Intel alert TN police about Maoist groups asserting influence

CHENNAI: The Central intelligence agencies have alerted the Tamil Nadu police about Maoist groups trying to assert their influence in the society. In a recent alert to the state police they informed that the CPI (Maoist) was trying to recruit educated youths in large numbers.

The Left extremists are trying to launch a major campaign against the 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) as one of the issues to gain ground among the backward classes and the Dalit groups.

The Maoists, according to sources, are also trying to revive the Western Ghat Special Zonal committee in the tri-junction forests of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Maoist leader Roopesh was arrested by the 'Q' branch of the Tamil Nadu police and has been in jail for the past few years. Ever since his arrest and judicial custody the Maoist movement has been weakened in the tri-junction and the Western Ghat Special Zonal Committee has become defunct.

Ever since the CPI-M led Left Front government of Pinarayi Vijayan assumed office in Kerala, 8 Maoists have been gunned down.

The Maoists according to intelligence reports have already recruited a few students from a law college in Southern Tamil Nadu and are trying to use them as their front citing economic disparities in society.

The Union Home Ministry has in a recent statement said that it has been able to curtail Left Wing Extremism to a great extent and that better coordination between the state governments and the central government would be more helpful to check the threat posed by the Maoists.

Sources in the security agencies told IANS that the CPI (Maoists ) are facing a crunch in their cadre base as a good number of Maoists have shunned violence and surrendered following the outreach programme of the Central government. However the movement, according to sources, is trying to capitalise on professionals with Tamil Nadu as a major base to increase recruitment of new cadres.

The Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee is considered by the Maoists as a base point for spreading their ideology among the educated middle-class youths. Intelligence agencies have alerted the Tamil Nadu police about the importance of proper monitoring of the movement at a micro level.