Bastar: With the COVID graph in India continuously rushing upwards, school closures in various states due to the pandemic situation have placed the administration as well as police in Chhattisgarh's Bastar in front of a daunting task: stopping Naxalites from recruiting school children into their ranks.
Bastar Police IG Sundar Raj P, speaking to ETV Bharat, claimed that the radical groups are taking advantage of school closures and are including children sitting at home into their ranks.
"Educational institutions were closed for the last two years to prevent COVID infection in Bastar. After which the Naxalites are luring the school children to join their ranks. We have received information about this. However, in these 2 years, exactly how many students have been included by the Naxalites in their organization is not yet clear. Bastar Police is constantly talking to students who have returned to schools and taking information from them so that action can be taken on this matter," the IG said.
He further noted that the Naxalites were anti-development and anti-people and that their real face has been exposed among the people.
Police in Bastar were strategizing to bring the pupils back to the classrooms and into the mainstream as soon as possible, he added.
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