Nearly 1 lakh central forces to reclaim Maoist-held territory

Nearly 2,000 border guards are getting ready to move into Maoist heartland over the next few weeks. Under a new home ministry plan, 8,000 more central security personnel will be pushed into the red corridor to reclaim territories from Maoist guerrillas, Aloke Tikku reports.

Nearly 2,000 border guards are getting ready to move into Maoist heartland over the next few weeks. Under a new home ministry plan, 8,000 more central security personnel will be pushed into the red corridor to reclaim territories from Maoist guerrillas.

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The surge will peak by June-end when central security forces fighting a bloody and fierce battle with Maoists will near 1 lakh security personnel. That is comparable to the 1.06 lakh western forces fighting to stabilise Afghanistan.

The centrally-coordinated offensive against the 40-year-old Maoist insurgency was launched three years ago to reclaim land where the guerrillas had pushed out the Indian state.

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Besides raising the security presence to enable execution of developmental projects, the plan intended to block routes across the bunch of contiguous districts in inter-state borders of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Maharashtra.

The first ones to move in would be 2 BSF battalions —each has a strength of a 1,000 men — that were on election duty in Tripura. “They will head straight to Odisha,” a BSF source confirmed.

Jharkhand and Bihar will get 3,000 more security personnel each.