In a major shift of policy aimed at making the combat more Centre specific, the offensive would be headed by a senior officer of the Central Para Military Forces.
The Centre will replicate the Unified Command Model, successfully tested in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and the Northeast, to combat Maoists to ensure better coordination between various wings of the security apparatus.
In a major shift of policy aimed at making the combat more Centre specific, the offensive would be headed by a senior officer of the Central Para Military Forces. Senior home ministry sources said lack of coordination was responsible for the security forces’ failure to check the growth of Maoists and repulse their attacks.
While in J&K and the Northeast, the command structure was at the level of the state or the region, in the case of counter-Maoist operations, it will be area or operation specific. The new operation will focus on areas with heavy concentration of Maoists or wherever their movement is noticed.
The four Maoist-affected states —Maharashtra, Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh — have been asked to identify such areas where operations can be launched in the coming weeks. Contrary to popular perception that the new anti-Maoist operations would be on a large scale, it will cover only five to six districts in the four states at one go.
“Security forces will move on to the next target once an area is cleared of Maoists and handed over to the state government for starting development works,” the sources said.
Intelligence agencies have completed groundwork about the quantity of arms and ammunition accumulated by the Maoists.
“They have a reasonably good number of arms and ammunition, mostly light and hand weapons. We have a clear estimate of their arms strength,” the sources said. The recent spurt in Maoist violence has not surprised security agencies, both at the Centre and the states. Senior officials said by doing so, Maoists were not only trying to show off their might but also divert the attention of security forces so that they could fortify themselves for impending operations.
“There is an element of panic among the insurgents. They are also worried about the safety of their leaders and could be using the encounters as a ploy to shift them to safer places so that they are not caught,” the officials said.
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