The Telangana government has banned the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and seven of its affiliates for another year, declaring them as unlawful associations. "The state government has banned CPI (Maoist) and its front organisations as unlawful associations for a period of one year beyond August 17," said Information and Public Relations (I&PR) Commissioner Arvind Kumar in a statement on Saturday.
The ban on the CPI (Maoist) was effective from August 17, 2020. The other seven affiliated organisations that have been banned are the Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF), Radical Youth League, Rythu Coolie Sangham, the Radical Students Union, Singareni Karmika Samakhya, Viplava Karmika Samakhya and All India Revolutionary Students Federation.
The move comes at a time when there is heightened tension between the banned outfit and the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government. Stating that Maoists were trying to regain a foothold that they had earlier lost in the state, authorities had stepped up their combing operations in the forests along the borders with Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.
Special Greyhound forces have been deployed in interior parts of Asifabad, Bhadradri-Kothagudem, Mulugu and Jayashankar Bhupalpally districts and Telangana Director General of Police (DGP) Mahender Reddy is being frequently briefed about the situation on the ground.
Security forces and Maoists have also indulged in multiple exchanges of fire over the last few months.
A Maoist was killed in an exchange of fire with the police in Gundala mandal of Bhadradri Kothagudem on September 3. Two Maoists were killed in an exchange of fire with the police near Charla mandal in the same district earlier. In the third week of September, two more suspected Maoists were gunned down by the police at the Kadamba forest near Kagaznagar in Telangana’s Komaram Bheem Asifabad district.