Hyderabad, May 4 (PTI) Union Minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Sunday ruled out the possibility of peace talks with Maoists, saying the CPI (Maoist) is a banned organisation and its members must lay down arms and surrender to the police.

Speaking to reporters in Karimnagar, the Minister of State for Home Affairs, said, "It is a banned organisation and there is no question of holding talks with them."

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Reacting to Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy's statement that his government approached naxalism from a social perspective rather than viewing it as a law and order issue, the Union Minister wondered how anyone bearing arms could be approached from a social perspective.

He further pointed out that it was the Congress government that banned the CPI (Maoists) and sought to know whether the Revanth Reddy government had the courage to revoke it.

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Responding to BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao's call for the Centre to halt the 'operation Kagar' alleging tribals and youth were being killed in the anti-Maoist operations in Chhattisgarh, Sanjay Kumar said the Congress and BRS now seem to be competing with each other in urging the government to hold peace talks.

The Union Minister claimed that it was the Maoists, who planted landmines killing innocents, tribals, security personnel besides killing Congress, TDP and BJP leaders in the past.

"How could any government hold peace talks with such an organisation? When innocent people were killed by the Maoists, no political party or people's organisation questioned their violent acts," he said.

After a massive anti-Naxal operation along the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border was launched on April 21, several activists and political parties from Telangana demanded that the operation be halted at once and that the government come forward for peace talks with Naxalites.

The operation, one of the biggest counter-insurgency actions launched in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region, involved around 24,000 security personnel belonging to different units, including the District Reserve Guard (DRG), Bastar Fighters, Special Task Force (STF), all units of the state police, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and its elite Commando Battalions for Resolute Action (CoBRA).

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has set a deadline of March 31, 2026, to completely wipe out the Naxals from the country.

Revanth Reddy on April 28 said the proposal from a group of intellectuals advocating for a ceasefire and peace talks with Maoists would be discussed within the ruling Congress before the state government takes a decision.

In view of the operation, the Maoists have purportedly issued a statement in which they called for halting the exercise and holding "peace talks".

The Maoists had in a purported press note recently said the Centre and government of Chhattisgarh (facing the menace of Naxal violence) have jointly launched an operation ‘Kagar' against what they call a “revolutionary movement”.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)