Quite disappointing
For BJP govt in Chhattisgarh, Naxal attacks spell out clear and present danger
Chhattisgarh has seen a spate of incidents of Naxal violence after the Assembly elections took place in the state last month, leaving six people dead and several others injured since November 17 – the last day of polling. This comes in the backdrop of an uptick in Maoist violence this year, after it touched an all-time low in 2022.
Last year, incidents of Left Wing Extremism had killed 10 security personnel, with 32 Maoists also getting killed. This year, however, 25 security personnel, 31 civilians and 20 Maoists have been killed so far.
The latest Naxal attack in the state came on Sunday, when CRPF sub-inspector Sudhakar Reddy was killed and Constable Ramu seriously injured in a gunfight in Bastar region’s Sukma district. Two other personnel of security forces were killed this week in the Maoist-affected Bastar region – a BSF jawan in Kanker district on Thursday and a Chhattisgarh Armed Force constable in Narayanpur district a day earlier. Both were killed in IED explosions.
At the beginning of this year, in January, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said at a public rally in Chhattisgarh’s Korba district that the aim was to “free India of Naxalism” before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. However, towards the end of the year, in November, he said at an election rally at Jashpur that with a “double engine-sarkar”, work could be undertaken towards “ending Naxalism in the next five years”.
Since the two-phase election concluded last month, there have been at least 12 incidents of Naxal violence, which have led to six deaths – three security personnel, a BJP worker, and two other civilians. Several security personnel have been injured.
Hours after Thursday’s killing, new Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai addressed his first press conference as CM, in which he addressed the issue of Naxalism. “In 15 years, we have dealt with Naxalism strongly. In the future, too, we will continue to fight it strongly,” he said.
Later, Sai took to social media to express his condolences on the jawan’s killing. “Our government will formulate a concrete policy to eliminate the Naxalites,” he said, adding that they were already “on the verge of being eliminated”.
The previous Congress government in the state had adopted a three-pronged strategy of vishwas, vikas aur suraksha (trust, development and protection) to deal with the threat of Naxalism. It had faced criticism from the BJP, however, for not being aggressive enough in its approach.
Former CM Raman Singh of the BJP also criticised the Congress government, saying the number of inter-state operations against Naxals had come down. In June this year, the Maharashtra Police said the banned Communist Party of India (Maoists) were recruiting tribals in their remaining strongholds in the Bastar region.
A Maharashtra Police source said: “As per questioning of a senior Maoist member from the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), fresh recruitment is taking place in Bijapur national park, Abujhmad (an unsurveyed land area larger than the state of Goa) and the Kanker-Narayapur inter-district border near Chhattisgarh’s border with Maharashtra.”
“The fresh recruits are being trained in Bijapur national park, and information is that they are using drones too,” the source said.
Sources in the Chhattisgarh Police did not directly comment on this, but said that Naxal recruitment had gone down. Speaking on the ground situation in the Bastar region, Inspector General of Police for Bastar range, Sundarraj P told The Indian Express: “We have made significant inroads into the erstwhile stronghold areas of CPI (Maoist) formations in the Bastar region by opening more than 63 base camps in the last four years.”
“These camps are not only being used as launching bases for effective anti-Naxal operations, but are also acting as integrated development centres by providing basic amenities to the native population. Moreover, opening of these many camps in areas where there had been a security vacuum has led to the recruitment base of the Maoists significantly drying up,” the IG said.
Major incidents of Naxal violence in Chhattisgarh since Nov 17
November 22: IED blast in Dantewada’s Jagargunda injures Bastar Fighter jawan
November 24: IED blast kills 2 workers of an iron ore mine in Narayanpur’s Chottedongar
November 26-27: 14 vehicles used for road construction work torched in Dantewada
December 9: BJP worker Komal Manjhi murdered at Chottedongar in Narayanpur
December 11: Two security personnel injured in IED in Kistaram area of Sukma
December 12: DRG jawan injured in IED blast at Salatong in Sukma
December 13: Chhattisgarh Armed Force jawan killed, another injured in IED blast at Narayanpur’s Chottedongar area
December 14: BSF jawan killed in IED blast in Kanker
December 17: CRPF sub-inspector killed, constable injured in gunfight in Sukma
Jayprakash S Naidu – 2023-12-17 16:32