3,000 CAPF Personnel To Move From Odisha To Chhattisgarh To End Naxalism: Report
Three battalions of the BSF and ITBP will move into Naxal stronghold of Abujhmad in Chhattisgarh to intensify anti-Maoist operations.
Three battalions of the Border Security Force comprising more than 3,000 personnel will move across the border from Odisha to Chhattisgarh and into the Naxal stronghold of Abujhmad as part of a strategy to intensify anti-Maoist operations in their last bastions, reported PTI quoting official sources.
An equal number of Indo Tibetan Border Police units will also move to the region, the report added.
The development comes after Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently made a declaration that India was "on the verge of" eliminating Left Wing Extremism (LWE) and is a part of the same operations.
"The last strike against LWE by forces such as the BSF, the CRPF and the ITBP is in the process. We are determined to end Naxalism in the country," Shah said on December 1 in Hazaribag, Jharkhand while addressing BSF troops on their 59th raising day.
As per the report quoting sources, the BSF has been directed to create six new company operating bases in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district by initially moving one of its battalion based in Odisha's Malkangiri, just across the inter-state border.
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The ITBP — which currently has about eight battalions placed in Narayanpur, Rajnandgaon and Kondagaon districts of Chhattisgarh — has been asked to move one unit further inside the core area of Abujhmad.
The operation will be undertaken on about 4,000 sq km forest area in Narayanpur district which is considered a stronghold of armed Naxal cadres.
The uncharted Abhujmad or 'madh' forests have a population of about 35,000 people, mainly tribals, residing in around 237 villages. At present, there is no permanent central or state police base and armed Maoist cadres are stated to be operating, training and moving here from across the Chhattisgarh-Odisha border in south Bastar region of the state, the PTI report stated.
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