Assam Government to create special task force to counter Maoist threat

Guwahati, May 15 (ANI): Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has said that a special task force would be formed out of the state police force to tackle Maoists.

"We have decided to constitute a special task force in the police department. So, they will also concentrate on how to deal with Naxalites. You see this is my whole idea, because Maoists are slightly different from other forms of insurgencies. Their activities, their propaganda styles, it is quite different from the ULFA and the NDFB or the others. So that is why decided not only to deal it like a law and order problem, we want to deal it with development activities also," Gogoi told media here.

He further said that a police official and a group of ministers would lead the special task force in dealing with the Maoists in the state.

"Definitely, we will decide also, a senior officer. It must be an IGP level, maybe little more also. They will also decide. The officer and also a group of ministers of that area. So, in addition to other jobs also, they will concentrate on those areas. So that they cannot spread their wings in those areas," said Gogoi.

Asserting that the emergence of Maoists movement is dangerous, Gogoi said: "We want that it should not have a strong foothold in Assam. It should not spread its wings to other parts of Assam also. We want them nipped in the bud also."

"We don't want Assam to revert to what it was ten years back. Law and order were bad, roads were bad, so, we don't want to go back. So now the development has taken place, we want Assam and the development process to speed up further also. So that is why we are very much concerned to check the spread of Naxalites (Maoists)," he added.

Despite strong measures initiated by the Central Government to crush the ultras, the Maoist insurgency has gripped nearly one-third of the country in its violent tentacles, spreading into the interiors of 20 of India's 28 states. (ANI)