Despite the police claims that the naxalite groups have been defanged, the CPI (Maoist) members continue to make attempts to regain lost ground in Warangal district.
The district was once a stronghold of many naxal groups. With increased policing and dwindling public patronage since early 1990s, the movement has run out of steam. Most of the naxal cadre have migrated to the neighbouring Chhattisgarh.
There are around 50 persons from the district still working in the Maoist party in various capacities and places across the country. People from this district come with rich experience in extremist movement and still occupy top positions in the Maoist party.
Though the police claim that there was no recruitment in the past few years, the naxals continue to enlist support from even educated youth going by the recent trends. The two naxals who were killed in recent times - Sruthi and Vidyasagar Reddy were graduates. In less than a month, the naxals tried to make their presence felt in the district by setting afire a forest guest house and a jeep in Tadvai forest area in April. On Wednesday night, they burnt an earth moving equipment at Mallampalli near Mulugu. Similar incident had taken place some time ago.
Though police tried to play down the incident, naxal sympathisers or active cadre was engaged in the activities to prove their presence and strength. Last year, there were incidents of sudden appearance of posters warning the local politicians in some mandals in the district. Speaking to The Hindu , Superintendent of Police Ambar Kishore Jha said that the number of naxalite parties had come down and they were reduced to an insignificant force now.
