The Intelligence Bureau, which has mostly failed in generating leads to safeguard national security interests, has now claimed that the Maoists may target major urban centres, including the National Capital, in the coming months.
The intelligence reports are generic in nature and claim the ultras could execute targeted killings in the coming months even as they are in the lookout for opportunities to carry out violence in the Naxal strongholds.
After the massacre of 27 people, including Congress leaders, in Chhattisgarh, the CPI(Maoist) is trying to expand its activities beyond its area of influence and targeted killings are one of the key options.
The IB reports suggested that Maoists have suffered significant reverses in recent past and Saturday's attack in Jagdalpur was result of the extremists' attempt to hog national limelight and reassert their influence.
To get maximum mileage in respect of getting international attention as well as to boost the morale of the cadres, the Maoists would now try to carry out spectacular violence over soft targets in urban centres, the reports said.
Official sources said the desperation of Maoists was reflected in the intercepted conversations of the few top leaders mostly hiding in deep jungles of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha.
Admitting the failure of the Centre in sufficiently augmenting the requirement of additional forces to counter Naxalism in Chhattisgarh, top Union Home Ministry official said the operations against Maoists will be a prolonged task and would require nearly 27,000 more paramilitary personnel. The Chhattisgarh government has been seeking additional 30,000 Central paramilitary force personnel to carry out anti-Naxal operations effectively.
The officials said the security forces would take at least two-three years to clear the Naxal dominated areas in Bastar (Chhattisgarh), Malkangiri and Koraput (both in Odisha) and latehar (Jharkhand).
Currently, 82,000 paramilitary personnel are deployed in anti-Naxal operations apart from the state police forces.
Union Home Secretary RK Singh has been on record saying there are many areas across the Naxal-affected states where there is a complete vacuum of the administrative machinery including lack of presence of police.
The Maoists are taking advantage of that situation. Bastar region is equivalent to the size of Kerala but there are only 18,000 security personnel and it was just not enough, the sources said.
The fresh multi-pronged offensives involving multiple forces are being launched from various points of Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha simultaneously, ahead of which satellite and UAV imageries are being studies in detail.
The Director General (DG) of CRPF Pranay Sahay, meanwhile, made an on-spot assessment of the incident and the positioning of CRPF camps in Darbha valley in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district where 28 persons including senior Congress leaders were killed on Saturday.