How did Pol Pot seize control?

Saloth Sar, AKA Pol Pot, was the leader of the Khmer Rouge Communist Party and became the defacto leader when government control by the group was forcefully taken. He maintained his power through fear and force through a totalitarian Dictatorship that imposed radical agrarian socialism. He used forced relocations, collective farming, executions, forced labor, malnutrition, and withholding of medical care to keep the people weak and under his control.