The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Increased Maoist attacks anticipated in State

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Wednesday, Sep 03, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Increased Maoist attacks anticipated in State

K. Srinivas Reddy

HYDERABAD: With just a month left for the conclusion of the country-wide Tactical Counter Offensive Campaign (TCOC) launched by Maoists, the Andhra Pradesh police are anticipating increased Maoist violence in the State, especially in areas bordering Orissa.

With the political parties slowly getting into the election mode, police anticipate a fresh round of violence by the Maoists targeting police personnel and politicians, especially those belonging to the ruling Congress. The anticipation of stepped up violence is based on a directive by the Central Committee of the Maoist party to its State committees to take up the TCOC campaign from July to September this year.

Lull before storm?

Interestingly, while the Maoist cadres have succeeded in pulling off major strikes against the police in Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa, those responsible for the Maoist movement in Andhra Pradesh have so far remained silent, raising the hackles of the intelligence agencies. Officers actively involved in anti-extremist operations feel that it could be the lull before the storm, despite the fact that the Maoist party had officially conceded that the red movement in Andhra Pradesh is going through an ebb phase.

With the Maoist central committee changing the operational strategies in Andhra Pradesh, the police agencies too are gearing up for major attacks. While asking the three committees operating in Andhra Pradesh to give top priority to self-defence strategies, Maoist leaders have asked their Andhra counterparts to concentrate on taking up resistance action in the border areas of the State.

PLGA active

In pursuance of these directives, police sources say two companies of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) have been moving in areas abutting Orissa, especially in Visakhapatnam rural district. The recent incident of a famine raid carried out by the PLGA with some 100 villagers in GK Veedhi area, one of the guerrilla bases, was intended to lure the policemen into a trap. Similarly, the Gunukurayi encounter on May 29 in Viskaha agency areas was also a trap. Exactly a month later, the Maoists carried out a major attack in Balimela killing 38 Greyhound commandos in Orissa.

Focus on mines

Police source say that Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakahapatnam which share borders with Orissa and Khammam, Warangal and Karimnagar districts having border with Chhattisgarh could see violence in the coming days in view of the relatively stronger naxalite movement in the neighbouring States. What has been causing concern for the police is the reported decision of the Maoists to use pressure activated and Claymore mines to attack the police teams.

Documents seized from naxalites in Chhattisgarh indicate that there may not be attacks on police stations, but there could be more single target actions in Andhra Pradesh as the Maoists are believed to have formed two or three-member action teams to attack politicians in particular.

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