New twist to old problem in Maoist-hit regions
Chhattisgarh police and CRPF open a new base in Maoist stronghold Puverti, face attacks on camps. Strategic push into core areas met with Maoist resistance.
On Saturday, a joint team of the Chhattisgarh police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) broke new ground, opening a forward operating base in Sukma’s Puverti village.
The move was as much tactical as symbolic.
Deep in south Chhattisgarh, Puverti has for the past three decades been an impregnable fortress for the CPI (Maoist); a village that has rarely, if ever, seen either the police or an administrative presence.
It has also been a key source of manpower for the rebels with over a hundred recruits in 20 years and home for two men who are cornerstones of the Maoist presence in Chhattisgarh, considered the architects of one violent attack after the other, Madvi Hidma and Barse Deva, both commanders of the People Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA) battalion No 1 – the Maoist military formation that operates in the conflict affected districts of Sukma, Bijapur, Dantewada and Bastar.
Yet Saturday was also evidence of the Maoist counter-reaction that this forward push is now eliciting — attacks on forward camps set up by security forces, once common in battleground Bastar, but rare over the past two decades.
On February 17, as forces just finished setting up the camp in the middle of the dense forests, they found themselves under fire from two dozen armed Maoists. “This was expected, and we hit them back hard,” a senior police officer said. This time, the security personnel faced no casualties.
The attack was the third in a month. On January 30, three CRPF jawans were killed and 14 others injured in an attack at Sukma’s Tekelgudem camp on the day that it opened. Two weeks before that, on January 16, Maoists attacked the Dharmaram camp in Bijapur district but there were no casualties in the exchange of fire – again, on the same day the camp opened.
The last time security camps were targeted in such coordinated fashion was in the late 2000s, security officials who have operated in the area said. In April 2007, for instance, Maoists launched a deadly attack on the Ranibodli camp in Dantewada district, leaving 55 security personnel dead. A year earlier, in April 2006, a similar attack at Murkinar in Dantewada left 10 dead. In February 2006, Maoists attacked a CISF armoury at the Bailadila mines, looting 50 tonnes of explosives, leaving nine dead.
Security camps are a key cog in the state apparatus in Chhattisgarh, important because they establish a presence in hostile areas. A camp can have between 250 and 600 personnel, depending on the size and sensitivity of the area, and once established, they are used as landing points for the district administration to attempt to set up medical camps, schools, markets and building roads. P Sundar Raj, inspector general of police (Bastar) said, “In the fight against LWE (left wing extremism), the opening of camps can be divided into four phases. The first was before 2012, when camps were set up to connect places near the main districts of the state. The second was between 2011 and 2017, which helped connect district headquarters and the blocks. The phase since 2017 can be characterised as the third phase which has been to open camps to make inroads into core areas. We are now in the fourth and final phase, which is setting up camps in core areas and ensuring the residents there are part of the country’s democratic system. Puverti is one such core area.”
Personnel on the ground said that since 2014, attacks on camps stopped as security arrangements improved, and Maoists were pushed back into core areas. But as forces now push into those same core areas, the threat of camp attacks are back. “Maoists attacking camps is a new trend we are seeing on the ground. Our brass is redrawing our strategy. This will be similar to the SOP (standard operating procedure) that we followed when these events were at their peak before 2010. Then LWE extremists controlled large areas and had strength in numbers, so they were proactive and launched direct attacks. The situation is now different. They are desperate with forces gaining ground everyday,” a senior CRPF officer said. The officer did not reveal details of the new SOP, citing operational reasons, but added that one key aspect would be to monitor a perimeter area of 5 square kilometres around every camp to avoid an ambush or an attack.
Kiran Chauhan, superintendent of police (Sukma) said, “Every month, the forces are entering the Naxal stronghold. For example, the January 30 ambush happened at the Tekelgudem camp where we established a post after more than 30 years. In the last 18 days, we moved 5km further south from Tekelgudem and set up camp at Puverti. On Saturday, we suspected Naxals would come to disrupt us. Some men came and fired but we successfully retaliated. Not a single person on our side was injured.”
