In-charge Director-General of Police (DGP) N. Sambasiva Rao here on Monday appealed to Maoists to drop guns and shun violence. There was no relevance to the extremists’ ideology and it was hindering development, he said.
Greyhounds
Training Centre
The Government would soon set up a Greyhounds Training Centre, estimated to cost Rs.850 crore for tackling the Naxalites, said Mr. Rao at a press conference.
“If they drop weapons and come for discussions, we are ready to hold talks. As it is a law and order problem that has internal security implications, we urge them to come for a dialogue. The police Department had lost many officers in the battle with them in the last few decades,” he said.
The training centre would come at Visakhapatnam on par with the one in Telangana.
Intelligence failure?
Asked whether the intelligence wing had failed in tracking CPI (Maoist) Central Committee Member Akkiraju Haragopal alias Ramakrishna (RK) after the Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB) encounter, and some front organisations had information on his whereabouts, the in-charge DGP said the Intelligence Department was doing good work, “but it happens sometimes”.
“There are many issues which are known to the front organisations, but not the Police Department. We keep on telling that RK is not in our custody. But some organisations made baseless allegations over the issue and blamed the police,” Mr. Rao said.
As regards the AOB encounter in which 30 Maoists died, the DGP said the police had followed the guidelines of the Supreme Court and the National Human Rights Commission post the incident.
“At present the police are facing challenges from Maoists and terrorists. To tackle them, we are planning to strengthen policing in the State.”
Additional DG (Law and Order) R.P. Thakur was present at the press conference.
