The Union Home Ministry has asked the Central forces deployed in the States affected by Left-wing extremism to step up operations based on specific intelligence inputs and overcome the “psychological setback” they suffered in the past few days. The Ministry has asked the forces to coordinate with the State police while conducting operations and act only if there was “actionable intelligence”.
On April 24, 25 Central Reserve Police Force jawans were killed near Burkapal in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh when they were providing security to a road construction party.
In a similar attack, 12 CRPF jawans were killed near Bhejji in Sukma on March 11. The Central security forces and the State police informed Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday that at least “six Maoists” were killed in last week’s ambush.
The change in strategy comes even as the Home Ministry initiated an independent inquiry to uncover the lapses in the Sukma incident.
The terms of reference of the inquiry will be decided soon. The CRPF is already conducting a court of inquiry and the local police have registered a separate first information report.
Operation review
Mr. Singh reviewed the operations being undertaken by the Central forces in the affected States on Monday.
National Security Adviser Ajit Doval was not present at the meeting, but top officials, including Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and chiefs of intelligence agencies, deliberated the plan of action.
“We will be focussing more on operations now, and road construction can take a back seat. Providing security to road construction had made them defensive and now that it has been temporarily halted, we can focus more on result-oriented operations now,” a senior Home Ministry official said.
The official said that in the meeting, it was also suggested that either new technology that could expedite road construction be adopted or the work be suspended for a while as it exposed the security forces to unwanted attention and made them vulnerable to attacks.
Border vigil
Mr. Singh also reviewed the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, and directed the top officials to ensure strict vigil along the International Border, which is guarded by the Border Security Force. The continuing unrest in the Kashmir Valley was also discussed.
