical role in
spreading Maoism in urban regions
among the educated youth.
By the late 1990s, he was a fullfledged
activist of the banned CPI-
Maoist and worked as a DVCM for the
coal-belts in Chandrapur-Nagpur districts.
In 2004, he became a member of
Maharashtra Rajya State Committee
and after the arrest of Shridhar
Shrinivasan, was promoted as the powerful
MRSC Secretary.
Within the next 8 years, by 2012, he
was the acting in-charge of the North
Gadchiroli-Gondia-Balaghat Division
and at the 4th Central Committee
Members meeting in April 2013, was
promoted as a CCM.
In 2016-2017, the MSRC was wound
up and a new 'Maharashtra-Madhya
Pradesh-Chhattisgarh (MMC) Zone'
was created of which he became the
leader - a momentous development in
his career as an insurgent. This year, he
was the acting CCM and also head of
MMC Zone, with onerous duties - monitoring
and analysing security forces'
movements in Maharashtra-
Chhattisgarh, masterminding and executing
major ambushes, blasts and other
subversive acts, besides strengthening
the Maoist organisation in cities.
Soon, his police graph showed a
steep incline - with 63 cases lodged
against him including 42 encounters, 7
murders of civilians, 4 killings of police
personnel, 2 arson and a dacoity.
Some of the highlights in his CV
include: triggering the Jambhulkheda
blast of May 1, 2019 which killed 15
security, and Koparshi encounters of
May 17, 2020 which killed 2 policemen.
His wife Angela Sontakke-
Teltumbade - a highly qualified woman
with multiple degrees from University
of Mumbai - was arrested by Thane
police for the murder of a policeman
and Maoist activities, and is currently
out on bail.
Besides the Maharashtra Police,
Teltumbade was also wanted by the
National Investigation Agency (NIA),
and moved around with various aliases
like Jiva, Dipak, Sahyadri, Pravin,
Arun, Sudhir, etc to evade arrest.
Top police officials said with
Taltumbade's elimination, the Maoist
power in central India has been shaken
to the core and the security forces will
continue their cleansing operation with
renewed vigour.
Counter-terrorism
police called in after
car blast in Liverpool
London : British counter-terrorism police were called in after a
taxi exploded at a hospital in Liverpool, leaving one dead and
another injured, though this has not been declared a terrorist incident.
Police in the city confirmed the blast happened at around 11
a.m. on Sunday at the Women's Hospital in Liverpool city centre,
reports Xinhua news agency.
Photographs posted on social media showed a taxi in flames
and ambulances and fire fighters were also called to the scene.
Police placed a cordon around the hospital while inquiries continued
to determine the cause of the explosion.
"Work is still going on to establish what has happened, and
could take some time before we are in a position to confirm anything,"
Merseyside Police said in a statement.
"We are keeping an open mind as to what caused the explosion
but given how it has happened, out of caution, Counter Terrorism
Police are leading the investigation supported by Merseyside
Police," the statement said.
Three people have been arrested after the blast by counter-terror
police, Sky News reported.