Senior police officers said that they expected more hostility from the Maoists because of the symbolism attached to villages such as Puverti. In the village on Sunday, security forces spent time speaking with, and posing next to an elderly woman, Hidma’s mother.
On Monday, Deva’s family too was examined by doctors from paramilitary forces and the state government at a medical camp in Puverti.
“Yesterday she asked us for medical help, and our forces brought a doctor. Not every resident wants to join them (Maoists), and villagers are often used as a shield during encounters,” Sundar Raj said.
The forces believe that setting up camps in Puverti, and reaching out to families of the most storied commanders of the guerillas, deals the Maoists a psychological blow. Madvi Hidma is named on NIA’s lost of India’s most wanted men, and has a combined reward of ₹1 crore on his head. Barse Deva, too, carries a reward of ₹1 crore announced by central agencies and different state police forces. “Puverti has always been significant because it is the village of Hidma and Barse Deva, the two most significant commanders of the PLGA battalion number one, responsible for almost every attack in south Chhattisgarh. We will not stop here and move forward some more, setting up health camps, markets and schools. But if villagers see that Hidma and other commanders cannot protect their own village, that affects their ability to recruit, and many will believe that these villages too will be liberated,” Sundar Raj said.
RK Vij, former special director general (anti-Naxal operations) of the Chhattisgarh police, warned that while these advances into core areas is welcome, there will be a sustained and targeted backlash over the coming months. “Maoists are firing at camps because it is now a question of survival for them. When forces are setting up camps in their core zones, they have no option but to attempt to chase the forces away. Their ability to hold meetings in these villages has now been finished. In the next few years, as the government forces work to set up camps in core areas, such attacks will be more frequent,” he said. “They will try to engage in mobile warfare — quickly attacking large groups of security forces and then returning back to their base. Our forces must be vigilant, secure the perimeter, and build contact with locals.”
On Saturday, a joint team of the Chhattisgarh police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) broke new ground, opening a forward operating base in Sukma’s Puverti village.
The move was as much tactical as symbolic.
Deep in south Chhattisgarh, Puverti has for the past three decades been an impregnable fortress for the CPI (Maoist); a village that has rarely, if ever, seen either the police or an administrative presence.
It has also been a key source of manpower for the rebels with over a hundred recruits in 20 years and home for two men who are cornerstones of the Maoist presence in Chhattisgarh, considered the architects of one violent attack after the other, Madvi Hidma and Barse Deva, both commanders of the People Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA) battalion No 1 – the Maoist military formation that operates in the conflict affected districts of Sukma, Bijapur, Dantewada and Bastar.
Yet Saturday was also evidence of the Maoist counter-reaction that this forward push is now eliciting — attacks on forward camps set up by security forces, once common in battleground Bastar, but rare over the past two decades.
On February 17, as forces just finished setting up the camp in the middle of the dense forests, they found themselves under fire from two dozen armed Maoists. “This was expected, and we hit them back hard,” a senior police officer said. This time, the security personnel faced no casualties.
Also read: 8 security personnel killed in Maoist attacks since Nov last year: Dy CM Sharma
The attack was the third in a month. On January 30, three CRPF jawans were killed and 14 others injured in an attack at Sukma’s Tekelgudem camp on the day that it opened. Two weeks before that, on January 16, Maoists attacked the Dharmaram camp in Bijapur district but there were no casualties in the exchange of fire – again, on the same day the camp opened.
The last time security camps were targeted in such coordinated fashion was in the late 2000s, security officials who have operated in the area said. In April 2007, for instance, Maoists launched a deadly attack on the Ranibodli camp in Dantewada district, leaving 55 security personnel dead. A year earlier, in April 2006, a similar attack at Murkinar in Dantewada left 10 dead. In February 2006, Maoists attacked a CISF armoury at the Bailadila mines, looting 50 tonnes of explosives, leaving nine dead.
