High quality rocket launchers with naxals pose major worry for security forces

Today's attack by the naxals on the Indo-Tibetan Police (ITBP) at Chattisgarh could have been revenge, officials probing the incident say. However, the more intriguing aspect of this attack is that the naxals have resumed the use of rocket launchers in their operations.

The first signs of naxals sourcing rocket launchers dates back to 2005. However at that time around, the launchers were not sophisticated.

Although they used them sparingly, a raid in 2015 by the ITBP in Chattisgarh's Rajnandgaon area led to the seizure of highly sophisticated rocket launchers.

Enhancing their artillery:

From the year 2005 onwards the naxals have been trying to add more rocket launchers into their artillery. This had caused a great deal of concern for the security agencies as rocket launchers gives the naxals an added edge to launch long range attacks.

While the initial round of rocket launchers sourced by the naxals was not sophisticated in nature. They hardly deployed these launchers. However by the year 2015 they had manage to source highly sophisticated rocket launchers.

They had also appointed cadres who could develop such launchers which led to intelligence bureau officials stating that naxals may be getting help from outside.

The raid in 2015 by the ITBP revealed for the first time the sophisticated artillery the naxals had. These were clearly sourced from outside the country. At that point in time the raiding party seized four such launchers.

This raid also indicated that after a long time the naxals had brought the rocket launchers back into their artillery. The attack that took place today could have well have been a revenge for the raid conducted by the ITBP in 2015.