Hyderabad: Intelligence inputs suggested that Maoist action teams have conducted a recce at several villages in Bhupalpally district to target a Telangana Rashtra Samiti leader. With hardly 20 days left for the Assembly elections, Maoist teams were found to be trying to disrupt the process.
According to highly placed sources, action teams consisting of about 30 persons crossed the Chhattisgarh border to enter Bhupalpally and took shelter with the tribal people there. The teams are said to have conducted a recce in several parts of Bhupalpally district including at Tadwai and Eturnagaram a couple of days ago. Following a tip-off, security forces tried to catch the action team, but the chase was not fruitful. The teams could only apprehend a couple of people who had sheltered the action teams and helped in their work.
“We have specific inputs that the Maoists wanted to do something sensational during the election period and their action teams are on the prowl. A couple of people who have sheltered the members of the action teams have been taken into custody and are being questioned,” said Bhupalpally superintendent of police R. Bhaskaran.
Refuting reports on top TRS leaders being on the hitlist of Maoists, Mr Bhaskaran said, “The reports are baseless. It is true that the action teams have conducted a recce, but nothing has been established so far indicating that the targets are top leaders of the TRS.”
Meanwhile, binding over of at least 17 persons, believed to be militants in a span of 48 hours under Eturnagaram early this week gave a strong message about the presence of Maoists in the bordering district.
The SP said, “The 17 militants have been bound over as a precautionary measure in view of the forthcoming elections, and they are not part of the team that extended support to the action teams.”
On November 12, the Eturnagaram police caught seven militants in Pabkur. An hour later at about 10.30 am, four others were caught at Royyur. The next morning, six more persons were caught at Eturnagaram and were bound over.
It is learned that the state police has requested the deployment of 30,000 personnel of the paramilitary forces in the state and will use at least half of them in the Maoist affected areas.
