ven as the police authorities and the State government are trying to play down the naxal movement, the latter have been trying to make their presence felt by resorting to violence here and there if the latest torching of forest guesthouse and jeep in Tadvai is any indication.
The sympathetic statements made by the TRS leaders before and after general elections came in handy for the naxal leaders to lure many youth and fence sitters. They embarked on a fresh recruitment drive in the newly formed Telangana State and succeeded to some extent at a time when the movement was thought to be waning with intensified repression in neighbouring Chhattisgarh, which turned a haven for armed extremists for some decades.
The naxal movement was losing steam in Warangal district, which was once the hotbed of leftist insurgency, but it was never totally decimated as claimed by authorities and State governments.
One September 15, 2015, two Maoists - Sruthi alias Mahitha (23), an engineering graduate, and a native of Waddepally in Hanamkonda, and Vidyasagar Reddy alias Sagar (32), a native of Dharmasagar mandal in Warangal district, were killed in the encounter.
They had joined the movement after the formation of Telangana State.
On September 18, 2015, the Eturnagaram police arrested three Maoists along with a naxal sympathiser named Shekhar who allegedly gave shelter to the trio at his residence in Malkapalli village bordering Karimnagar district. On October 28, 2015 a Maoist poster claiming to be issued by KKW secretary Damodar appeared in Kamalapur village of Mangapet mandal.
The poster said that Maoists Sruthi and Vidyasagar Reddy were killed in a fake encounter.
It also warned Minister Azmeera Chandulal and TRS leader Umesh Reddy for failing to address the issues of the BILT factory workers as promised.
On December 3, another Maoist poster appeared in the name of People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) at Bachannapet SC hostel.
The poster was issued in the name of one Viplav Kumar, PLGA central committee member, branding Modi and KCR governments anti-people.
On January 23, 2016, one naxal was arrested in an encounter that took place between the Greyhounds and New Democracy group in the forest area surrounding Doragari Vempalli village in Kothaguda mandal.
The arrested Maoist of the New Democracy Dalam was identified as Sarangam. On January 24, 2016, Puttapaka Kumaraswamy and his wife were killed in an encounter in Odisha.
In the recent encounter in Chhattisgarh, two girls from Hanamkonda were killed.
They had joined the movement only a year ago.
Thought a section of officers point out that as many as 36 persons from the district went underground since the formation of the State, another section claimed that the number could be for the entire Telangana State.
