Calcutta, Sept. 20: The government today announced its plan to set up a special force to tackle Naxalites.

“If they continue to use arms, we will respond in a befitting manner,” said home secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy, who returned from Delhi today after attending a meeting of a committee comprising representatives from the 13 states hit by extremist activists.

Ruling out possibility of any immediate dialogue with the CPI (Maoist) activists, Roy said: “As long as they are carrying weapons, there is no room for talks.”

However, the state, Roy added, is still not considering banning the rebels, as in Andhra Pradesh.

The new force would comprise personnel from the Indian Reserve Battalion and the Eastern Frontier Rifles.

The areas that appear prominently on Maoist maps are seven districts of Orissa and parts of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

Rebel activities are relatively less in Bengal, but the police in the state had been shaken up by a series of strikes in the past few years.

Maoists in the state are active in the hills and jungles of Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore. “Although there are some activities of the Maoist rebels in some pockets of the three districts, life is more or less normal there,” the home secretary claimed.

The government is in contact with other Maoist-hit states and exchanging information. “A joint action against the rebels has been launched in Jharkhand,” Roy said, adding that they were spreading base in Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh and parts of Kerala. “This information is new to us.”

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had said last week that the Maoists were trying to create a corridor from Nepal through Bengal.