Police on their toes over reports of Maoist activity

Some ‘action teams’ of the banned outfit are learnt to be camping in LWE-affected mandals

Reports of Maoist action teams led by senior cadres camping in interior areas of LWE-affected mandals in Visakha Agency such as GK Veedhi and G. Madugula have put the district police in a state of high alert.

Senior police officers from sensitive police stations such as GK Veedhi, G. Madugula and Koyyuru have asked villagers living in these areas to be extra cautious and have advised them to come down to the plains if possible.

Speaking to The Hindu, a senior police officer engaged in anti-Maoist operations said that combing operations in the sensitive and hyper-sensitive pockets in the Agency areas have been scaled up. “We are taking all precautions to avoid any untoward incidents, in spite of the fact that the Maoists have been pushed back to a small area in the the cut-off region in the Andhra-Odisha Border area,” he said.

However, sources in the LWE-affected areas say that the Maoists are trying to recruit young villagers, by leveraging the recent Supreme Court order removing 100% reservation for tribal people in Schedule V areas and the fresh inflow of migrant labourers post the relaxation of the lockdown.

The SC verdict quashing the 100% reservation for tribal people in teacher posts in Schedule V areas had not gone down well with the tribals, and the Maoists are learnt to be raking up the issue to drum up support. The outlaws are also reportedly trying to cash in on the large influx of migrant labourers, and are scouting for those interested in joining their fold.

Over 1,.500 migrant labourers have now returned home from other States and are currently unemployed and penniless. The outlaws are trying to recruit them into their fold, it is learnt.

Action teams of the Maoists comprise three to five cadres and are normally used to carry out a quick action, such as the killing of a prominent individual or someone on the hit-list of the Maoists.

Since it is now not possible to move in large numbers due to heavy combing, as well as due to the practice of villagers not allowing entry to outsiders in the wake of COVID-19, there is a possibility of the outlaws moving in small groups in select interior locations, it is learnt.