In Maoist battle, a 6,000-strong force makes the difference

Today, DRG personnel are spread across seven Maoism-affected districts in Chhattisgarh focusing on guerilla warfare suitable in the dense forests of Abujhmad.

New Delhi : In August 2005, Basant K Ponwar moved from Mizoram to Chhattisgarh. At the time, Maoists had at least 106 districts in central and eastern India in their grip and were steadily expanding their menacing presence, prompting then prime minister Manmohan Singh in 2006 to call left-wing extremism (LWE) as the country’s greatest internal security threat.

The DRGs are key to government’s war against LWE . ht photo (HT)

The government’s fight against the rebels was flailing, largely because Maoists were trained in jungle warfare and were picking up young boys