Following the Centre’s recent nod for a counter-insurgency force comprising 1,000 personnel, the state police brass today began firming up plans to raise its own elite unit and held a meeting with a top officer of Andhra Pradesh’s anti-Naxal force Greyhounds, who was in the city to meet the arrested Maoist leader Telugu Deepak.

“We have received the order from the Centre sanctioning our proposal for raising a counter-insurgency force. The order had been issued a few days ago. We have started working on it and are recruiting commandos aged between 20-22 years,” said state DGP Bhupinder Singh.

Meanwhile, Anjani Kumar, IG, Greyhounds, visited the CID headquarters at Bhawani Bhaban on Friday and briefed senior state police officers on the operational style of the elite anti-Naxal force.

“We discussed the operational style of the Greyhounds and shared our experiences while raising the counter-insurgency force and while operating in Maoists’ dens in the deep forests in Andhra Pradesh. West Bengal’s force will also be modelled on the Greyhounds,” said Kumar.

The Andhra officer met Telugu Deepak and spoke to him for a few hours. “I did not interrogate Deepak but spoke to him regarding a few cases in Andhra. Since the investigation is still on, the information we got from Deepak cannot be divulged at present,” Kumar said.