Bijapur: Security forces on Wednesday declared a major success saying they have demolished the “invincibility” of the Maoists and killed 31 ultras in and around a treacherous hill along the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border in the biggest ever coordinated operation carried out by them to eliminate the menace by next March.
Chiefs of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Chhattisgarh Police, G P Singh and A D Singh respectively, along with senior commanders of the two forces addressed the media in this district, about 450 km from state capital Raipur, to assert that the top armed Naxal leadership was “either eliminated or injured”.
A total of 21 encounters took place during this operation, according to official data.
Bijapur is one among the six most Naxal violence affected districts of the country.
The two chiefs said the 21-day long operation codenamed ‘Black forest’ that began on April 21 at the Korgotalu Hills (KGH) along the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border ended after 21 days on May 11 leading to killing of 31 Maoists including 16 women, seizure of 450 IEDs, about two tonnes of explosives, a number of rifles among others and ammunition. Eighteen security forces personnel were injured in this operation.
As many as 214 bunkers were busted and 818 barrel grenade launchers recovered.
CRPF director general (DG) Gyanendra Pratap Singh said the operation “achieved more than what was targeted” and the force is sure that they will meet the Union government’s deadline of ending Left wing extremism (LWE) from the country by March 2026. We are undertaking a “ruthless and relentless” strategy and this coordinated operation between CRPF, its jungle warfare commando unit CoBRA and Chhattisgarh Police’s STF and DRG played its “best” role and will continue in the future, he said.
Vivekananda Sinha, ADG (operations) of Chhattisgarh Police, said the operation has led to the “dislocation” of the Maoist leadership and their military formations had either “got divided or are sheltered elsewhere”.
The highest in the hierarchy, the PLGA unit of the Maoists, according to Sinha, has “weakened” and those holed up in the KGH have either been eliminated or are injured.
Bijapur SP Jitendra Yadav said out of the 31 Maoists killed, 20 have been identified and they carried a collective bounty of 1.72 crore.