While, Rosaiah refused to respond on the issue, the police has left the issue to be handled at the political level. "It is crystal clear that there is no conducive atmosphere for talks. In spite of this, we request the people and democrats to demand that the government to prove its commitment towards the process of talks by stopping Operation Green Hunt and lifting the ban on Maoists and their affiliate organisations forthwith," Ganapathy said in his response to a questionnaire sent by some journalists.
The Maoist chief also wanted the government to set free some of their leaders lodged in jails and enable them to directly represent the party in the talks. However, on the government's readiness for talks with the Maoists, Rosaiah refused to respond. "I will not talk on the issue now," he said.
Top sources in the state government, however, said they could not act in isolation on the Maoists' issue now as the Centre is also seriously working on measures to contain the menace in various parts of the country.
"As things stand, it is for the Centre to take the call and respond to the Maoists' latest offer. We may take any follow up action based on the Centre's directives," a top government source said.
The police, however, are wary of the Maoists' ploy of engaging the government in talks on one hand and trying to expand their base on the other.
"It happened in 2004-05, but we successfully thwarted the Maoists' attempts. We are still on guard," a top official said.
The Andhra government had held peace talks with the then Peoples' War Group, the earlier incarnation of Maoists, in December 2004 after Congress came to power.
The talks, however, failed but the state police, particularly the elite anti-Naxal force Greyhounds, succeeded in inflicting a severe damage on the rebel outfit by eliminating most of its top leaders, including Azad.
This has reduced the Maoists virtually to nothing in the state, though the police are apprehensive about the outlaws' re-entry.
"In Andhra, Riyaz who had participated in talks with the government in 2004 was caught and murdered after he was brutally tortured. Others who participated in talks were targetted and attempts were made to assassinate them. Now, Azad who was working to facilitate the process of talks, was also murdered," Ganapathy alleged.
