A full-fledged company of CRPF’s women battalion will be deployed in Jharkhand in the next ten days to carry out anti-naxal operations, CRPF Director-General K. Durga Prasad said on Tuesday.
Currently, a women battalion of the CRPF is undergoing training at Salboni in West Bengal and one company of this battalion will be deployed in Ranchi in the next ten days, said Mr. Prasad, who laid the foundation of a barrack and 317 quarters for jawans of Rapid Action Force of the 106 battalion at Sundernagar on the outskirt of Jamshedpur.
The CRPF company will be engaged in operations against Left Wing Extremism as well as anti-national forces in Jharkhand, Mr. Prasad said.
To a query about the prevailing activists of CPI (Maoists), the DG CRPF said the influence of naxals have drastically come down across the country, including Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra after continuous operations against them.
“We have carried out nine inter-State anti-naxal operations in naxal-affected States including Bihar, Chhattisgarh while one such operation is under way on Tuesday,” he said claiming that altogether ten naxal camps were demolished and a huge cache of arms and ammunition seized.
A top rank Maoist leader Ashish Yadav, who was a member of Bihar-Jharkhand Special Area Committee of the ultra group, was killed in an encounter with the security forces in Gumla district last month, he said, adding that altogether 11 encounters had taken place between the Maoists and security forces.
Elaborating about the “dwindling influence” of Maoists in the country, Mr. Prasad said the CRPF personnel were carrying out operations in those areas, which the Maoists had been considering as their stronghold including Saranda in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand, and driving them out.
The anti-naxal operations used to slow down during monsoon in the past but was pursued vigorously this monsoon during which eleven encounters had taken place, ten camps destroyed and some arrests made, he said.
To develop interaction with villagers as well as to make them self-reliant, the CRPF has set up a poultry farm with 200 chicks for villagers near Gaya a couple of months ago and the number of chickens has doubled now, he said.
Mr. Prasad was flanked by ADG CRPF Sudeep Lakhtakia and Sanjay Lathkar, IG CRPF, Jharkhand. - PTI 1
