Telangana Director General of Police Anurag Sharma said that any attempt by the Maoists to revive their activities in the State will be crushed with an iron hand. "There is no big threat from the Maoists. We are aware that they will try to enter the State and revive their activities but we are fully prepared to prevent them from becoming active".
Addressing a year-end Press conference in Hyderabad, Sharma said the level of Maoist violence has further decreased this year. His assertion of upper hand over the left wing extremists came hours after a group of Maoists tried to blow up a cell phone tower in Khammam district and beat up villagers in Karimnagar district.
A group of Maoists tried to target the tower at Satynarayanapuram village of Charla Mandal in the Khammam district on Sunday night. "On getting advance information, the police force rushed to the spot. Ten to 15 extremists and 30 militants opened fire on the police leading to exchange of fire. The Maoists were forced to flee leaving behind three weapons including a Springfield rifle and some inflammable material", he said. There was at least fifteen rounds of firing.
The Greyhound force has launched a combing operation in the area. In Karimnagar, a group of Maoists from Chhattisgarh attacked the villagers in Mukhnoor Mandal. The DGP said that both the incidents were handiwork of the Maoists from across the border and there was no local team moving around in the State.
"We can't call it resurgence of their activities if they come from Chhattisgarh and indulge in such activities", he said. On the division of anti-Naxalite Greyhound force, Sharma said that after the division Telangana has sufficient force. "We are also training the district special parties to deal with Maoists. left wing extremist activities are under effective check due to firm police action".
This year Maoists killed four persons against five last year. "After formation of the Telangana State only one incident of murder by extremist took place", he said. One extremist was also killed in seven incidents of exchanges of fire. 68 extremists including two State committee members, two district committee members, one commander, one area committee secretary and seven area committee members surrendered this year.
Sharma said that the Telangana police was also fully alert against the threat of ISIS luring the local youth to join its ranks. "We are closely monitoring and before anybody commits any offence we catch the youth and counsel them. Our intelligence system is working extremely efficiently. We are more alert than them", he said.
Apart from arresting two students from Maharashtra, Shah Mudassir and Shoaib Ahmad Khan, when they were on their way to join ISIS, the police also counseled four students and their families in Hyderabad as they were attracted by the SISI propaganda.