HYDERABAD: To give a body blow to the banned Maoist party, which has around 10 Telugu speaking activists on its central committee (CC), the Telangana police and intelligence wing officials have started using ‘sources’ to influence the extremists to surrender. According to sources, police have launched a special operation to identify the Maoists — from dalam members to CC members — and are using former Naxalites to make them surrender.
After M Mahendar Reddy took charge as the Director-General of Police, instances of Maoists surrendering have taken place in the Telugu states. Two major encounters, one in Adilabad near border with Maharashtra and another at Tekulappli in Bhadradri district, took place. While the first took place with inputs from the state intelligence, special teams participated in the Tekulapalli encounter.
In the surrender of top Maoist Jampanna, a senior officer in the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau played a key role. The operation to influence Maoists to surrender began after the arrest of top leader Sudhakar’s brother B Narayana and business partner Satyanarayana Reddy in Jharkhand in September.
Three leaders — Odisha unit’s weapons wing member Kondagorla Ravinder alias Vinod, militia platoon section commander P Lakku and member S Laxmi — surrendered to Bhupalapally police, and nine Maoists to AP police in Kakinada and Visakhapatnam three months ago. Intelligence officials extracted crucial information from Ravinder Reddy for the operation.
Intelligent move
In the surrender of top Maoist Jampanna, a senior officer in the SIB played a key role Intelligence wing officials and cops are using former naxalites, including slain gangster Nayeem’s aides, to influence the rebels into surrendering.