The district police have deployed personnel in strength in all the Left Wing Extremist-affected mandals ahead of the bandh called on Thursday by the banned CPI (Maoist).
The bandh was called in protest against the recent encounter at Theegalametta of Koyyuru mandal, in which six Maoists, including two divisional committee members (DCMs) and one area committee member (ACM), had been killed.
The Maoists had alleged that the encounter was one-sided. They also accused the State government of spending crores of rupees for arming the security forces and sending them into the forests to scuttle the Maoist movement and harass the tribal people at at time when the country was reeling under the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Combing intensified
In view of the tense situation, the police have taken extra precautions to avoid untoward incidents. Apart from increasing the combing operations and area domination exercise, check-posts have been set up at all the strategic points and vehicle checking has been taken up. Surveillance teams in mufti have been deployed to keep track of the suspects, Maoist sympathisers and action teams.
According to Superintendent of Police, Visakhapatnam district, B. Krishna Rao, drones are also being used for surveillance, and bomb disposal squads have been deployed on all sensitive routes.
APSRTC buses will operate during the day, as there are no night services at present due to the partial curfew. Security has been beefed up at all the strategic asset sites and for high-value targets.
Meanwhile, to take stock of the Maoist scenario in all the affected mandals, CRPF Additional Director General (South) Rashmi Shukla had paid a visit to the Visakha Agency on Monday.
Accompanied by IG (South) Mahesh Chandra Laddha and other senior CRPF and police officers, she had visited a few areas in Annavaram, Chintapalli, Paderu and G. Madugula.
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