By IANS,
Bhopal : Police in Madhya Pradesh are hunting for Maoist guerrillas who are learnt to have slipped into the state from Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra on Diwali, officials said Monday.
About 50 guerrillas in four groups have entered the state from the Maoist stronghold of Balaghat district, on the Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra border, around 430 km from Bhopal, the police said.
“A massive search operation is on in the district following intelligence inputs of Naxalites sneaking into the district from Rajnandangaon in Chhattisgarh and Gondia in Maharashtra due to the mounting campaign against the red terror in those states,” Balaghat Superintendent of Police H.C. Mishra told IANS.
“Security forces on the border have been reinforced. Patrolling in sensitive areas close to Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh has been intensified,” he said, adding that police were also looking for weapons dumped in the forests of Lanjhi in the district.
Information about the weapons in the forests of Lanjhi came from Kailash Baiga, who was arrested on Oct 12 with his comrade Bhudhari Singh Baiga. Kailash Baiga is from Sajawada village in Chhattisgarh’s Rajnandgaon district.
Both were arrested while attending a Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) meeting in Metaghat region.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had last month expressed serious concern over the withdrawal of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) forces from Balaghat, saying that it could lead to Maoist resurgence in the area.
In a letter to union Home Minister P. Chidambaram Saturday, Chouhan said Balaghat district was ensconced within the high-voltage ‘Red Corridor’ bordered by the Maoist-affected Chhattisgarh’s Rajnandgaon and Maharashtra’s Gondia districts.
The state government was informed about the withdrawal of CRPF from Balaghat district by the union home ministry last month.