Naxals are our people, response has to be more humane: CRPF Director General

The CRPF chief today said the Maoists are "our own people" so the response against them has to be calibrated and "more humane" keeping this in mind.

Dilip Trivedi, the newly-appointed Director General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), however, ruled out any scaling down of offensive by the security forces against the rebels in Left Wing Extremism hit areas. The CRPF is the mainstay for the anti-Naxal operations in the country with close to 85,000 personnel deployed for the task in nine affected states.

"The Naxals are our own people. They are not from outside. We are operating within the country and not facing the enemy as a border guarding force. We have to be selective in our action (against Maoists)," Trivedi said.

The Director General, who took charge about a month ago, recently toured the Naxal hotbeds of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. "We are not hitting at someone from across the border and what I feel is we have to be slightly more humane. There is a mental hesitation when you fight your own people but that has not made any scaling down of our preparedness against Maoists," he said.

The DG, a 1978-batch IPS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, said "it will take sometime" to wipe off the Naxal menace but said he was sure that ultimately the task would be achieved and development would usher in the affected areas. 

The CRPF has deployed bulk of men and machinery, including special commando squads to conduct special operations against Maoists who have been termed as one of the biggest internal security challenge to the country by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

A meeting of Director Generals of Police and Chief Secretaries of the Naxal affected states will be held in the national capital tomorrow. Trivedi, earlier, flagged off a 121-member CRPF contingent for rendering civil police duties in Liberia under the United Nation's banner.