CRPF to shift focus to Kalahandi, Kandhamal

BHUBANESWAR/KORAPUT: To intensify anti-extremist operations, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has decided to redeploy its men to locations currently considered more vulnerable to Maoist offensives.
“We would soon relocate some of our personnel to more critical pockets in the state,” said director general of (CRPF) Prakash Mishra on Monday. He made the revelation after he discussed counter-insurgency operation strategies in Odisha with senior officers of the central force and state police in Rayagada.
Sources said CRPF men on duty in Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar districts could be shifted to Kalahandi and Kandhamal districts, where rebel activities are on the rise.
In his maiden visit to the state after taking charge as CRPF boss in December, Mishra toured worst-hit Chandrapur in Rayagada district and assessed the situation in the camp of the para-military force’s eighth battalion.
“Our top priority is to ensure zero casualty of our men in the fight against extremists. Detailed discussions were held regarding strategies to be adopted for our operations with intelligence inputs revealing functioning of Maoist camps along Odisha-Chhattisgarh border,” Mishra told the media. He also held a meeting at the camp of the CRPF’s 127 battalion situated at Gajalbadi in Ganjam district.
Reacting to a recent video footage, recovered by security personnel from a Maoist camp in Bastar in Chhattisgarh, in which the radicals are seen practicing to shoot at a helicopter, Mishra said: “We have definite inputs about Maoists camps where their cadres are being trained to target helicopters on reconnaissance. We are on the job to foil their tactics. Pilots have been asked to take necessary precautionary measures while on such missions.”
Officials said CRPG IG (Operation) Zulfikar Hasan, CRPF IG (Odisha in-charge) Pankaj Kumar, director of state intelligence S K Ray, IG (intelligence) Soumendra Priyadarshi and SP (Rayagada) Shiv Subramani were part of the discussions.