A day after its eight personnel were killed in a militant attack in Pampore, the CRPF has shifted about half-a-dozen of its heavily armoured mine protected vehicles (MPVs), which were earlier used for anti-Naxal operations, to Kashmir Valley to effectively secure its troops deployed there.
The paramilitary had cut down the use of these vehicles for anti-Naxal operations drastically after they were targeted in IED blasts in the Left Wing Extremism-hit areas.
Pampore effect
The CRPF feels that these MPVs will now come in handy in Jammu and Kashmir to open and secure roads for movement of paramilitary, defence and VIP convoys. “If need arises, we can bring in more,” CRPF Director-General K. Durga Prasad told PTI.
He said the MPVs provide better protection in case of a militant ambush and firing on the troops, similar to what was seen in Pampore on Saturday. Two militants had opened fired on a CRPF bus, killing eight men and injuring two dozen of them.
The CRPF chief said the force had also ordered 20 brand new MPVs from the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) to be deployed in the most difficult Maoist violence-hit areas. These MPVs would ensure better protection to the troops in the LWE areas, he noted.
There have been numerous incidents in the past when militants have attacked CRPF road opening parties or convoys.
