Ceasefire’s over, ANF will resume ‘normal’ operations

After the week-long ceasefire, the Anti-Naxal Force (ANF) is going to resume its ‘normal operations’ in the Western Ghats from Tuesday.

The government had ordered a week-long ceasefire on September 16 to facilitate surrender of the Naxals operating in the Western Ghats. The deadline for the Naxals to surrender ended on Sunday.

Speaking to DNA, inspector general of police and chief of the ANF, Alok Kumar, said: “Nobody came to surrender. Though we have got a list of about 15 persons, they were not hardcore Naxalites; they were, what we call, sympathisers of the Naxal movement. We want the people who carry guns and operate deep inside the forests to surrender.”

Reacting to the allegation of a team of NGOs, which said the encounter was fake, the ANF chief said the NGOs should help them in persuading the Naxals to surrender. He said the police and the ANF cannot just sit and watch when gun-toting persons are running loose in the forests, challenging democracy.

“Let me be very clear about it, we do not like killing people. The encounter death that happened on September 5 was forced. The Naxals had opened fire at us and we had to fire back, in which one of them was killed,” he added.

The ANF will have to start from the scratch again in its pursuit of the Naxals in the Western Ghats. It is their practice that after an encounter or death of one of their brothers in arms, they lie low for a few weeks, before surfacing again with reinvigorated forces. The ANF has already started collecting information about the Naxals’ movements.