The Centre, in a major shift, is now beginning to covertly support a hot pursuit strategy against Naxals where police or special units from one state can cross over into another to conduct operations.
In one such operation, dubbed as one of the biggest in recent times, a Greyhound force from Andhra Pradesh crossed into Chhattisgarh and killed at least 9 Naxals early Tuesday morning.
Among those killed was Sudhakar, a senior commander of the North Telangana Special Zonal committee of the CPI (Maoist), carrying a reward of `20 lakh. Sudhakar’s wife Pushpa, who carried a reward of `5 lakh on her head, is also learnt to have been killed in the encounter. Pushpa was a divisional committee member of the outfit. Five of those killed were women who, incidentally, form 50 per cent of the current total Naxal operational strength. According to highly placed ministry of home affairs sources, the Greyhounds, an elite anti-Naxal unit of the Andhra Pradesh police, chased a group of Maoists from close to the Andhra border into the forests of Sukma, Chhattisgarh, and killed them in an encounter. Even though the CRPF later joined the operation, but MHA sources said all the intelligence and a major part of the operation was carried out by the Grey-hounds. The possibility of the toll increasing cannot be ruled out. Security forces have also ruled out the possibility of any villagers being killed.