The Hindu : People's War threat spurs police into action

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 18, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

People's War threat spurs police into action

By Our Staff Reporter

ADILABAD, FEB. 17. The Adilabad district police have taken a serious note of the ultimatum issued by banned People's War naxalites to leaders of the Telugu Desam Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party to quit their party posts and keep off election campaign.

Anticipating the threat perception on the eve of elections, the district police have devised an action plan to alert all PW targets and review their security. While elected representatives such as MLAs and MPs besides chairmen of corporations and district-level agencies are provided Personal Security Officers (PSO), the police are now preparing a list of new targets. Presently 25 leaders are provided armed PSOs.

This has become necessary in the wake of the statement issued by the District Committee Secretary, Tekam Motiram alias Vijay, on February 14, asking more than 200 TDP and BJP leaders to quit their posts and refrain from campaigning for their leaders in the coming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The police are now preparing a fresh list of targets and getting ready to face the situation. What has caused panic among TDP and BJP leaders is the statement by PW extremists that they would attack targets without giving any warning, even if they are grassroots level workers.

The Superintendent of Police, Mahesh Muralidhar Bhagwat, on Tuesday evening said the police were taking the threat perception seriously. He said the police had anticipated the present situation a couple of months ago and had drawn an action plan to face the uphill task. Accordingly, the police had constituted counter-action teams. The police held preliminary rounds of discussion to identify possible targets apart from those who have already been provided with PSOs. The police began the exercise in December last foreseeing such a situation.

The police have already launched `confidence building' campaign going by the name of `Athma Stheriya Sadassus', in affected sub-divisions. Two such conventions were held in Mancherial and Bellampalli sub-divisions last month, where the targets were invited to witness the song and dance sequence of the Police Jagruti Kalabrundam, which provided a glimpse into the threat perception and the precautionary measures to be adopted by the targets.

Mr. Bhagwat said the sadassu drew good crowds and the police succeeded in sending the right message to targets that they were cared for by the Government. He said different techniques shown during the programme were being implemented sincerely by leaders. The campaign would not stop with a few meetings, he said adding that the `Police me kosam' campaign, launched in more than 300 villages in the district, had highlighted the threat perception.

The SP said the targets were being prepared mentally and physically to face the situation. He said the PW was known to carry out sneak attacks and the targets were being advised to take precautions. He said already a couple of MPP chiefs and ZPTC members were provided PSOs after they made request for security.

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