Sounding a warning that Naxal problem was getting out of control, Chhatti-sgarh home minister Nank-iram Kanwar on Saturday strongly favoured deployment of army to tackle the left wing insurgency.
Mr Kanwar further cautioned that the present strategy of keeping the Army away from the conflict with the rebels, leaving only the para-military and state police forces to deal with the problem, would prove myopic in the long run, considering the cross border help, in form of arms supply as well as military training, the Naxals were getting.
“The Naxals are being armed and funded by forces inimical to India and have also established links with international terrorist outfits. Under this circumstance, both the paramilitary and state security forces are ill-equipped to counter them. Hence, Army should be handed over the charge of eliminating Red forces,” Mr Kanwar told reporters here. To drive his point home, the tribal minister said large tracts of Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region were under control of Naxals. The areas have remained out of bounds of the security forces.
“When the forces were yet to step into the Naxal strongholds, how can they take them on,” he asked.
Meanwhile, seven Naxals, including three hardcore rebels, were arrested by security forces at Melmeta under Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district on Friday evening. Local superintendent of police (SP) Rahul Bhagat on Saturday said a joint search party of district force (DF) and Border Security Force (BSF) personnel cordoned off an area in forests at Melmeta following a tip off that a group of ultras were camping there.