The killing of two women Naxalites from Warangal -- Anitha and Navatha -- on Telangana and Chhattisgarh border on Tuesday amply proves that the armed naxal movement had come down drastically compared to past but it was not out completely as being claimed by the police and the State government.
According to intelligence sources, as many as 36 persons in the district joined the Maoist party since the separate Telangana was formed. The promise of more jobs and more social justice does not seem to hold promise to the youth who were being attracted to the extremist ideology.
For quite some time as the TRS party sympathized with the naxals, that too appears to have emboldened some youth to join the armed squads.
A senior officer in the police department said though there was no movement of armed squads movements unlike in the past, there appears to be more naxals around. “There has been a banner by the naxals on Kakatiya University campus where a condolence meeting of slain naxal Vivek was held. There were naxal posters in Parkal and Bhupalpalli threatening Speaker and Minister A Chandulal,” he pointed out.
The police dismissed the posters as being the work of miscreants. However they were on tenterhooks to find out persons behind them.
The killing a few months ago of Sruthi and Vidyasagar Reddy who also hailed from Warangal had sent a strong signal to the armed groups that the TRS government should not take it lightly the movement of armed groups in the State. Both of them joined the Maoist party after the formation of Telangana State. Even Navatha and Anitha too joined the party very recently.
According to police records, there were about 70 persons from the district working in the Maoist party at various places, mostly in Chhattisgarh state which is considered to be safe haven for now.
“Before the Sruthi and Vidyasagar Reddy encounter, there were some attempts by the Maoist party to gain some ground in Warangal again. But it was thwarted successfully,” a senior officer said.
What was bogging down the police and the government was why still youth mostly educated getting attracted to the armed movement and the growing number of sympathizers to the movement. It had become difficult for the police to identify the sympathizers in rural part despite their best efforts.
