RAIPUR: Security forces have primarily targeted top Naxal leaders to achieve the goal of ending Leftwing extremism in the country by March 2026.
Sources said security forces are now in the hot pursuit of at least 13 top Maoist leaders who included politburo and Central Committee members of the outlawed CPI (Maoist).
“We have traced the ‘general’ locations of hideouts of many top Maoist leaders including Madvi Hidma and Barsa Deva. We are keeping vigil on their movements when they shift their locations”, Bastar range inspector general of police P Sunderraj told this newspaper on Sunday, exclusively.
While Hidma, proving elusive for security forces for the past two and half decades, is the CC member and was involved in several major attacks on security forces in Bastar, Deva is the current commander of the battalion number one, considered the formidable military unit of Maoists.
The targeted Maoist leaders are under constant electronic and human surveillance and they will be cornered at ‘strategic’ places, a strategy adopted in the encounter death of CPI (Maoist) general secretary Basavaraju in south Bastar on May 21, another counterinsurgency officer disclosed to this newspaper.
According to him, a letter, recovered from one of the top-level slain Maoist cadres, indicated that the senior cadres have been advised by the leadership to ‘remain’ in their hideouts for their safety at this juncture since the outfit has weakened considerably now.
“The Maoist outfit has now been left with four politburo members, nine CC members, around 40 members of state and divisional committees and nearly 400 regular armed cadres, besides some frontal organizations like Chetna Natya Manch (CNM) which are not of significant consequence for security forces”, Mr. Sunderraj said.
The strength of the politburo of the banned outfit has reduced from eight in 2007-08 to merely four now whereas the strength of the CC has declined considerably from 37 in 2007-08 to nine now.
Majority of the senior Maoist cadres have either been killed in the encounters or arrested or surrendered.
Some have retired due to advanced age and sickness.
Security forces have of late been able to make inroads deep into the Naxal strongholds in Bastar rapidly confining the extremists to hardly five-six ‘small pockets’ comprising around 4,000 sq km of the 42,000 sq km area of Bastar, Mr. Sunderraj said.
Sources said the strength of battalion one of the people’s liberation guerrilla army (PLGA) of Maoists has been reduced to barely 150 now from nearly 1,000 a decade ago.
“Security forces have meanwhile foiled the move by Maoists to build their second battalion”, Mr. Sunderraj said.
According to a police officer, hardly three out of seven divisional committees and seven-eight area committees of Maoists in Bastar are now in functional stage.
