Historic milestone achieved in fighting Left Wing Extremism: Shah

NEW DELHI, Sep 21:  Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said a ‘historical milestone’ has been achieved by the security forces against Left Wing Extremism (LWE) as DG CRPF Kuldeep Singh announced that Buddha Pahad area of Jharkhand has been cleared of extremists.

“A historic milestone has been crossed in the internal security of the country. Under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, the security forces have achieved unprecedented success in the decisive battle against Left Wing Extremism across the country.

Congratulations to CRPF, security agencies and state police forces for this,” Shah said. “For the first time, permanent camps of security forces have been established by successfully evacuating Maoists from the inaccessible areas of Buddha Pahad, Chakrabandha and Bhimabandh,” he said.

The Home Minister said  his ministry will keep fighting against terrorism and LWE, and this fight will intensify further. “In these months-long operations in the top Maoist strongholds, security forces achieved unprecedented success in which 14 Maoists were killed and over 590 arrested/surrendered. In which millions of crores rewarded Maoists like Mithilesh Mahto, who had a reward of Rs 1 crore, have been caught,” Shah added.

At a press conference on Wednesday, CRPF DG Kuldeep Singh said incidents Left Wing Extremism have come down in the country since 2014. The DG CRPF said Buddha Pahad, which had been a stronghold of Maoists for 30 years was cleared and permanent bases of security forces have been established. Singh said the security forces today achieved a “decisive victory” in the ongoing fight against Left Wing Extremism. “Several operations in Buddha Pahad failed in the past. But in since April 2022, we undertook many campaigns in Jharkhand, and we could bring Buddha Pahad area in control,” Singh said.

“We have dropped forces through choppers, the area has been cleared. Permanent camps have been established for the security forces,” he said. Singh said three big operations were undertaken – Operation Octopus, Operation Bulbul, and Operation Thunderstorm, which is ongoing.  “We also continued operations in neighbouring states, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madha Pradesh and Chhattisgarh,” he said.

The DG CRPF said 14 Maoists were neutralised this year since April- of these seven were in Chhattisgarh, four in Jharkhand and three in MP. He added that 36 Maoists have surrendered in Bihar, 414 in Chhattisgarh, 110 in Jharkhand, and 18 in Maharashtra. “Incidents of Left Wing Extremism have come down significantly. There has been 77 percent reduction in violence, which has come down to 509 in 2021. Death rate in LWE incidents has gone down by 85 percent to 147 in 2021,” he said.

Singh said 20 forward operating base have been established in jharkhand, and 11 bases have been added in last six months. Singh said the security forces have vowed to take the fight against LWE to its final stage.

“We have vowed to take the fight against LWE to its final stage. Since 2014m, a special policy has been formed in tandem with central and state security agencies. We have witnessed unprecedented success,” he said.   Singh added that the area under LWE has also gone down. “The number of violence prone districts was 96 in 2010, it has gone down to 39 in 2022,” he added. Buddha Pahad is an area in Jharkhand at the border of Chhattisgarh.  (UNI)