Hyderabad: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has advised Naxalite-affected states to set up joint task forces while choppers are provided for anti-Maoist operations, Andhra Pradesh Director-General of Police V Dinesh Reddy said on Monday.
"Recently the MHA took a decision to set up joint task force where MHA will give us choppers so that we can send them to a distance of about 10 kms across state borders from where joint operations could be carried out," he told reporters.
Such joint operations were already being carried out at Gadchiroli in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Andhra-Odisha border areas bordering the eight Maoist-affected districts of Andhra Pradesh, he said.
"There are over 300 underground cadres from Andhra Pradesh, of which around 200 migrated to other states, while the rest of the underground cadres stay in bordering districts of other states and occasionally cross over into Andhra Pradesh. However, the Andhra Pradesh police has been driving them back," he said.
In order to control Maoists, the Andhra Pradesh police has taken a lead in joint operations in co-operation with other state police forces, along with Andhra Pradesh`s elite anti-Maoist commando force Greyhounds and special units of the Chhattisgarh police, by crossing state borders upto a distance of 10 kms to flush out extremists.
The Andhra Pradesh top cop said that the state police successfully kept left-wing extremism under check this year by arresting as many 299 extremists, including Maoist leaders while 304 Maoists surrendered.
There were four exchanges of fire where three extremists died and 51 weapons were seized, he said.
PTI
