Concerned over the depleting cadre base as well as leadership of the left Wing Extremism (lWE) Groups in the State, the CPI (Maoist) might resort to a shift in their operational tactics minimising face-to-face encounters to keep their leaders safe, said senior police officials of the State in the first monthly Press conference at police headquarters in Ranchi on Friday.
Jharkhand Police spokesperson and ADG SN Pradhan said that several hardcore Naxals — including some top shots — are in contact with the State police and are willing to surrender.
“According to the inputs received from various sources, the Naxal outfits are likely to change their strategy against the police targeting only at some of the vulnerable spots like helicopters and other vehicles from land mines and other explosives in order to minimise their losses during face-to-face encounter,” said Pradhan.
The ADG added that some of the incidents which took place in the last few days also suggest that the Naxals will now play offensive due to the decreasing mass base and losses in terms of headcount. This year itself, several Naxals got killed during encounters while we had a very few losses, he added.
“As far as operations in the State are concerned, we are at number one with a kill ratio of 2:24. As per the inputs we have, they have been directed to keep their leaders safe by decreasing face-to-face encounters with the police,” said Pradhan.
“Several hardcore Naxals, right from Special Area Committee (SAC) members up to the level of Area Commanders, are in contact with the officials, willing to surrender before it. Effect of degeneration could be easily seen among the Naxal cadres,” said the ADG.
Pradhan said that in order to prevent it from getting detected, the Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) will now be made available in plastic containers instead of the regular practice of installing it in metal containers.
The spokesperson, calling it an asymmetric war between the two, said that nothing is definite in this war where weaker and the most vulnerable points are given stress on bringing in maximum losses to the opposite side. “As their firing power of the Naxal outfits is regularly being diminished, they will now find out some other ways to beating us,” he said.
Concerned over the declaration of Panchayat elections in the State, the ADG said that the police needs to be more careful during such occasions as there will be more and more movement of forces in the interiors.
Referring to the Martyr's week to be observed from October 15 to 21, Pradhan said that blood donation camps will be organized at the district level throughout the state.
DGP of the State DK Pandey, on the occasion, promised a corruption-free policing giving priority to the security of women and children.
“We intent to make life easier for the common man through the adoption of adoption of technology in the day to day policing so that one need not to search for a source to get his work done in at a police station,” said the DGP.