At a time when the Centre is re-inventing its strategy to ensure that innocent lives are not lost in anti-Maoist operations, the Intelligence Bureau has warned Chattisgarh and other Naxal-infested states of fresh attempts by the CPI(Maoist) to use “human shields’’ in operations against security forces. An IB report sent to the Prime Minister’s Office and the Union Home Ministry on Monday said “it is likely that the CPI(Maoist) may increasingly resort to this strategy as the reach of security forces increases in the hitherto “liberated zones” where the CPI(Maoist) “Jantana Sarkars have been functioning for quite some time.’’
The report, accessed by this newspaper, detailed encounters in Chattisgarh to claim that Maoists are increasingly using this strategy “to create a situation where any return fire by the Central forces would result in the killing of Jan Militia members.’’ It further warned that this strategy is also aimed at “giving an opportunity to CPI(Maoist) front organisations and pro-Left Wing Extremism elements to carry out anti-security forces propaganda campaigns to put the security forces on the back-foot.’’
Spelling out the fresh challenges facing the security forces, the report referred to operations carried out by the CRPF in the last few days in Basaguda area of district Bijapur in Chattisgarh which exposed a “deliberate strategy of the CPI(Maoist) to use Jan Militia members in plain clothes as human shield in operation against the security forces.” A number of exchanges took place between forces and Maoists in the Naxal hotbeds this month, said the report, explaining that in one such instance, the CRPF acted on inputs regarding presence of atleast 25 Maoist cadres, including a commander of the Basaguda area. The CRPF party engaged in carrying out de-mining had to engage in skirmishes with the CPI(Maoist) resulting in the death of a CRPF constable.
“A noticeable feature of the aforesaid exchanges was that while attacking, the uniformed CPI(Maoist) cadres put the Jan Militia Members (in plain clothes) in the firing line as human shields,” it said. In another incident in Narayanpur on August 24, two jan militia members were killed in an encounter and security forces discovered three Bharmar guns from the encounter site.
So far this year, 29 Maoists have been killed in 49 encounters against 32 Naxalites killed in 76 encounters during the corresponding period last year, said the report.