All-out war on Naxal hideouts

[1]

Union home secretary R.K. Singh talks to the media at the police headquarters in Raipur on Tuesday. — PTI

In a major tactical shift, the government has decided to reverse its defensive posture and corner Maoists from all sides and chase them to their hideouts. Top sources said “multiple operations using multiple forces” will be carried out across the borders of Maoist-infested states in the months ahead. Simultaneously, the Centre virtually forced the Chhattisgarh government on Tuesday to fix responsibility for police lapses that led to Saturday’s brutal attack on Congress leaders which left 28 persons dead.
Hours after the CPI(Maoist) claimed responsibility for the barbaric attack on Congress leaders, the Union home ministry called for intensifying operations by the security forces, rejecting outright the Maoists’ demand to stop the anti-Naxal operations.
In a four-page statement to the media, Dandakaranya special zonal committee spokesman Gudsa Usendi said: “The main objective behind the attack was to eliminate Mahendra Karma and some reactionary Congress leaders”. The statement made it clear that besides Mr Karma, Chhattisgarh PCC president Nand Kumar Patel and former Union minister V.C. Shukla were the “main targets” of the attack. Hours later, the Centre said no peace talks will be held with Maoists till they give up violence. Instead, anti-Naxal forces will launch a multi-pronged offensive and take the battle to the Maoist camps.
Minister of state for home R.P.N. Singh said “Maoist barbarism and cold-blooded murders have peaked in the last six months”, and added there was an urgent need for a relook at policy and intensify anti-Naxal operations.
“The Maoists have no respect for human rights. They are not interested in talks or following democratic processes. There will be no talks unless they abjure violence, There will be more active operations,” he said.
Making it clear it meant business, a Central team led by Union home secretary R.K. Singh that visited Chhattisgarh on Tuesday minced no words in holding the state police responsible for the major security lapse. Late Tuesday evening, the Chhattisgarh government suspended Bastar SP Mayank Shrivastava, shifted Bastar IG Himangshu Gupta and made DGP Ramniwas in charge of VIP security, to be assisted by an IG and DIG level officer.
On the civil side, Bastar collector P. Anbalgan was also removed, and replaced by Ankit Anand.
The Union home secretary briefed Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth after his return to New Delhi. Sources said a clear tactical shift in the anti-Naxal strategy will be seen in the next few months. While earlier the posture was defensive and security forces carried out small intelligence-based operations, an all-out offensive will be carried out now using multiple specialised forces and UAVs.
“The operation will be quite similar to that conducted in the AbujMad forests last year where paramilitary forces combed the entire jungle and every movement of every team was tracked with satellites,” an official said. The decision was taken after discussions at the highest level between the Chhattisgarh government, the Intelligence Bureau, CRPF and others.
“The aim is to force the Maoists to retreat, build pressure to make their cadres surrender and hunt down their top leadership,” a senior official said.
The government will rope in the Andhra Greyhounds, the specialised anti-Naxal force Cobra, Central paramilitary forces CRPF, BSF and ITBP to carry out the offensive across Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and other states. The MHA, however, ruled out bringing in the Army for anti-Naxal operations.
Notably, this time, the Union home ministry is confident of mustering the support of almost all political class given that the Maoists have found “soft targets” in politicians for the first time, and hit at the root of the “democratic process” months ahead of Assembly polls in several states and the 2014 general election.
The June 5 chief ministers’ conference on internal security, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is expected to be critical with the Centre urging all states to come on board to fight the Naxal menace.
States like Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, which have taken a softer stand in fighting the Maoist menace, are likely to join in. “If there is consensus in the political class to fight left-wing extremism, half the battle is won,” a top security official said.
The CPI(Maoist), in its statement running into several pages, spelt out their differences with slain Congress leader Mahendra Karma to justify his killing. “Karma hailed from a feudal family of Badda Manjhi caste. The family has been a traditional oppressor of tribals. Karma was the architect of Salwa Judum movement, which caused oppression of tribals of Bastar in the form of murders, rape and displacement of a large number of locals”, it said. The statement blamed PCC president Nand Kumar Patel for first deploying Central forces in Bastar when he was state home minister in 2000-03. The statement said V.C. Shukla, who was a Union minister for a long time, was also an “enemy of the common man”. In the statement, the CPI(Maoist) demanded the withdrawal of paramilitary forces from Dandakaranya, shelving of Operation Green Hunt and the release of “innocent tribals” arrested for their links with Maoists.