M Mahender Reddy, Telangana’s director general of police (DGP), urged all prominent Maoist figures in the state who were afflicted with various illnesses on Wednesday to surrender and join the mainstream of the society to get treatments.
According to reports, several top members of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) were reportedly moving near the borders of Telangana and Chhattisgarh as they prepared to enter the state to receive medical treatment. The DGP conducted an impromptu visit to the district’s forested areas.
Additionally, according to personnel familiar with the development, there were intelligence reports that the outlawed Maoist organisation planned to create a new state committee for Telangana with fresh faces and step up new recruitments into the cadre.
Reddy spoke with top police officers from the districts of Mulugu, Jayashankar Bhupalpally, and Bhadradri Kothagudem as well as state intelligence chief Prabhakar Rao after flying down to the Maoist-infested areas.
Instructions have been issued to the police officers of all the three districts bordering Chhattisgarh to step up the joint operations and keep a constant vigil on the movements of the outlawed extremists, the DGP said.
Several Maoist leaders from Telangana are underground in Chhattisgarh, Odisha and other states, he said. “According to our information, there are nearly 130 extremists from Telangana in the entire Maoist outfit. Out of 20 members of the central committee of the outfit, 11 are from Telangana,” he added.
Stating that many of them who had crossed 60 years were suffering from chronic diseases, Reddy said they were trying to enter the state for treatment. “I request them to surrender to the police and join the mainstream,” he said. “We shall provide them healthcare and extend them rehabilitation facilities.”
The Maoist leaders’ families were also urged by the DGP to see to it that they turned themselves in to the police and resumed normal lives.
The DGP declared that “at the same time, the police forces will put in all possible effort to eradicate the Maoists from the forests of Telangana and Chhattisgarh.”