To chart out a coordinated action plan to foil attempts by Maoists to gain ground in vast tribal belt stretching along the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border, a high-level meeting involving the top officials of the Telangana and Chhattisgarh State police forces and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was held in Venkatapuram of the tribal dominated Mulugu district on Sunday.
The meeting was attended by CRPF Director-General A.P. Maheshwari, Senior Security Advisor in the Home Ministry K. Vijay Kumar, Telangana DGP M. Mahender Reddy, Chhattisgarh’s Bastar Range Inspector General of Police P. Sundarraj, Superintendents of Police (SPs) of the bordering districts of both Telangana and Chhattisgarh, among others, sources said.
The meeting reportedly lasted for more than two hours late on Sunday afternoon.
Operational strategies
It discussed threadbare operational strategies such as strengthening intelligence network, better coordination between the CRPF and the State police forces for effectively tackling Maoists and thwarting attempts by the rebels to revive their activities in the forested border region between Telangana and Chhattisgarh, sources added.
The high-level meeting in the border mandal comes close on the heels of reported movement of Maoists in the Agency areas of Mulugu and Bhadradri-Kothagudem districts, which share a border with areas of Maoist influence in Chhattisgarh, in the last few days.
The Telangana’s tribal heartland of Bhadrachalam Agency witnessed several instances of skirmishes between the rebels and the police in the recent past.
Recent deaths
As many as eight Maoists were killed in separate incidents of “exchange of fire” with the police in Bhadradri-Kothagudem and Asifabad Kumram Bheem districts last month.
The Maoists observed a State bandh on September 28 in protest against what the rebels termed “fake encounter killing” of its eight cadres.
The meeting is understood to have discussed strategies to bolster coordination for effective vigil and deployment of forces along all the possible entry points in the porous forested border region to curb Maoist activities on Telangana-Chhattisgarh border.
