Can't predict, says Andhra police chief on Maoist problem

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy may be opposing the bifurcation of the state on the ground that this would lead to spurt in Maoist activity but the state police chief B. Prasada Rao is not willing to make any such forecast.

The director general of police Monday said Maoists may strike whether the state remain united or divided. "I will not say this way or that way," he said to a request for comment on Kiran Reddy's repeated statement.

Talking to representatives from the national media here, he said there were different perceptions on the issue but the ground realities were same.

"All I can say is that we are fully geared up. We are alive to situation and geared up to tackle it by strengthening our machinery," he added. The police chief pointed out that there had been many incursion attempts by the Maoists from neighbouring states like Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

"In united Andhra there have been several attempts on part of extremists from Chhattisgarh and Odisha to enter the state. Some offences also took up. Our forces on borders thwarted many attempts."

"It can happen anytime," he said while refusing to predict if formation of Telangana state would lead to spurt in Maoist activity.

Replying to another query, he said while most of the leaders of Communist Party of India-Maoist were from Telangana, the outfit had recruited many locals in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and other states.

He said the unmanned aerial vehicle stationed at the Begumpet airport here has been helping the ground forces to track Maoist movement. "The aircraft is under the command of CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) but the footage relayed by the aircraft is being used by all the partner states," he added.

Rao said the police had received no alert from the central government to beef up the security in view of imminent bifurcation. He also denied reports paramilitary forces were deployed in Seemandhra in anticipation of trouble during the introduction of Telangana bill in parliament.

He said the police had been tackling protests in Telangana from 2009 and in Seemandhra for the last four months. "It is a continuous process," he said while refusing to give details of the deployment of forces.

He pointed out that police dealt with the situation for last four years without a single person being killed in police firing. He said 360 people were killed in police firing during the protests for Telangana state in 1969.