Naxals eye urban students

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NAGPUR: Cops now believe that Naxals are turning their attention from the rural hinterlands to urban areas, to seek new recruits from the impressionable student populations and support in the form of materials. The presence of Naxals and their supporters in the city, and other urban centres, was the pivotal issue of discussion at a special co-ordination meeting between security agencies in the city on Tuesday. The meeting also considered the implications of some social and educational organisations sympathising with the Naxal cause. The meeting was reportedly attended by senior police officers from the city and the anti-Naxal operation (ANO) cells of the state in Chandrapur and Wardha. Sources said that security agencies believe that the front organisations have started vigorous movement in the education sector, to rope in students from several reputed colleges for their cause. The ANO and district police have reportedly warned the city police about these student-oriented revolutionary organisations. People working under banners with hints of revolution, like 'sangharsh' and 'kranti' are under the scanner. The discussion at the meeting centred around inputs from the Chandrapur district police, gleaned from the recent crackdown in Chandrapur and nearby areas, including Nagpur, in which at least six Naxal activists were nabbed with huge cache of ammunition and literature. Security agencies also discussed links between the findings of the Chandrapur police and resolutions passed by the Maoists top brass in the Ninth Unity Congress, supposedly held in Jharkhand in 2007.