The CRPF has begun an internal inquiry into the Latehar incident where Maoists managed to inflict maximum injuries on CRPF personnel to the extent of planting IEDs inside a dead personnel’s body, besides killing nine others. The Central paramilitary force has informed the MHA that it will undertake a review of the tactics employed during operations like the one in Latehar to avoid a situation where Maoists are able to turn the situation to their advantage.
Amid indications that due caution could have been exercised by some of the senior officers in-charge in the area, which may have avoided the extreme brutal casualties, top officials in the CRPF remained tightlipped and said the inquiry will bring out whether there were any lapses. “Whatever lessons have been learnt will come out in the inquiry and if something needs to be done it will be done. If there is a need to fix responsibility we will decide after the inquiry is complete,” a CRPF official said.
The official said: “Like every encounter, an inquiry into the Latehar encounter will draw certain lessons which can be incorporated in the future operations. After all we have lost 10 lives.”
The MHA, meanwhile, has alerted all Naxal-infested states and Central armed forces following intelligence reports of the CPI(Maoist) preparing to launch a tactical counter offensive campaign by forming “special action teams” under the guidance of its Central Military Commission.
The Maoist-counter offensive campaign will be spread across four months, beginning February.
, where the focus will be to target political functionaries on the Maoist hitlist, so-called police informers, jails where cadres are imprisoned, police stations, foot patrol, police outposts and camps of Central armed forces, according to the inputs.
The MHA, in its advisory, has asked security forces to “form counter-action teams” and undertake planned operations to neutralise active militants. All states have been asked to “sensitise individual troops and policemen to avoid unnecessary movement in sensitive areas”, beef up security in vulnerable areas and “alert possible targets, including police informers and political functionaries”.