New Delhi: The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on Wednesday claimed that its anti-Naxal operation witnessed a major success as 13 hardcore Maoists were killed by the security forces whereas a huge number of Maoists also surrendered.
The CRPF director general Kuldeip Singh said that in the year 2022, security forces have achieved unprecedented success in Operation Octopus, Operation Double Bull, and Operation Chakrabandha in the fight against Left Wing Extremists.
“Seven Maoists were killed and 436 arrested and surrendered in Chhattisgarh. As many as four Maoists were killed in Jharkhand and 120 were arrested and surrendered. 36 Maoists have either been arrested or surrendered in Bihar. Similarly, in Madhya Pradesh, three Maoists have also been killed by security forces,” said Singh.
He said that this success became even more important because many of these Maoists who were killed were carrying bounties of lakhs and crores on their heads. One of the top Maoists who was carrying an Rs. 1 crore bounty was Mithilesh Mahto.
Singh said that the forces were also able to make inroads into the Naxal bastion. “For the first time by entering the ‘Budhapahad’ situated at the border of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand and the extremely inaccessible areas of Chakrabandha and Bhimabandh of Bihar and successfully ousting the Maoists from their strongholds, a permanent security forces camps have been set up,” he said.
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All these areas were strongholds of top Maoists and a huge quantity of arms, ammunition, foreign grenades, Aero Bombs, and IEDs were recovered by the security forces at these places.
“The fight against Maoists is reaching its final stage following the fact that in 2022 in comparison to 2018, there has been a 39 percent reduction in the incidents of Left Wing Extremism related violence,” he said.
There was at least a 26 percent reduction in the number of casualties among security forces. The civilian casualties have also reduced by 44 percent and the number of districts reporting violence has decreased by 24 percent and the number of these districts has been reduced to just 39 in 2022, he added.
