Around 2,500 additional security personnel have been deployed in the Maoist hotbeds of Chhattisgarh to encircle the rebels inside the Abhujmad forest before stepping up the offensive against them, sources in the security establishment said.
They said the 2,500 additional personnel had been brought from Odisha
and Bihar.
“They have been deployed in the core areas of Abujhmad forest, which was earlier considered an impregnable rebel fortress. Besides, the forces are setting up more forward bases deep inside the Maoist strongholds in the state,” said a security official attached to the Union home ministry.
The CRPF has around 60 battalions in Maoist strongholds, of which 45 are in Chhattisgarh.
“Over the past few months, the CRPF and units of other forces have opened several forward bases to expand the reach of security personnel inside the forest, once considered a ‘liberated zone’ of the rebels,” the official said.
These forward bases, he said, help troops to quickly return to camp after conducting operations or area domination exercises nearby, significantly reducing travel time and enabling faster response times during missions inside the jungles.
The forward bases also send reinforcements, whenever needed.
Sources said the remote areas where the forward bases had been set up were surrounded by hills and were home to training camps, an ammunition dump, and rations units of Maoists from the south and west Bastar divisions.
The ongoing offensive inside the Abujhmad forest, which has resulted in several casualties, has shaken the morale of the Maoists and they have been pushed to the wall, the sources said.
The renewed offensive comes against the backdrop of the massacre of eight security personnel and their driver by the Maoists in Chhattisgarh in January.
Union home minister Amit Shah has resolved to eliminate Left-wing extremism by March 31 next year.
Bastar, Bijapur, Narayanpur, Kanker, Sukma, Dantewada and Kondagaon are the seven districts worst hit by Maoist insurgency in Chhattisgarh.
Security forces have been using drones for reconnaissance and for taking real-time images of Maoist hotbeds inside the Abhujmad forest, spread over 3,900sqkm in southern Chhattisgarh.
Earlier this month, the security forces had launched a massive offensive inside the forest and gunned down 39 suspected Maoists in two encounters. Two jawans of the state police were killed in the operation.
Last month, 14 Maoists, including five women and a commander with a bounty of ₹1 crore on his head, were killed by the security forces.
Sources said the toughest anti-Maoist operations remained concentrated in the southern region of Bastar, bordering Odisha and Telangana.
The sources said the Centre was considering withdrawing some of the CRPF companies stationed in Maoist-affected areas of Jungle Mahal in Bengal for deployment in Chhattisgarh.
A home ministry official said Chhattisgarh alone accounted for over 60 per cent of Maoist violence, followed by Jharkhand.
“Jharkhand has also been demanding more central forces to intensify operations against the rebels,” the official said.