Rattled by the brutal Maoist attack on Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh which has left 28 persons dead, the Centre has decided to hold a high-level inquiry to probe lapses and fix responsibility.
A Union home ministry team that returned to New Delhi from Chhattisgarh on Sunday evening has found glaring loopholes in the Congress convoy’s security cover that virtually played into the Maoists’ hands near Darba in Sukma district on Saturday. In its report, which will be submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, the team noted a complete lack of planning and coordination by the state police top brass and the security administration for such a high-profile political event (Parivartan Yatra) in the heart of Naxalite territory. Almost all guidelines in the standard operating procedures laid down by the MHA appear to have been violated.
A massive manhunt has been launched by the security forces to hunt down the Maoist forces responsible for the attack, with top CPI(Maoist) leader Kattam Sudarshan alias Birenderji, a politburo and central committee member of the banned outfit, emerging as the prime suspect in what has been the worst Naxalite attack on civilians in the country so far. Sudharshan is the elusive Maoist leader whom various police forces failed to track despite his suspected involvement in the deadly attack in Dantewada in 2010, which had left 76 CRPF personnel dead.
Roping in the NTRO, the government has decided ‘Naxals danced on Karma’s body’to increase coverage of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) flown from an airbase in Hyderabad to assist the security forces tracking Maoists on the Chhattisgarh-Orissa border. At least 2,000 Central forces will assist special task forces of neighbouring states, including Andhra Pradesh’s Greyhounds, in the anti-Naxal operation.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Chhattisgarh on Sunday accompanied by top MHA officials, and held a high-level security review with the state government’s top brass. “The buck has to stop somewhere. So many people were killed and injured. We have to take action. There will be a high-level inquiry to find out if there was any lapse on the part of the Central security forces or the state forces. The responsibility has to be fixed for this great tragedy,” minister of state for home R.P.N. Singh, who accompanied the PM to Raipur, said after his return to New Delhi. Mr Singh said anyone found guilty of laxity in discharging their duty of providing security to the Congress leaders will not be spared.
The MHA team noted that no proper security cover was provided either for the rally or the participating leaders. The state police headquarters was not coordinating the
cavalcade plan during its travel into the Naxal heartland, instead the security coordination was left to local police stations, which top government sources said exhibited a “piecemeal” approach by the state administration.
A blame game appears to have erupted, with state police officials saying a “casual approach” was taken by those participating in the rally as they travelled in a cavalcade and did not heed the high threat levels.
In its report, the MHA has noted the motive of the attack was the desperate need of the CPI(Maoist) to assert its presence after a long lull of violence, and to scare the
political establishment against carrying out political activity in the Naxal belt.
Also, the killing Salwa Judum founder Mahendra Karma, whom the Maoists had declared their “Enemy No. 1”, is believed to be the trigger behind the attack. “The fact
that Maoists attacked soft targets (civilians) instead of the security forces shows that they are trying to stage a comeback”, a senior official said.