Maoists make comeback to Asifabad after 2 years: Police

Superintendent of Police K Suresh Kumar said that it was learnt that somewhere between 10 and 15 Maoists were known to be moving in the tribal belts of the district

Kumram Bheem Asifabad: Police suspect that scores of members of the prohibited Maoist party were moving into the tribal hinterland of the district, once a strong bastion of the extremists. If their suspicion turns out to be true, the ultras may have returned to this region after a gap of two years.

Superintendent of Police K Suresh Kumar said that it was learned that somewhere between 10 and 15 Maoists were known to be moving in the tribal belts of the district. He made this statement when he was touring remote Thatiguda, Keriguda, and Errabanda village in Tiryani mandal on Saturday. His statement indicated that the ultras may have made a comeback to the district in the recent past.

On July 13 in 2020, Mailarepu Adellu alias Bhaskar, state committee member of the outfit and Varghese Koya or Mangulu, area committee member, and three others managed to escape from the multiple police parties that were carrying out combing operations in Gundala area in Tiryani mandal, following a specific input. During the operations, police found revolutionary literature, uniforms, electronic gadgets, detonators, cortex wires, etc., from two bags recovered on the spot.

The five-member team titled Kumram Bheem-Mancherial (KBM) reportedly roamed in the dense forests of Mangi in Tiryani mandal two years back. They apparently re-entered the district in order to strengthen the outfit by recruiting youngsters, with the entire police mechanism engaged in operations of identifying Covid-19 patients and in enforcing the lockdown norms since April of 2020.

Since then, the district did not see signs of the movement of the extremists except for the arrests of their couriers a few weeks back. Three alleged couriers were held in Bejjur mandal centre on June 12. The accused persons Made Hanumanthu from Murliguda village in Penchikalpet mandal and Made Narayana of Hetiguda village in Bejjur mandal, Alam Bhagvan, Jade Eknath, Nagpuri Chakrapani, and Jade Shantharam, all residents of Gundaipet village in Koutala mandal.

But, the latest remarks of the head of the district police force gained significance. “We received specific inputs that Maoists were moving in the forests of Kumram Bheem Asifabad district for the past few months. The extremists came from Maharashtra due to logistic problems such as providing food to large contingents of Maoists. A resolution was recently passed by the outfit to send its teams to Telangana and other parts,” a senior police officer told ‘Telangana Today.’

In order to thwart the efforts of Maoists, police intensified combing operations in the forests of Maoist-affected villages in Tiryani, and Asifabad mandals and borders of Pranahita in Bejjur, Penchikalpet, Dahegaon, and Kotapalli mandals. The police are requesting the dwellers of forest fringe villages to share information about strangers with cops.

Meanwhile, A 22-year-old person was arrested for allegedly joining the banned Maoist party and publicizing its ideology after being attracted to it by watching videos on social media platforms. The accused person Guduru Prashanth was produced before pressmen in Jaipur mandal of Mancherial district on August 3. Literature belonging to the ultras was recovered from him.