NEW DELHI: Barely days after taking over as chief of Intelligence Bureau Dineshwar Sharma is on a top mission to Chhattisgarh to work out plans for containing Naxalism. Sources said the newly-appointed IB chief reached the Naxal-affected state on Wednesday, indicating that Left-wing Extremism (LWE) dominates the intelligence agency’s agenda.
As many as 25 civilians and 55 security personnel were killed in Naxal violence in Chhattisgarh in 2014 alone. The paramilitary forces operating in Maoist strongholds have often complained about lack of actionable intelligence during anti-Naxal operations. Several Maoists had surrendered to the authorities in the last two years.
However, the recent ambushes carried out by the extremists expose the loopholes in the anti-naxal operation.
“The IB chief will assess the ground reality with the senior officials. Lack of human intelligence is a major challenge for the forces involved in the operations and it is evident from the past several incidents that forces have not found the Naxalites, but in fact, they found us and mounted ambush in the most treacherous terrain,” sources said, adding that the discussions would be mainly on overhauling the strategies and tactics of counter-insurgency operations and the standard operating procedures (SOP) developed by some of the best forces in the world.
Sources also said the new leadership is keen on critical analysis of the current policies to find out its applicability and relevance given the complex jungle terrain and to examine if there is any need for changing the tactics.