Crackdown on Red rebels put on hold, unofficially

Having suffered the worst ever casualties in the Dantewada ambush, the ministry of home affairs (MHA) has temporarily put on hold anti-Maoist operations in the country.

A senior official in the ministry told DNA on Friday that no written instructions had been issued to stop the crackdown on Maoists, but the authorities concerned have been advised not to undertake such operations for the time being.

The strategic decision has been taken to avoid another such incident resulting in the loss of lives and morale of the combat forces, the official said.

It was further learnt that the think-tank at the MHA was still in the process of chalking out new combat, strategic and logistics planning to deal with the situation.

“The unfortunate Dantewada incident has seriously dented the anti-Maoist forces’ morale and raised questions about the battle-readiness of the forces.

The ministry has formed a one-man committee to point out lapses in preparation and execution of paramilitary forces posted in sensitive areas to assist the local police,” said a senior officer posted in one such area.

“To make matters worse, the state policemen were not eager enough to act against the heavily armed and highly motivated Maoist cadres. The situation puts added pressure on the paramilitary forces that are seemingly aliens in unknown territories. Unless the local police take the lead, central forces cannot be of much use,” said a senior ministry official.

“We are experimenting with the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and conducting trial sorties over the Dantewada forests during the past week. The data collected by the UAVs was being studied to finally find their suitability in operations,” the official added.

The MHA was in constant touch with the Maoist-hit state governments wherein strategic planning and execution issues were being debated. The operations were not likely to resume at least for a month, ministry sources added.

Meanwhile, in a related development, the Central Reserve Police Force headquarters in New Delhi initiated the process to recruit 1,950 ex-servicemen and officers.

The former military men would be entitled to draw full salaries on a par with the CRPF grades apart from the pension they were already drawing.

The ex-servicemen would mainly be deployed to train and lead the CRPF men in anti-Maoist operations, as they were better trained and experienced, the sources added.