The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Maoists plan to revive movement in Andhra Pradesh

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Thursday, Nov 29, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Maoists plan to revive movement in Andhra Pradesh

K. Srinivas Reddy

Police have stepped up security for possible targets among politicians

HYDERABAD: Intelligence agencies have come to know about the decision of the central committee, the most powerful body of the Maoists in the country, to “concentrate on surviving and reviving the movement in Andhra Pradesh … while resisting the enemy in a planned way.” Security agencies are concerned because the Maoists believe that only violent, “tactical counter-offensive acts” would provide space for revolutionary activity to spawn in the face of the severe onslaught they are now facing in Andhra Pradesh.

The police have stepped up security for possible targets among politicians, while police officers on the hit list have been asked to be vigilant.

The abortive attack on the former Chief Minister N. Janardhana Reddy in Nellore district in September last, the unearthing of a plot to attack Congress legislator P. Ramaiah in Prakasam, the movement of action teams in Kadapa, Prakasam, Nalgonda and Karimnagar, and the stepped up violence in the agency areas of Visakhapatnam indicate the Maoists’ resolve to intensify strikes. Naxalite documents seized recently in Bihar and Jharkhand speak of the Maoist plan to move “battle hardened” rebels from Bastar into this State, especially north Telangana districts, for resisting the “joint operations’ being taken up by the Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh police.

Analysts say the setback in Andhra Pradesh was a loss of face to leaders of the erstwhile People’s War in the now-united Maoist party. The naxalite movement is in full swing in Bihar and Jharkhand, essentially MCCI-dominated areas, while the PW areas got confined to Chhattisgarh and part of Orissa with Andhra Pradesh slipping out of Maoist control.

In the post-merger scenario, former PW leaders dominate the powerful Polit Bureau and the central committee in numbers.

However, their domination, the analysts feel, is not commensurate with the areas under their control and hence reclaiming the State is crucial for the Maoist movement.

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