Top cops discuss Green Hunt strategy

Vijay Deo Jha/Parvinder Bhatia | Ranchi/Jamshedpur

RANCHI | Friday, February 5, 2010

The top brasses of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Jharkhand Police held a crucial meeting on Thursday to draft a joint action plan against Maoists under the Operation Green.

The State Police exchanged dossiers and classified documents of the movements and the activities of Naxals in Jharkhand.

The meeting was attended by the CRPF special director-general (DG) and incharge of the anti-Naxalite task force Vijay Raman, Jharkhand DGP Neyaz Ahmed, IG Operation DK Pandey and CRPF DIG Alok Raj.

"We have discussed the topography of Jharkhand. We do not want to lose even a single life of our jawan during the operation," Raman said to the media.

The Centre will convene another meeting with the Chief Ministers of Naxal-hit States like Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal on February 9 in Kolkata to accentuate the biggest offensive against Naxalites in post-independent era.

"The meeting was for the purpose to draw a strategy for a coordinated effort against Naxalites with the help of the Jharkhand Police. We (CRPF) have a long-term commitment with the State Government to help them to smoke out red ultras. It is the beginning of the Operation Green Hunt in Jharkhand," Alok Raj told The Pioneer.

However, Raj refused to give any timeline for the operation to start but it is evident that the CRPF and the State Police are on their way to dominate the area.

Well-placed sources said that the Operation Commander was briefed about the major pockets of Naxals' concentration and the area known as liberated zone under Maoist's lexicons. "He (Raman) had been there to assess the preparation of the State Police and the terrain where the battle will be actually fought. He was provided with detailed intelligence inputs about Naxals and the areas which suffered the backlash of Naxal violence," a senior police official said.

Sharing of real time intelligence was another thing that the top cops discussed during the meeting. Sources confided about the plan of the Central Government to work out a centralised unit to gather and analyse intelligence reports gathered from the different part of Naxal-hit States.