US trains Chhattisgarh cops in anti-naxal drive

Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh, Aug 2 (UNI) In a determined bid to crush the naxalite movement, the Chhattisgarh government has enlisted the support of America in imparting training to its police personnel to deal with the landmine menace.

To start with, two police officers from Chhattisgarh had been sent to Louisiana for 21-day training in land mines, official sources said today.

Mr Govardhan Thakur and Mr Ramlochan Kashyap, both Deputy Superintendents of Police, posted in the naxalite-infested Bijapur area in Dantewada district bordering Andhra Pradesh, were sent for explosives training from American police from July 17.

Chhattisgarh, which was carved out of Madhya Pradesh as a separate state in 2000, was facing naxalite problem for about three decades and a dozen of its 16 districts had been notified as naxalite-affected.

Besides the district police, security forces comprising Special Armed Force, CRPF and Nagaland Armed Force have been deployed in anti-naxal operations mainly in Bastar division in the south and in Sarguja district in the north.

CPI (Maoist) naxalites active in Chhattisgarh were using landmines for about two decades as a deterrent to police entry into the interiors. Since police vehicles were the main target of landmine blasts, police officials had been instructed to cover forested interiors, wherever possible, on foot only.

In the past six months, at least 225 people, including 37 police personnel, were killed in naxalite attacks in Dantewada district alone.

Since June last year, a unique anti-naxal campaign 'Salwa Judum' had been launched in south Bastar triggering increased hostilities between the security force and ultras. About 50,000 tribals displaced from their villages had been given shelter in government-run relief camps, which also came under attacks frequently.

In view of the increased hostilities claiming a heavy toll, the BJP-ruled state government appointed former IPS officer K P S Gill, who had crushed terrorism in Punjab, as Security Adviser to deal with the naxalite menace.

Among about a dozen states facing naxalite menace, Chhattisgarh is the worst-hit and it is the first state to take American help in anti-naxal operations.

UNI XC-SP LS KP1930