Raipur: The Central Reserve Police Force
(CRPF) has expressed a desire to withdraw from all interior
locations of the worst-hit Naxal area of Bastar in
Chattisgarh, a move opposed by the state police.
Official sources, who referred to this wish by CRPF,
said the para-military force has also approached Chhattisgarh
Police to provide security to its camps at Narayanpur where 27
security personnel were killed in a Naxal ambush recently.
Immediately after the attack, senior CRPF officials were
up in arms and said they would be abandoning the post at Durai
road if the state police did not guard the two camps in the
area, about 300 km from here.
Around 50 police personnel each were rushed to these two
camps, a move which was seen as "strengthening of the
camps."
At least 26 CRPF personnel and one state policeman were
killed by Maoists on June 29 when they were returning from
road opening duties.
The CRPF has also listed four places in Narayanpur and
Dantewada from where they would be shifting their base, the
sources said, adding initially the para-military forces wanted
to shift their camps closer to the National Highways, which
was, however, objected to by the state police.
The CRPF has demanded presence of one-third of district
police in every operation and for road opening party. A
meeting between the state authorities and the CRPF witnessed
heated arguments over the issue and it was decided that road
opening duty was exclusively of CRPF domain and there would
be no local presence, the sources said.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has also indicated that
the CRPF in Chattishargh needs to be relocated and
reconfigured. Taking a cue from this, the CRPF has decided to
keep a minimum strength of 200 personnel in each camp.
About the rescue and relief on the June 29 killings, the
sources said the state authorities pointed out that no help
was received from the two camps which were located within five
kilometres of the area. The first rescue team came from a CRPF
camp located nine kilometres away.
-PTI
