CRPF Director General K Durga Prasad on Wednesday met CM Raghubar Das and discussed issues pertaining to the State and CRPF briefly. Prasad sought cooperation from the CM in the Central forces fight against extremism in State and said that the Government has pldged full support to the CRPF.
Prasad said that the talks were not only limited to operations against the extremists but also development works being carried out with help of the CRPF in several far flung areas of the State. The CRPF DG expressed satisfaction with the response of the government and the CM.
Notably, the DG’s visit to the State coincides with the massive operation being carried out in the State. Cordoning of Maoists is continuing at Budha Pahari for the sixth consecutive day at the Jharkhand-Chhattisgarh border with joint operations being conducted to flush out Maoists from the area. Security forces claim to have cornered Polit Bureau Members Arvind Ji and Sudhakar Ji along with several other hardcore Maoists in the jungles.
Anti-Naxal operations along Chattisgarh borders adjacent to Palamu and Garhwa districts of Jharkhand has been expedited by the security forces following the death of a CoBRA battalion personnel on July 11 during the gun-battle. So far, the security forces have recovered at least 17-18 landmines which have been destroyed by them.
“Camps along with several IEDs have been destroyed during operations. As terrains in these areas are very tough, we have not been able to locate them so far,” said a senior police official requesting anonymity. Possibly they have scattered in smaller groups and are waiting for the security forces to recede following which they will reorganise themselves, he added.
“Polit Bureau members Arvind Ji, Sudhakar Ji along with hard core Maoist Birsai Ji along with several other dreaded Naxals are hiding in Budha Pahari which is spread along 100 square km,” said the official.
Movement of security forces is also very slow in these jungles as IEDs have been planted by the Naxals to damage the security forces.
It is very difficult to move in those jungles as IEDs have been planted throughout the entire jungle. Jawans of CRPF, Jharkhand Jaguar, CoBRA along with state police have been involved in the operation.
“As many as 20 companies of security forces have been involved in the operation which will continued for next few days until the areas is cleared from Naxals,” said ADG (Operations) and Jharkhand Police Spokesperson SN Pradhan. light shelling also took place between security forces and Maoists at few place but no casualties took place from any of the sides,” Pradhan said.
Budha Pahari has been a safe zone for Maoists since long as it is connected to Chhattisgarh borders. This area has also become a challenge for the police as Maoists taking advantage of the state borders jump to another side during operations.
A similar operation was conducted in Budha Pahari in the year 2013 following which the Maoists had fled towards Chhattisgarh taking advantage of the connecting borders.