CRPF conducts 200 operations, nabs 72 Naxals

NEW DELHI: Going all out against Maoists since the Sukma attack, the Central Reserve Police Force has conducted around 200 special operations with a reworked strategy, apprehending 72 rebels and seizing a huge cache of munitions.

In Sukma alone, CRPF's guerrilla warfare team of CoBRA have conducted 98 operations in which 26 Maoists have been caught in the last 20 days. 15 of those nabbed were involved in the April 24 ambush. Officials in the security forces said that after ministry of home affairs demanded concrete results after the Sukma ambush, in which around 400 Naxals were involved. There is a special focus on result oriented operations in the south Bastar region of Chhattisgarh to curtail the strength and resources of Maoist cadres.

Sources said that joint intelligence-based opera tions are being carried out in the Naxal den of Bastar despite the harsh summers.

Newly appointed director general of CRPF, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, recently told TOI that they are working on joint operations and human intelligence is being beefed up on the ground. Bhatnagar also travelled to attack sites in Sukma, where Naxals killed 37 CRPF men on March 11and then April 24.

The areas in Sukma where operations have been carried out in the last 20 days include villages of Karigundem, Minapa, Kasalpara, Milampalli, Tokenpalli, Phulampad, Bedapad, Gauraram, Palodi, Barmor, Potakpalli, Tumalpad, Aliguda and Regargatta.

As first reported by TOI, MHA has asked Chhattisgarh government to provide police officers who will comprise one third of an operational team. A dossier on Burkapal attack of April 24 says that after the ambush, CRPF has apprehended 72 Maoists while 21 have surrendered before the forces in the entire LWE theatre.