New Delhi:
"Naxals need to be dealt with differently." - This was Home Minister P Chidambaram's message at the commanders conference in New Delhi.
At the conference attended by the chiefs of Army, Navy and Air Force, Chidambaram said Naxals should be treated like a political party.
"The Naxals do not want to secede from India. They should lay down their arms and behave like a political party and enter into a dialogue," the minister said.
The home minister's statement comes in the backdrop of a spate of Naxal attacks across the country recently.
Naxal violence has continued to trouble states like Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa, and Naxalism has often been described as the greatest threat to India's internal security.
In West Bengal on Tuesday, women led a group of armed Naxals who robbed a bank, killed two policemen, and kidnapped at least one other officer.
In Jharkhand, four people were killed and six others were seriously injured when Naxals attacked tribals in Rajpur village of Chatra district while the villagers were watching a cultural function.