Air monitoring of Naxal activities now

Hyderabad, July 16: In the wake of confirmed reports that the outlawed People's War Group (PWG) has been conducting a full-fledged milita...

Hyderabad, July 16: In the wake of confirmed reports that the outlawed People’s War Group (PWG) has been conducting a full-fledged military training camp in the deep jungles of Malkanagiri in Orissa for the past six months, police is contemplating air surveillance followed by joint action to flush them out.

The Naxalites have also set up a high power wireless station on the hillocks to monitor the movement of armed squads in the extremist-affected areas bordering Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Maharashtra.

According to sources, the Naxalites set up the camp in February this year and so far, 10 batches of 50 members each are stated to have undergone the training. They were taught how to use weapons, prepare bombs, lay landmines and claymore mines, ambush the police parties and defend themselves. Besides the armed squads operating in the border areas of the three states, senior cadre from north Telangana also attended the camp.

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Intelligence officials of Andhra Pradesh received exact information a fortnightago and passed on the same to their counterparts in Orissa.

PWG chief Ganapati and senior leaders Shyam and Mahesh had visited the training camp at least twice and supervised the operations. However, there was no information about other extremist outfits conducting similar training courses.

The camp is about 40 km from the Khammam district border and the hillocks around are about 1,000 feet high. It is in a thick forest and highly inaccessible even by foot. There are no inhabitations in 10 km radius of the hillocks. It is however, very close to a water source and the Naxalites are able to run the camp with the help of the tribals. The thick natural cover in the agency areas of Khammam, East Godavari and Visakhapatnam districts is helping the Naxalites to sneak into Orissa easily.

Earlier, the PWG used to organise such camps on Ambujmad hills in Bastar district of Madhya Pradesh. However, constant surveillance of police in Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra has forced the Naxalites to shiftto a safer place in Orissa.

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The camp in Orissa is much bigger than the one organised by the PWG at Ramgiri khilla in Karimnagar distwhich was busted by the police last year. The wireless station set up by Naxalites in Orissa reportedly has the capacity to cover 100 km in all directions. However, it is not known immediately, whether it has the capability to jam the police wireless network. Wireless station technology is available in the country, and it is no wonder, if the Naxalites had also acquired it, sources added.

7 hacked to death in intra-Naxal violence

In a gruesome faction violence, seven persons were hacked to death by Naxalites belonging to two groups in Kurnool district last night, according to reports reaching here.

PWG Naxalites raided the house of an ex-sarpanch Samireddy at Vempenta village shortly after midnight and dragged him out of the house before beheading him. They also set ablaze the ex-sarpanch’s house and burnt some nearby houses and a RTC bus before fleeing the scene,police said.

In retaliation, Naxalites of the Jana Shakti (Pratighatan group) attacked the Garla community people of the village and hacked to death six persons, including a woman, police said. The six persons killed by Janashakti Naxals were identified as Veeraswamy, China Ramaiah, Peda Ramaiah his wife Subbamma, Bala Yesu and Ramakrishna. The attack and retaliation was believed to be an offshoot of a dispute over temple lands, sources added.