Odisha Police turn heat on Maoists, DGP prepares roadmap
BHUBANESWAR: Upping the ante against Maoists, the Odisha Police have decided to set up new company operating bases (COBs) with the help of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Border Security Force (BSF) in Naxal hotbeds, especially in Malkangiri, Rayagada, Kandhamal, Kalahandi and Koraput districts.
Director general of police Abhay, intelligence director R K Sharma and inspector general (operations) Amitabh Thakur among other senior police officers on Monday toured Malkangiri, Kalahandi and Koraput districts and discussed with CRPF and BSF officials regarding establishment of the new COBs.
Abhay’s review in the left-wing extremism (LWE)-affected areas came in the wake of the killing of two Maoists in Swabhiman Anchal of Malkangiri district on Sunday and death of another Maoist in Kandhamal district on Friday.
Abhay visited the CRPF’s COB at Trilochanpur in Kalahandi district and interacted with the CRPF personnel. Trilochanpur is a highly vulnerable location, also known as tri-junction (confluence point of Kalahandi, Kandhamal and Rayagada districts). He interacted with the SPs of Kalahandi, Kandhamal and Rayagada and took stock of the measures to contain the LWE menace in those areas.
Abhay also toured a BSF’s COB at Hantalguda in Malkangiri’s Swabhiman Anchal, once infamous as the cut-off area and bastion of Maoists.
“We held an important coordination meeting with the CRPF and BSF officers. We also discussed redeployment plan of the security forces in the proposed COBs. Our focus is to weed out Maoists completely from Swabhiman Anchal, which used to be their stronghold. Establishment of a COB, jointly by the BSF and state police at Gurasethu in Swabhiman Anchal last month, has dealt a blow to LWE-activities in the area,” Abhay said.
Sources said Maoists of AOBSZC (Andhra Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee) are currently active in Swabhiman Anchal.
Maoist cadres, mostly from Chhattisgarh, belonging to Bansadhara-Ghumusura-Nagabali (BGN) division of the CPI (Maoist) and Kalahandi Kandhamal Boudh Nayagarh (KKBN) division are active in tri-junction area in Trilochanpur of Kalahandi district.
During the meeting with the CRPF and the BSF officers, Abhay sought better coordination between the state and central forces to gather specific intelligence and carry out successful anti-Maoist operations.
Altogether 17 Maoists have so far been killed in the state in 2020 (till the end of November). Two police personnel have lost their lives in anti-Maoist operations in the state so far this year.