Hyderabad, July 6
Facing the heat from security forces, the Maoists have firmed up plans to raise an additional 14 battalions of People Liberation Army (PLA), the military wing of the banned CPI (Maoist).

An internal document of the outlawed outfit, procured by the anti-Maoist intelligence wing of the state police, reveals that the task of PLA reorganisation, training and placement of forces has been entrusted to a key member of the party's central committee (CC), Sonu, alias Nambala Keshav Rao.

The Maoist document (dated June 28) surfaced after week-long celebrations in the forests of Chhattisgarh to mark the 10th anniversary of the formation of

the CPI (Maoists). The celebrations were followed by a meeting of the central committee at an unknown location in Jammu and Kashmir last week.

The document indicated the plans to declare several regions in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra as "guerilla zones" in the near future. The specially trained guerillas will take positions in these zones and continue their support for what they call "people’s agitations" for land. “The Maoist teams will wage war not only in their strongholds but also in the new areas to demonstrate our strength and commitment" the document said.

Nambala Keshav Rao (58), alias Basavaraj, accused in over two dozen cases and also said to be the one behind the recent attack on Congress leaders in Bastar, is the brain behind the Maoist intelligence network.

In a statement handed over to some select media organisations, Namburi Pratap, a spokesman of the central committee, has accused the AP Police of spreading false reports about the illness of some of the Maoist top guns like Ganapati, Katakam Ramakrishna and Sudarshan, as part of a propaganda to mislead the cadres.

The statement, handed over to mediapersons at Paderu in Visakhapatnam, indicated that the district committees of CPI (Maoist) would be revived in AP after a gap of over eight years.

The reports from Chhattisgarh say the Maoists have constituted ‘Baal Action Teams’ to deploy school children in different capacities, to counter the build-up of security forces. BAT, a specialised school children unit of the Maoists, which has started operating in Bastar region from past several months, would also help the Baal Sanghams (children's associations) and Chhatra Sanghams (students' associations), that are already functional in the areas, police sources said.

Bal Sanghams and Chhatra Sangham were active for the past several years in the region. They are used as informers, messengers and even as shields during the military operations.

AP was once a stronghold of Naxalites, so much so that the extremists were in a position to run parallel administration in their bastions, particularly in the Telangana region.

However, over the years, the Maoist movement witnessed significant erosion in its support base.