Thaindian News

Hyderabad, Oct 20 (IANS) Having successfully tackled Maoists in the state, Andhra Pradesh is now ready to extend strategic and technical support to West Bengal and other states to battle the extremists.

Andhra Pradesh, whose police force has become a role model for the entire country, will be helping West Bengal by providing satellite imagery and intelligence to track down the guerrillas.

Director General of Police (DGP) V. Dinesh Reddy told reporters Thursday that police were also ready to extend all assistance to other states affected by the Maoist violence.

The police chief pointed out that the state recently procured an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to track down the leftwing extremists.

To be based at Madurpudi in Rajahmundry in coastal Andhra, the UAV, with its images, would help in tracking the Maoists even in dense forest areas.

The images would reach the police in real time so that forces can be mobilised to hunt them down.

The state will also have a 17-seater chopper available to improve transport of forces.

An official of the elite anti-Maoist force Greyhounds told IANS that since there was hardly any armed Maoist cadre left in the state, it was ready to help with its expertise in tackling guerrillas in other states, especially Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar.

Andhra Pradesh, once a stronghold of Maoists, today has virtually no guerrillas on its soil. However, as the majority of top leaders and cadre active in other states are from Andhra, the state police provides crucial intelligence.

Mallojula Koteswara Rao alias Kishenji, a politburo member of Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), who heads the group in West Bengal, is also from Andhra.

Dinesh Reddy pointed out that Andhra Pradesh, which once had over 3,000 Maoists, with 18 out of 21 politburo members of CPI-Maoist coming from the state, today has about 340 cadres.

“Of these, 200 have shifted to other states while the remaining 140 are on the border with neighbouring states,” he said.