Strike on Andhra’s pride blows its sense of security

The anti-Naxal policy of Andhra, and specifically the Greyhounds, was touted as a role model for other states facing similar problems.

Then came the Greyhound attack. Police officials believe the Maoists involved in the attack, just 45 km from the Andhra border, were from this state. The firepower used in the attack stunned the police, and the Government went into a huddle. Now they are waking up to the reality that Andhra’s Maoists may be regrouping in Orissa and Chhattisgarh and might resurface with a vengeance in the state.

Last month, the Maoists also set up an Andhra-Orissa Border Special Zonal Committee to resume attacks on the border. Sunday’s attack is suspected to have been carried out by the Maoist Military Committee which is a part of this panel. Officials also say there are intelligence reports of Maoists regrouping again in North Telangana, their traditional stronghold, where there has been a lull during the last two years.

“The terrain on the Andhra and Orissa border is the same. They are criss-crossing this area, regrouping, arming themselves and striking back,” an officer with the Greyhounds says.

Sources in the state intelligence bureau add that as the Maoists have lost popular support in areas in north Telangana and other districts, they are now confining themselves to tribal strongholds along the Andhra-Orissa border. This comprises the districts of Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Ganjam and Gajapati in Orissa and Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and East Godavari of Andhra.

K G Kannabiraan, a human rights activist and advocate who has been representing the Maoists for several years, thinks the setback to them due to the Andhra police’s operations is temporary. “This movement has flourished and survived for 40 years. Political dissent and social unrest cannot be wiped out by killing people ruthlessly. That is why it would be foolish to think that the movement is being wiped out,” he says.

On June 19, Central Military Commission chief of CPI(Maoist) Basavaraj, in a prepared interview to the media, said: “The efficiency, courage and fighting skill of the Greyhounds is a big myth. The setback of the (Maoist) movement in Andhra is not because of the Greyhounds but due to several other reasons. Though Greyhounds was created in 1989, our movement in Andhra Pradesh developed in leaps and bounds until 1997. The so-called achievements of Greyhounds are not much related to actual battle with the Maoist guerrillas on field, but to the methods of deception like poisoning food and making guerrillas unconscious before murdering them.”

Officials are alarmed at the ease with which the Maoists seem to be able to still recruit and source cadre. “They are obviously recruiting from areas which are still sympathetic, and though they may be hiding across the border in Orissa and Chhattisgarh, they still have influence on this side,” a top official said.

One fallout of this is that it has got the Andhra Government rethinking on implementing the Tribal Land Reforms Act that the Centre had been urging it to do for the last two years.

The Centre had in 2006 enacted the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006 to contain the unrest among tribals, spurred by the Maoists. The Act sought to provide ownership to tribals over land they had been cultivating for generations. Though the Centre had asked state Governments to hasten these tribal land reforms, Andhra has been dragging its feet.

Andhra was earlier the stronghold of the Maoist movement. It was here that the Communist Party of India-Maoist Leninist (CPI-ML) People’s War Group (PWG) took birth in the early 1980s. In 2004, on the eve of peace talks with the Andhra Government of YSR Reddy, the PWG had merged with the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) of Bihar to form the CPI-Maoist.