Telangana DGP confident Maoists will not stage comeback

Though Maoists tried to make their presence felt in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh during 2018 with sensational killing of a state legislator, the Telangana police chief is confident that the extremists would not be able to make a comeback in Telangana.

Director General of Police M. Mahendar Reddy told IANS on Sunday that the police remained alert to thwart any attempts by Maoists to regroup.

"Earlier they operated from here. If we are not alert any day, they may try to come back. That's why we have to constantly update ourselves," said the police chief.

The Maoists gunned down a member of Andhra Pradesh Assembly and another leader of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on Andhra-Odisha border in September. This was the biggest such attack by Maoists in over a decade.

The Telangana police continued to maintain vigil on the border with Chhattisgarh to prevent Maoists from entering the state, which was once their stronghold.

The Telangana State Committee of outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) is operating with 82 underground cadres out of which only 18 are from Telangana state and the remaining from Chhattisgarh.

A total of 126 underground cadres of CPI (Maoist) hail from Telangana. Out of 17 Central Committee Members of the Maoist outfit, 10 come from Telangana.

"They are all operating from outside Telangana," said the DGP.

He earlier told the annual press conference that during the year, 19 extremists were killed during three incidents of exchange of fire with CPI (Maoist) and other groups.

With the information shared by Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB), there were 16 incidents of exchange of fire during inter-state anti-Maoist operations in which 21 extremists were neutralized.

The Telangana police arrested 120 extremists and seized 47 firearms including one AK-47 rifle and 5 Insas rifles during 2018. Ten extremists also surrendered during the year.

On the arrest of Maoist sympathizer Varavara Rao and other urban Maoists by Pune police, the police chief said since there was urban-based spontaneous mass violence in Bheem Koregaon by those who had come from different parts of the country, the Pune police arrested them.

"The incident took place there and they took action. If it had taken place here, we would have acted," said the DGP.

Mahendar Reddy said urban Maoists were those who live among people in urban areas and use democratic means to help Maoists by giving them logistic support and required motivation for recruitment.

"We are of the firm belief that if armed Maoists cadre moving underground have to be controlled, we have to control the urban naxalism," he added.

--IANS

ms/prs