New Delhi, Sep 3 - The late Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy believed the state's elite Greyhound commandos, instrumental in quelling Maoist insurgency, should be replicated in other states facing Maoist violence.

'It has worked well in the state and I think the time has come when the Greyhound experience must be replicated elsewhere. Strong policing with an effective socio-economic programme is the answer,' Reddy, addressed commonly as YSR, had told IANS in an interview in February 2008.

YSR died after his helicopter crashed Wednesday amid bad weather in the densely forested Maoist stronghold of Nallamala.

'As far as I see it, things are more or less under control. Every now and then, they (Maoists) indulge in high-profile attacks but that is just to show their token presence,' YSR maintained.

The Greyhounds, an elite commando force of Andhra Pradesh raised in 1989, have been quite effective in subduing the Maoists who at one time controlled 23 of the state's 26 districts.

Only the best policemen of Andhra Pradesh make it to the Greyhound squad, which is one of the highest paid in the country - even better than the elite National Security Guard.

The Greyhounds were also part of the search operations to track down Reddy's helicopter that went missing at 9.35 a.m. Wednesday soon after taking off from Hyderabad.

The state has been a long-time guerrilla hotbed but, in the last two years, the force prowling the backcountry and supported by paid informants at the village level has managed to arrest or kill several top rebels.