Bastar: Burning midnight oil,
Chhatisgarh police`s five young SPs known as the "Pandavas"
constantly hone their strategies to break the "Chakravyuha"
(maze) of Naxals in this worst-hit district in this state and
have tasted success in good measure.
The success achieved could be gauged from the fact that
107 Maoists have been eliminated since the launch of Operation
"Green Hunt" in October last.
Away from the media glare, the five Superintendents of
Police in their early 30`s and guided by Inspector General of
Police T J Long Kumer, an IPS officer of 1991 batch, have
worked on a policy to drain the resources of Naxalites holed
up in jungles of Bastar. The tribal-dominated area of Bastar
was neglected for long helping Maoists to make it one of their
strongholds.
With Bastar famous for its Rs 300-crore Tendu (bidi)
leaf trade, Maoists were having a free run in this area, also
known as Kashmir of Chattisgarh. Any trader wanting to start
business had to shell out protection money in lakhs to the
extremist groups.
But now the situation seems to be different. The five
young police officers -- Avinash Mohanty (Bijapur), Amresh
Kumar Mishra (Dantewada), Rahul Bhagat (Narayanpur), Ajay
Yadav (Kanker) and Sundarraj P (Bastar) -- are engaging
more and more local people into the operations and reaping the
rich dividends of either getting Naxal leaders killed or
arrested.
"The first thing these officers did was to choke the
supply lines of Naxals holed up in the jungles of Bastar
followed by engaging them in long encounters," a senior
police official of Bastar range said here today.
PTI
