Chhattisgarh to get specialised combat unit 'Black Panther', says Rajnath Singh

 Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said Chhattisgarh would get a specialised anti-Naxal combat force called "Black Panther" on the lines of the Greyhound unit.

Singh was addressing mediapersons today after chairing a meeting on Left-Wing Extremism (LWE). Chief Minister Raman Singh was present during the meeting at Mantralaya, Naya Raipur. "Chhattisgarh will have a new force on the lines of the Greyhounds. It will be called Black Panther. Training (for the personnel who will be part of it) is being imparted and it would be launched soon," Singh said, without divulging details about the new unit. The Greyhounds are a special force in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh that specialise in anti-insurgency operations against Naxalites and Maoists.

The Union minister said the government was keeping an eye on money stashed by Maoists. "We have information that they have made assets to the tune of crores. It also cannot be ruled out that their money is stashed abroad." He claimed the children of Maoist leaders were studying in "big schools and universities" and the government was keeping a tab on this too. He said the government would make all efforts to choke the resource flow to the Maoists, including by seizing illegally amassed properties after they are identified. On yesterday's Maoist attack in Dantewada, in which seven police personnel were killed, Singh said the ultras were on the back foot and they cannot face security forces in a straight fight so they were employing IEDs to target them, he said. This is also a reason why number of encounters had come down lately, he said.