Maoist action teams on prowl in Visakha Agency

VISAKHAPATNAM: The district cops have been put on high alert following information about members of the banned CPI Maoist outfit eyeing soft targets in the Visakha Agency to spread terror and pressurise people's representatives to intensify the anti-bauxite agitation.
The cops in Visakha rural suspect the Maoists may strike at any place or engage in violence to show their strength and boost the confidence of their sympathisers.
According to sources, the naxals have formed action teams, comprising 2-3 persons skilled in accomplishing specialised tasks with small weapons like pistols or revolvers, in the Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB) areas. The objective of the teams is to focus mainly on representatives of political parties in the Visakha Agency.
The naxals allegedly held meetings with people's representatives in the Agency recently to bring more politicians under their 'order' and have planned to eliminate a few 'targets'. According to sources, they have more than 100 persons, including politicians, former naxals, home guards, and cops on their hit list.
The Red guerillas, in a bid to prove that they are still in command of the AOB areas, especially Visakha Agency, have already started regrouping their sympathisers and militia members and are waiting for an opportunity to show their strength in the AOB areas, sources said.
They are likely to unleash a series of attacks in the coming days as it's a question of survival for them now. We have been tracking the movements of naxals keenly due to which the firing incidents took place within 24 hours in Koyyuru mandal. But it is difficult to conduct regular operations in remote areas such as Chintapalli, GK Veedhi, Koyyuru, G Madugula, and Pedabayalu," a senior police officer in the Agency told TOI.
Meanwhile, sources said that cops of various police stations in the Visakha Agency have already warned the people on the hit list of the Maoists to regularly inform the police about their whereabouts and not to venture into the interior pockets without prior information.