Taking the fight to the Maoist heartland, the security forces have made significant inroads into Abhujmad, considered the capital of the CPI (Maoist).
For the first time, the joint teams of Central and state police forces have made incursions in the “base area” of the CPI (Maoist) in a daring and extensive operation undertaken by the anti-Naxalite grid in the last few days. An MI 17 chopper, engaged in dropping rations for troops on the ground, was fired upon by the extremists near Jetwar in Narayanpur on March 16. The helicopter was hit by bullets but no damage has been done, according to the latest intelligence reports shared with the union home ministry.
The home ministry is seeing the Abhujmad operation as a major boost to its efforts to reclaim control over large tracts of land from Maoists to pump in development. It is now hoping that the ability of the security forces to penetrate into the Maoist freezone would deter the outfit from establishing large scale permanent infrastructure in the region.
Abhujmad in district Narayanpur in Chattisgarh is a veritable “base area” of the banned CPI (Maoist) with the outfit dominating the region through an extensive network of Janatana Sarkar units. The exercise which began around March 5 entailed launch of large joint security forces (SF) teams of 600 personnel drawn from COBRA, CRPF, STF and district police in different phases from different directions into Maoists strongholds.
The maoists’ launched a parallel operation to target the SFs resulting in encounters in different zones lasting uptil March 16.
Three Jan Militia members, three suspected CPI(Maoist) cadres, 10 hardcore over-ground (Sangham) members were arrested during the entire operation.
Two IEDs, four detonators, electric wires, nine country made guns, .303 rifle, 12-bore gun and 268 rounds of ammunition have been recovered.