Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: With less than a week left for the Centre’s March 31 deadline to end left wing extremism, security forces have launched a series of intensified operations across key Maoist-affected regions to track down remaining armed cadres and force surrenders.“The plan is to ensure 100 per cent neutralisation of armed Naxals by March 31, a deadline announced by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. This would either by engaging in encounters or getting effected surrenders. Some large operations are being undertaken in these last 5-6 days of the countdown,” a top CAPF commander told PTI.Security forces are still tracking about 130-150 armed cadres, including two central committee members of the outlawed CPI (Maoist) and some other divisional-rank operatives.Official sources told PTI that the Centre is also preparing an “operations and development” blueprint, which is expected to include the withdrawal of about five Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) battalions from these regions and the launch of multiple welfare schemes.As part of the operations, about three to four CoBRA units of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) are being moved from Chhattisgarh to Jharkhand for a special operation in the Saranda forests of West Singhbhum district, sources said.Misir Besra alias Bhaskar is stated to be based in Jharkhand and CoBRA teams are searching for him and his associates.In Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region, teams from the CRPF, BSF and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) are also being “re-located” with the specific aim of engaging armed Maoist cadres in gunbattles or forcing their surrender, the sources said.A cross-border operation involving Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Odisha is also in the works, according to the sources.Rammanna, also known as Ganapathi or Laxman Rao, is reportedly in touch with Telangana Police and may surrender by March 31, according to officials.Another officer said that about three battalions of the Border Security Force (BSF), along with a sector office headed by a DIG-rank officer, are expected to withdraw from Koraput district and adjoining areas of Odisha.The sector office could relocate to Kandhamal district in the state and the three battalions will either move for border guarding duties or to Manipur, as the situation may warrant.Some CAPF battalions from Chhattisgarh will also be withdrawn, with an announcement expected on March 31. The state police and the Chhattisgarh DRG will take over the CAPF camps, the officer added.Chhattisgarh Home Minister and Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma declared in Jagdalpur on Wednesday that nearly 96 per cent of Bastar’s vast geographical area is now free from Naxal influence.Sources said the CAPFs and state police forces have also been asked to undertake a joint “de-mining” exercise to look for hidden Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and bombs in Naxal violence-affected regions.In February, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) conducted a fresh review of Naxal violence-affected regions and notified that the number of left wing extremism (LWE)-hit districts in the country is seven.These seven districts are Bijapur, Narayanpur, Sukma, Kanker and Dantewada in Chhattisgarh, West Singhbhum in Jharkhand and Kandhamal in Odisha.The nine LWE-affected states, under various categories, are Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana and West Bengal.According to official data, during 2005-06, a total of 76 districts in nine states were hit by LWE.Home Minister Shah has repeatedly asserted that the LWE menace, once called the biggest internal security challenge for India in 2010, will see its end by this March.He describes Naxal violence as a challenge to democracy, saying it has claimed around 17,000 lives of civilians and security personnel so far.The Naxalite movement emerged in India in 1967 at Naxalbari, a village in West Bengal located at the tri-junction of India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
