Security forces are fighting a decisive battle in Budha Pahad area, a safe hideout of Maoists. In this sequence on Tuesday security forces destroyed a hideout of the Maoists at Budha Pahad under Bhandariya police station area in Garhwa.
Garhwa SP Anjani Kumar Jha said the operation codenamed "Octopus" was launched on September 4 by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), its jungle warfare commando unit CoBRA and the special unit of the Jharkhand Police called "Jaguars" in the Budha Pahad hill area and Budha village located entirely within the limits of the district is now in the custody of the Garhwa Police.
Maoists have laid land mines, grenades, pressure bomb around the inaccessible mountain on the border of Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh. The challenge before the security forces to climb the mountain is to thwart the land mine. This time action being taken from the Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh side to siege the mountain, the SP added.
According to sources the Naxalites tried to stop the security forces by conducting more than thirty serial blasts in the in the Thaliya and Tisiya adjacent to the mountain, but the security forces are proceeding with utmost care. During the operation there was a big success on Tuesday, a huge assortment of bombs, 38 Chinese grenades, 21 pressure cooker improvised explosive devices (IEDs), 358 self-loading rifle bullets, some amount of ammonium nitrate and other items used for dwelling in jungles have been recovered from a bunker.
Naxalites, who once had their influence in about 800 villages of the district and active with armed squad, have now been limited only to the Budha Pahad area of Bhandaria police station. Due to the geographically difficult area, the Budha Pahad remains a challenge for the police. A large part of the Budha Pahad region falls in Chhattisgarh. Apart from this, its areas also come in Latehar district and Garhwa district of Jharkhand. The Maoists keep carrying out incidents in other areas, keeping their eyes from the police. The village named Budha, after which Budha Pahar is named, is within the limits of Garhwa district, but the Naxalites use Latehar area instead of Garhwa for movement.