Security camps are a key cog in the state apparatus in Chhattisgarh, important because they establish a presence in hostile areas. A camp can have between 250 and 600 personnel, depending on the size and sensitivity of the area, and once established, they are used as landing points for the district administration to attempt to set up medical camps, schools, markets and building roads. P Sundar Raj, inspector general of police (Bastar) said, “In the fight against LWE (left wing extremism), the opening of camps can be divided into four phases. The first was before 2012, when camps were set up to connect places near the main districts of the state. The second was between 2011 and 2017, which helped connect district headquarters and the blocks. The phase since 2017 can be characterised as the third phase which has been to open camps to make inroads into core areas. We are now in the fourth and final phase, which is setting up camps in core areas and ensuring the residents there are part of the country’s democratic system. Puverti is one such core area.”
Personnel on the ground said that since 2014, attacks on camps stopped as security arrangements improved, and Maoists were pushed back into core areas. But as forces now push into those same core areas, the threat of camp attacks are back. “Maoists attacking camps is a new trend we are seeing on the ground. Our brass is redrawing our strategy. This will be similar to the SOP (standard operating procedure) that we followed when these events were at their peak before 2010. Then LWE extremists controlled large areas and had strength in numbers, so they were proactive and launched direct attacks. The situation is now different. They are desperate with forces gaining ground everyday,” a senior CRPF officer said. The officer did not reveal details of the new SOP, citing operational reasons, but added that one key aspect would be to monitor a perimeter area of 5 square kilometres around every camp to avoid an ambush or an attack.
Kiran Chauhan, superintendent of police (Sukma) said, “Every month, the forces are entering the Naxal stronghold. For example, the January 30 ambush happened at the Tekelgudem camp where we established a post after more than 30 years. In the last 18 days, we moved 5km further south from Tekelgudem and set up camp at Puverti. On Saturday, we suspected Naxals would come to disrupt us. Some men came and fired but we successfully retaliated. Not a single person on our side was injured.”
Senior police officers said that they expected more hostility from the Maoists because of the symbolism attached to villages such as Puverti. In the village on Sunday, security forces spent time speaking with, and posing next to an elderly woman, Hidma’s mother.
On Monday, Deva’s family too was examined by doctors from paramilitary forces and the state government at a medical camp in Puverti.
“Yesterday she asked us for medical help, and our forces brought a doctor. Not every resident wants to join them (Maoists), and villagers are often used as a shield during encounters,” Sundar Raj said.
Also read: Maoist with ₹5 lakh reward nabbed in Kerala after two decades
The forces believe that setting up camps in Puverti, and reaching out to families of the most storied commanders of the guerillas, deals the Maoists a psychological blow. Madvi Hidma is named on NIA’s lost of India’s most wanted men, and has a combined reward of ₹1 crore on his head. Barse Deva, too, carries a reward of ₹1 crore announced by central agencies and different state police forces. “Puverti has always been significant because it is the village of Hidma and Barse Deva, the two most significant commanders of the PLGA battalion number one, responsible for almost every attack in south Chhattisgarh. We will not stop here and move forward some more, setting up health camps, markets and schools. But if villagers see that Hidma and other commanders cannot protect their own village, that affects their ability to recruit, and many will believe that these villages too will be liberated,” Sundar Raj said.
RK Vij, former special director general (anti-Naxal operations) of the Chhattisgarh police, warned that while these advances into core areas is welcome, there will be a sustained and targeted backlash over the coming months. “Maoists are firing at camps because it is now a question of survival for them. When forces are setting up camps in their core zones, they have no option but to attempt to chase the forces away. Their ability to hold meetings in these villages has now been finished. In the next few years, as the government forces work to set up camps in core areas, such attacks will be more frequent,” he said. “They will try to engage in mobile warfare — quickly attacking large groups of security forces and then returning back to their base. Our forces must be vigilant, secure the perimeter, and build contact with locals.”
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