The National Investigation Agency on Monday conducted raids at over 60 locations in the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) or Naxal case. The residences of several civil rights sympathisers, believed to have close links with Naxals, are being raided.
"A total of 60 locations in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are being searched in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) or Naxal case," a top NIA source told ANI. The raids are learnt to be conducted at Telangana’s Hyderabad, and in Andhra Prdesh’s Guntur, Nellore and Tirupati districts.
The state police are reportedly assisting the NIA in the raid.
This follows a series of raids conducted last September in Telangana and Chhattisgarh in connection with an August 2023 case involving the recovery of explosive materials, drones and a Lathe machine from the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) for use against security forces. The seizure was made by Naxal sympathisers in Kothagudem.
Days before that, NIA raids were conducted searches at eight locations in Uttar Pradesh districts of Prayagraj, Varanasi, Chandauli, Azamgarh and Deoria districts of Uttar Pradesh. The raids had then courted controversy after the sleuths cracked down on the residence of Seema Azad, national secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and Bhagat Singh Student’s Morcha (BSM). The activists had then flayed the raids accusing the investigating agencies of "criminalising activism".
Naxals arrested
Five Naxalites, including a militia commander, were arrested in the Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh on Sunday. They include Ayata Korram alias Hadma, Bheema Hemla, Deva Hemla, Deva Kowasi and Masa Madkam, all of whom were involved in several incidents of Naxal violence in the district between 2017 and 2022.
