The police said that the move comes after information that Maoists might infiltrate Tamil Nadu via Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve Forest area.
Security has been stepped up in areas on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border following information that Maoists might infiltrate Tamil Nadu via Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve Forest area, police said on Wednesday. Armed police personnel have been deputed on the border police stations of Thalavadi, Hassanure, Bhavanisagar, Kadambur and Burgur. The police also provided additional armed guards at 10 Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border checkposts in the forest area alone and round the clock monitoring is being done to prevent entry of any Maoists into Tamil Nadu via forests in Erode district, police said.
According to V Sasi Mohan, Superintendent of Police, 10 specially trained commando personnel have been selected among the Armed Reserve Police and they will be sent to the forests along with armed policemen to keep vigil. The development comes even as six Maoists, three of whom were women, were killed in an alleged exchange of fire by the Greyhounds personnel in Theegalametta forest areas in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh on June 16.
Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police Gautam Sawang said that they recovered one AK-47, three 303 rifles, one SLR rifle, one carbine and one country-made gun from the scene of the firing. One of the Maoists killed in the firing was identified as Sande Gangaiah, a resident of Karimnagar district in Telangana.
In another development, in Telangana’s Warangal district, a Maoist was caught by the police after he turned up at a hospital for treatment for COVID-19. Police officials said that a meeting of more than 5,000 members was held in Bijapur in Chhattisgarh, 50 km from the Telangana border in the first week of June. This was despite knowing that several leaders had contracted COVID-19. Those who attended the meeting now fear they have contracted the virus.
