CRPF deploys 200 special commandos for anti-Naxal ops in Bihar

In the backdrop of the Union Home ministry recently pulling up Bihar for its "failure" in controlling Naxal violence, the CRPF has now deployed close to 200 commandos of its special CoBRA battalion to bring lethality in its offensives in the state.

The anti-Naxal warfare trained commandos will now not only assist about 5,000 troops of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) already deployed and tasked for these operations in the state, but also carry out specific intelligence inputs based strikes.

The units of the 207th battalion of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) has been based in Jamui, sources said, after taking them out from West Bengal where the Naxal situation is under control.

The CoBRA will also provide the much needed intelligence inputs to the regular CRPF units who rue that they are not getting much of this vital information from state police.

Trouble has been brewing between the CRPF and Bihar police since the latter arrested an Assistant Commandant rank officer of the paramilitary for allegedly leaking information to Naxalites.

The force, sources said, has now decided to step up operations in the state in view of the recent assessment of the Home Ministry with regard to the Naxal problem.

The Centre has rapped Bihar government recently for its alleged failure in controlling Maoists activities and had said that situation in the state has become alarming and there is complete breakdown in coordination between the state police and Central forces.

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had also advised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to examine the successful counter- insurgency models of other states and adopt such structures in Bihar too as he wrote a letter to him in December last. "We have noticed a complete breakdown in coordination between the state police and the Central forces as well as with the neighbouring states like Jharkhand," Shinde had written in his letter to Kumar.