RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh police in the strife-torn Bastar zone have devised a renewed strategy to step-up anti-Maoist operations after the region witnessed a largely peaceful assembly poll held the previous month.
The plan of action is equally aimed to corner the senior leaders of the left-wing extremists through tactical moves during the intensified operations. With the change of leadership in the outlawed CPI (Maoist) and the ongoing week-long People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) being observed by the naxals, the forces too have gone for a renewed action plan putting greater stress on joint combing and offensive operations.
The forces are carrying out combat operations against the Maoists for the past three decades in the conflict zone of Bastar, south Chhattisgarh. The troopers remain on high alert during the ongoing PLGA week from December 2-8, when the rebels hold meetings in villages, recruit locals and offer tributes to their comrades killed in the gun-battles.
"The change in the top leadership in the CPI Maoist is actually the consequences of internal bickering. 2018 saw the maximum damage inflicted on the rebels by the security forces in its 50 years of history when their maximum cadres were killed in the encounters. In the Central Committee of Maoists the resentment was brewing in recent years and it resulted in the removal of Ganapathy. In 1992 Kondapalli Sita Ramaiyya was removed in a similar fashion", deputy inspector general of police (south Bastar) Ratanlal Dangi told the Express.
Recently Ganapathy alias Muppala Laxmana Rao stepped down as general secretary of the banned organisation citing the health grounds and paved way for Basvaraju alias N Keshav Rao, who was in- charge of the Naxal's central military commission. According to the Bastar police the new general secretary of CPI (Maoist) Basavaraju, who hailed from Andhra has primarily focused his activities in the areas of south Chhattisgarh and adjoining border areas.
The rebels in their statement issued by the south sub-zonal bureau of CPI (Maoist) recently had admitted of losing their 65 fighters during the past one year in various encounters with the forces as they exhorted their cadres to observe the PLGA week with zeal and ardour. "The figures revealed by the naxals in their press statement is absolutely false. The forces have killed much more what they claimed. At least 125 bodies of Maoists were recovered during past one year. The naxals usually attempt to carry away their dead comrades after the gunfight", Dangi asserted.