New Delhi, Sep 3: An alert has been issued from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) warning of possible major attacks by Maoists to disrupt Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh. Maoists have become active in Bastar district of the state and are conducting training camps to train their ground workers for attacks, an MHA official reportedly said.

“In view of the upcoming assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, Naxals are looking to carry out violent actions and oppose political activities. Naxals are also likely to threaten the Sarpanch and Patels of the villages and pressure them not to involve in political activities. Killing of ground-level people’s representatives cannot be ruled out," a recent security alert reads. Chhattisgarh: 14 Maoists Killed in Encounter With Security Forces Near Sukma.

According to a report of News18, Maoists are running at least four training camps in different parts of Chhattisgarh to train their groundworkers in making IEDs and handling guns. A training camp is being conducted in Rajnandgaon, the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh’s Assembly constituency, said the report.

Another training camp is set up in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli where security forces recently killed 39 alleged Maoists. Naxal commander Hidma, who reportedly supervises activities in Sukma and Dantewada, was spotted in Bastar several times in recent times, the MHA official said, as reported by the news report.

“Activities of Maoists in MMC (Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh) Zone have increased. They have consolidated their organisation in this zone and movement of vistaar platoons 2 and 3 are trying to expand their influence,” reads another recently issued alert. Security officials suspect a Burkapal-type attack when Maoists killed 25 security personnel.

Recently, the Maharashtra Police arrested five left activists for allegedly having links with Maoist organisations. They were hatching a conspiracy to overthrow the central and state governments besides allegedly plotting a Rajiv Gandhi-style assassination of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maharashtra's Additional Director-General of Police Parambir Singh said.

The Maoist movement is spread across Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, Karnataka, Odisha and Maharashtra's Gadchiroli and Chandrapur areas. In many of these areas, they run parallel governments, killing many security personnel and even top politicians like Congress leader V.C. Shukla and others.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 03, 2018 09:52 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).