FULL FORCE AHEAD

If vishwas, vikas aur suraksha (trust, development and safety) were the cornerstones of the previous Congress government’s strategy in dealing with left-wing extremism (LWE) in Chhattisgarh, all-out war is what the state’s new double-engine sarkar has declared now.

- Rahul Noronha

The Centre’s desire to deliver a final blow to end Maoist-related violence in the country before the general election may have been a tad too ambitious, which is why, at a meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired on January 21 in Raipur, with new chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai, the state DGP and the CRPF DG in attendance, he set a target of three years to weed out the rebels in the state. But there are no doubts that the pursuit of the objective—taking apart the ecosystem supporting Maoism, including financing—will be relentless if the current spate of encounters, arrests and surrenders is anything to go by. The MHA has also said it will be flexible in the allotment of funds and their use.

Hence its latest offensive, Surya Shakti, codenamed thus as perhaps it seeks to shine a light into the heart of darkness that is Abujhmad, the uncharted 4,000 square kilometres of contiguous forest territory that is believed to be the last redoubt of the Maoists. Nearly 35,000 people, mostly tribals, inhabit its 237-odd villages, completely untouched by state control. A five-day (January 12-16) joint exercise involving the personnel of the Special Task Force (STF), district reserve guards (DRG) and Border Security Force (BSF) saw the destruction of an arms-making facility, the recovery of a barrel grenade launcher, two air rifles, two muzzleloading weapons, one 12-bore gun, three INSAS magazines, one telescope, two generators, nine bench clamping, drilling and punching machines and Maoist uniforms and literature. Four suspected Maoists—Aaytu Nureti, Suresh Nuruti, Budhuram Padda and Manoj Hichami—were arrested after an encounter on January 16 in Kanker district. Another deputy commander-level Maoist, Ratan Kashyap alias Salaam, was killed in a separate encounter in the Mangnar forests in the Bastar district the same day (see Op Surya Shakti).