Telangana on red alert as Maoist strike kills two

The attacks have come after a gap of four years. With this, the CPI (Maoists) seem to have renewed their operations in the Karimnagar-Khammam-Warangal belt that was their erstwhile stronghold.

After the attack, night bus services were cancelled in the affected areas. On Thursday, Naxals killed two persons, including a small-time TDP leader and a former extremist, besides kidnapping four others from Warangal and Karimnagar districts after branding them as “police informers.” The whereabouts of the kidnapped are not known.

Among those killed were Shaik Majid, general secretary of the TDP, and Kummari Satyam, a former organiser of Praja Pratighatana group, in two different incidents.

A six-member Maoist team, including three women, came to Majid’s house and took him away after leaving a leaflet with Majid’s wife Farzana that they would punish him for being a police informer. Majid’s bullet-ridden body was found on Devadula road later.

In another incident, a 20-member armed Maoist squad visited Palimela village in Karimnagar district where they shot dead Kummari Satyam, 35, after dragging him out of his house.

The Maoists also kidnapped 30-year-old Kummari Tirupathi and three others from neighbouring villages.

The Andhra Pradesh police were caught napping as rebels penetrated into the hinterland after spreading a terror network in the Andhra-Orissa border. Though top police brass termed this as an isolated incident, experts consider this as a curtain raiser.

The police, too, confirm movement of 45 heavily armed Maoist guerrillas in Visakhapatnam agency belt. Similarly, a 30-member strong Maoist guerilla team was also noticed near Kotipally village of Adilabad last week.

Rebels traced

The movement of the armed Maoist cadres has already been noticed in many parts of Visakhapatnam and east Godavari district since October. Similarly, guerilla groups of Gadichiroli in Maharashtra and Chattisgarh are also penetrating into the Adilabad and other Telangana districts.

“This is significant and appears that the Maoists are planning large-scale violence like ambush of police patrol teams in Visakhapatnam, east Godavari, Khammam, Adilabad, Karimnagar and Warangal districts. We have put our forces in this entire potential threat region on full alert,” DGP K Aravinda Raosaid.