Local intel helped security forces C-60 elite squad emerges the hero
INPUTS Informer who worked for police as well as Maoists gave the crucial tipoff NAGPUR:
What is being tipped as the most successful encounter between Maoists and security forces on Sunday morning in Rela-Kasnasur jungle in south Gadchiroli region, along the Indravati river that divides Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, was based on a vital input from an informer who worked for police as well as the Maoists.
Gadchiroli police received an input on Saturday afternoon that senior Maoists, including a few members of the divisional committee, would attend a secret meeting in Rela-Kasnasur jungle on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Senior police officials, including deputy inspector general of police Ankush Shinde and district police superintendent Dr Abhinav Deshmukh, held a meeting and chalked out a strategy. Additional SP Hari Balaji was given ground responsibility, with a strong contingent of antiNaxalite squad of C-60 and CRPF jawans who are well-versed with the topography of the area.
Security forces of over 300 armed jawans cordoned off the area by 9.30pm on Saturday but also ostensibly allowed a passage to other Maoists who wanted to attend the meeting. Some senior comrades came from neighbouring Chhattisgarh (Bastar) by crossing the Indravati. Close to 60 Maoists gathered in the jungle with some sentries, who are kept by Maoists to guard senior leaders.
The C-60 team and CRPF jawans preferred not to attack the camp at night and waited until the morning. As per the plan, the C-60 jawans and CRPF personnel attacked on Sunday at 8am. Caught by surprise, a few of the Maoists tried to flee with guns. But most were killed.
DIG Shinde said that the gun battle continued till 11am as a few rebels who carried sophisticated weapons fired indiscriminately on security forces and tried to flee. He said that the main concern of the rank and file was to give safe passage to senior leaders. But the Maoists suffered big casualties.
The battlefield was also near the ashram run by Magsaysay award-winning social worker couple — Prakash Amte, who runs a charitable hospital, with his wife, Manda, their son, and daughter-in-law — for tribals.
When the C-60 team felt the Maoists were surrounded, they started the combing operation in the dense forest area from 1.30pm on Sunday and found 16 bodies in the jungle by 7pm. They stopped the operation as night approached and restarted search on Monday from 6am. But they could not find any bodies till late in the evening.
Security forces found 15 decomposed bodies in the Indravati on Tuesday. Among them, two were women. Not a single body has been identified so far. Police felt that among the slain Maoists, Ganapathy may be one of them as he was in the camp.
In the second encounter on Monday, a group of C-60 was on their way to Rela-Kasnasur to help their colleagues and spotted a group of armed Maoists in Nainer jungle near Jimalghatta. The team gunned down six Maoists, including one Nandu, who carried a reward of ₹16 lakh. Maharashtra DGP Satish Mathur said the whole operation was on the basis of local intelligence.
The heroes of the successful anti-Maoist operation on Sunday and Monday, in which 27 Maoist rebels were killed, including a few senior leaders, were C-60 commandos, which is an elite anti-Maoist squad of the Gadchiroli police.
The district police and jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) deployed in the district face several problems, unable to speak the local Gondi and Madia languages and a lack of knowledge of topography. This led to several jawans getting trapped in dense forests and falling victims to armed rebels.
In view of such adverse circumstances, the then SP of the district, KP Raghuvanshi, set up C-60 in 1992 by recruiting locals who know the topography of the area and had knowledge of the Gondi, Halbi and Madia languages of tribals.
In 1994, another batch of C-60 team was created, especially for south Gadchiroli. Here again, local Gonds and Madia boys were recruited for the team. One C-60 squad consists of 60 jawans with a police inspector.
The men of this wing were imparted training in various types of guerrilla warfare from reputed training institutes, such as the Greyhound in Hyderabad, Hazaribag in Bihar, Counter Terrorism and Jungle Warfare College Kanker in Chhattisgarh, among others.
The area where the operation took place was the Rela-Kasnasur jungle, a dense forest region, which is around 15km from Tadgaon, the forest range headquarters and hardly 12km from Hemalkasa, the ashram of Prakash Amte, who runs a charitable hospital for tribals there. Bhamragarh, the biggest village of the area, is around 15km from the site.
The Indravati river is around half a km from the jungle. The river divides both the state, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. In Chhattisgarh border. The famous Indravati tiger sanctuary begins from there. The Park is famous for its unique and diverse wildlife and bird species including some of the most endangered species such as wild water buffalos and hill mynas.
Tapan Mukherjee, a former sub-divisional forest officer, who worked as ranger of Tadgaon in which Rela-Kasnasur forest comes, said that crossing of Maoists through the Indravati river is quite common.
“It is very difficult for any forest personnel to work there smoothly as any action against forest smugglers, offenders or poachers would be jeopardise the life of forest personnel, thanks to clout of Maoists in the area,” he pointed out.
NAGPUR: