The battle against Maoist militants will be long drawn in Chhattisgarh but the police will ensure no civilians suffer as casualties, the state's police chief said on Saturday.
"Anti-Maoist operations will be long drawn in the state and police will ensure no civilian casualty during the
entire operation," Vishwa Ranjan, the director general of police in one of the worst Maoist insurgency-hit states, told reporters at Jagdalpur, headquarters of the restive Bastar region.
Maoists have being holding sway in the region's interior since the late 1980s.
The police chief also dismissed as "Maoist propaganda against the police" that a large number of civilians, mainly the local tribal population in Bastar, will be killed in the anti-Maoist drive.
"Nothing of this sort is going to happen. We will make selective attacks," he said.