By IANS
Raipur : The Chhatisgarh government has sought deployment of at least 70 battalions of central forces to fight the Maoist rebels who have been orchestrating cold-blooded killings in the state.
“The state government has strongly requested the central government to deploy at least 70 battalions of central forces mostly in the state’s southern Bastar region, including Dantewada and Bijapur districts, to put a check on guerrillas and boost morale of forces,” a top home department official told IANS Saturday.
“I can’t say the centre is ignoring the gravity of Maoist problem in Chhattisgarh, but I can say the deployment of forces is not to the level where the heat can be turned on Maoist militants,” said the official who requested anonymity.
According to the official, “ill-equipped” state police are at present fighting about 80,000 Maoists in the state. These include 10,000 Maoists armed with landmines, rocket launchers, mortars and explosives.
Only 13 battalions of central forces, mostly from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) that has not much idea of guerrilla warfare methods, are assisting the police in the fight against the leftist insurgency.
Top police officials involved in formulating anti-Maoist strategy say the state is losing out the battle to the insurgents in Dantewada and Bijapur districts where rebels are said to have accumulated huge terror infrastructure and have protected their hideouts by planting landmines all around.
The state has emerged as terror nerve centre since June 2005 when a civil militia movement, Salwa Judum, was launched. It has forced over 50,000 people to leave their forested villages and settle in 23 government-run makeshift relief camps in Dantewada and Bijapur districts.
About 30,000 people of Dantewada have also moved to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, fearing Maoist attacks.
The police say the Maoist rebels have strengthened their fighter wing, People’s Liberation of Guerrilla Army (PLGA), which orchestrated India’s biggest ever Maoist attack on a police camp in March this year in Bijapur and massacred 55 personnel.
The Maoists in the past 10 days have intensified their violent activities, organising the Dec 16 jailbreak in Dantewada prison and releasing 299 inmates, including nearly a hundred of their cadres.
The insurgents blew up a police station in Bastar district Dec 12 and killed three cops. They killed 12 cops in a gun battle Dec 20 in Konta block in Dantewada.