NEW DELHI: The government will now go the whole hog against the Red ultras. Plans have been set in motion to deploy around 70,000 paramilitary personnel in the naxal-affected states, which in conjunction with the state police forces will soon take the battle to the Maoist rebels in their jungle and other hideouts.
A day after home minister P Chidambaram issued an ultimatum to Maoists to jettison their armed struggle or face full-scale action, sources said the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on Thursday gave the green signal to the major step-up in operations against the rebels in consultation with the respective state governments after the Maharashtra assembly polls later this month.
"Full-scale security offensive, coupled with equitable development, will be the guiding principle, while taking the state governments fully on board,'' said a top official.
The planned major offensive will revolve around the "complete domination of affected areas'' till civil and police administration is fully restored. "It might take two to three years but it will be done. The beginning has already been made in Lalgarh in West Bengal and Dantewada in Chhattisgarh,'' said a senior home ministry official.
Even as the over two-hour-long CCS chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh discussed the security as well as economic options to take on the red menace, IAF announced its own plans to deploy its Garud commandos and mount machine guns on its helicopters to protect its aircrew and aircraft.
That naxalism has swiftly emerged as the biggest internal security challenge in recent years can be gauged from the fact that while less than 90 security personnel have been killed in counter-terrorism operations in Jammu and Kashmir this year, over 270 of them have already lost their lives battling the ultras in states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.
This represents the highest toll for security forces in anti-naxal duties in a single year, with the killing of 18 policemen by naxals in Gadchiroli region of Maharashtra on Thursday only reinforcing the huge challenge ahead.
While 33,000 security personnel are already deployed in these states, another 37,000 will be drawn from various paramilitary forces like CRPF, ITBP, BSF, SSB and CoBRA as part of the stepped-up drive against naxalites.
The armed forces, however, will not directly join the battle. Air Chief Marshal P V Naik said the Garud special forces would be deployed in IAF helicopters -- engaged in reconnaissance, logistical and casualty evacuation duties in the ongoing anti-naxal operations -- to ward off any naxal attack on them.
"But there will no Rambo-style operations or a free-for-all,'' said the IAF chief, stressing the security measures were meant for self-defence and use of "offensive airpower'' was strictly not on the radar screen due to the high risk of collateral damage. Defence minister A K Antony, too, said the armed forces would not be "directly used'' in the anti-naxal operations.
Paramilitary forces under the home ministry, along with the state police forces, will instead drive the anti-naxal battle. "The aim is to confront the Maoists simultaneously in all affected states to eliminate the menace,'' said an official.
"Although operations against the ultras are already in motion, they will be stepped up once polls in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh are over...it will free around 25,000 central paramilitary personnel,'' he added.
The security dragnet will specially focus on the two tri-junctions of Jharkhand-West Bengal-Orissa and Chhattisgarh-Orissa-Andhra Pradesh to prevent any attempt by the Maoists to sneak from one zone to another.
Even for the election duties in Maharastra -- guarding polling stations, poll material and election staff -- the Centre has deployed 4,000 specially-trained personnel in the Gadchiroli, Gondia and Chandrapur regions.
"They have been asked not only to do area domination before the polls but also to conduct operations on the basis of local intelligence before and after the polling on October 13,'' said another official.
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