Gadchiroli Naxal attack: Troop pullout may have left a hole in red zone security grid

Forces from Maharashtra were deployed for polls in Bengal

15 jawans were killed in an IED blast in Gadchiroli on May 1.

The unceasing requisitioning of paramilitary forces for the elections in West Bengal may have weakened the security grid around Maharashtra’s Maoist heartland, where an IED blast killed 15 jawans this week.

The State Home Department is looking into the possibility of thinning security cover in North Gadchiroli owing to the promised deployment of 20 companies of the State Reserved Police Force (SRPF) at 1,076 sensitive polling booths in West Bengal.

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As many as 600 companies of the CRPF and the SRPF — of 135 men each — from various States were pooled in to provide cover for the “alarming” law and order there during the elections, senior officials said.

Sources said 13 of the 20 promised companies from Maharashtra were already dispatched to West Bengal before April 11, while the remaining seven — comprising units 14,15, and 16 of the India Reserve Battalion (IRB) positioned at Aurangabad, Gondia and Kolhapur — are to leave for West Bengal any time now, sources in the government said.

“There is a sense that pulling out these companies may have led to a thinning security cover in the Maoist belt. We are assessing if this has had any impact or left a gaping hole open for the insurgents to strike at the anti-Naxal forces in North Gadchiroli,” said a source.

These aspects, including intelligence failure if any are part of a final assessment being done by DGP, Maharashtra, S.K. Jaiswal, who will submit a report to the Union Home Ministry next week. Mr. Jaiswal concluded his two-day tour of the Naxal-affected areas on Friday.

‘Receiving assistance’

Besides the 5,500 men of the Gadchiroli police — the anti-Naxal operations have been getting assistance from 30 companies of the CRPF and 16 of the SRPF as part a tight security grid around the Maoist zone which primarily includes most of Gadchiroli and some parts of Chandrapur and Gondia.

“While we did send our companies to West Bengal, the State also received assistance from forces of Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh among others. The deployment of SRPF was on a give and take basis,” said a senior police official.