New Delhi

CRPF to deploy extra force in Chhattisgarh, J&K

NEW DELHI: The Central Reserve Police Force will deploy 88 companies during the upcoming Assembly elections in the naxal-hit Chhattisgarh.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, CRPF Director-General V. K. Joshi said 14 battalions had already been deployed across the State for anti-naxal operations and an extra force of nearly 9,000 personnel would be sent for security arrangements during the elections.

In Jammu and Kashmir, an extra force of over 200 companies would be sent for election duty. Given that separatist leaders have issued a call for boycott of polls, Mr. Joshi said there would be certain amount of violence, such as grenade attacks on security forces.

The CRPF chief said two of the ten proposed battalions of the anti-naxal Combat Battalion for Resolute Action Force comprising separate intelligence units would be raised by the end of this financial year. K. Durga Prasad, a 1981 batch Indian Police Service officer from Andhra Pradesh and an expert at anti-naxal operations, is heading the force.

Mr. Joshi said lack of credible intelligence inputs was proving to be a major hurdle for the CRPF in carrying out operations in different States.

“We have moved a proposal for an intelligence wing for the force and are awaiting a response from the Government,” he said.

Stating that the force was getting good cooperation from their counterparts in Jharkhand in conducting anti-naxal operations, he said the situation was not the same in Chhattisgarh.

He said the success of such operations depended on how strong the intelligence network was.

“Intelligence has to be provided to us by the State police,” he said, adding that due to lack of inputs it was very difficult to check naxal activities that were on the rise.

This year till September, CRPF along with other security forces and the States police killed 169 militants, extremists and naxalites and arrested 1,512 during various operations. The force seized 1,561 sophisticated weapons, 897 grenades, bombs and rockets, 7,738 kg of explosive material and a large cache of live rounds.

The CRPF lost 49 of its personnel during the encounters. In Jammu and Kashmir alone, the force killed 81 terrorists and arrested 180.

The force, which will celebrate its 69th anniversary on November 7, was also deployed during the recent Nandigram crisis in West Bengal and at Kandhamal in Orissa to help the civil administration in controlling communal violence.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu