The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Maoists draw up plan for control of Telangana

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 26, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Maoists draw up plan for control of Telangana

By K. Srinivas Reddy

HYDERABAD, FEB. 25. Having succeeded in `reclaiming' the domination over several areas in Telangana districts during the `peace time,' the Maoists are now putting in place a comprehensive plan to make Telangana, the beacon of revolutionary movement again.

The significant move, sources say, is to effect a major organisational change in which the Maoist leadership wants to bring all the ten Telangana districts under the control of a new State committee.

Presently, the five districts of North Telangana are under the control of the North Telangana Special Zonal Committee (NTSZC), while the Andhra Pradesh State Committee (APSC) supervises Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda and Medak. Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy are also under the control of APSC, though there is not much of a revolutionary movement in these areas.

Plans are also afoot to galvanise the otherwise dormant militant network in Telangana in addition to formation of front organisations to mobilise women, students, coal miners and the peasantry. On the military side, the Maoists have already formed at least eight Local Guerrilla Squads (LGSs) in the five North Telangana districts, which had been wound up as part of a tactical withdrawal of forces in view of a severe crackdown by the police.

The proposal to form a separate State committee to guide the revolutionary movement in all ten Telangana districts is believed to have been made by a section of powerful Maoist leaders. A decision in this regard is to be taken by the all-powerful Central Committee of the CPI(Maoist). The argument behind the plan, the sources say, is that the situation all over Telangana was same and the police were implementing a unified strategy, while there was some coordination gap between the NTSZC and the APSC. This gap was becoming a stumbling block to the advancement of the revolutionary movement.

Two guerrilla zones

The Maoist leaders have also proposed to form two guerrilla zones in Telangana to be guided by the State committee. Translated into field reality, similar strategies and tactics would be employed in fighting the police and the paramilitary forces in the ten districts. Retaliation of police actions could be spread all over Telangana, including the State capital. And most importantly, it could mean that elected representatives of south Telangana districts could now be forced to react to developing situations in North Telangana and vice-versa.

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