'Violent Activity During LS Election': IG Bastar Reveals What Naxals Killed In Kanker Encounter Were Planning

As many as 29 Naxals, who were killed in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker on Tuesday, were planning to carry out violent activity during the Lok Sabha election, said Bastar’s Inspector General (IG) Sundarraj P. The operation came just two days before polling for Lok Sabha election in naxal-affected Bastar-Jagdalpur (ST) Lok constituency.

“During the election, there was a conspiracy by them to carry out the violent activity. At the time of assembly election, we made the proper arrangement, therefore, they were not able to execute any big incident and even at this moment whatever resources we have, our work is done on that. We hope that Bastar and Kanker elections will be completed peacefully…,” the IG said.

AK-47 rifles and other graded weapons were recovered during the search. The IG said, “These weapons have been used by senior Maoists. The identification of the weapons will be done soon.”

It may be noted that Bhima Mandavi, who was then BJP MLA from Dantewada Assembly seat, and four police personnel were killed in a Maoist ambush in Dantewada during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the Centre’s campaign against naxalism and terrorism gained momentum in Chhattisgarh after the formation of the BJP government in the state.

“After the formation of the government, in a period of about 3 months, more than 80 Naxalites have been killed in Chhattisgarh, more than 125 have been arrested and more than 150 Naxalites have surrendered. I have full confidence that it will continue in future also and within a very short time, under the leadership of Modi ji, we will uproot Naxalism from the country,” the Home Minister told ANI.

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The killed Naxals are believed to be hard-core guerrillas who are part of dreaded Maoist Hidma’s Battalion 1.

“Of the 29 bodies recovered, 28 are in People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) uniform. This clearly means that these were not over-ground workers or villagers supporting Naxals. These were armed militia members,” a senior Border Security Force (BSF) officer told News18.

The success is being seen as the culmination of a number of steps taken by the Centre as well as state agencies in the last few months.

Eight camps have been set up in Kanker by BSF in the last four months, three of which are new camps. The scene of operation on Tuesday was about 12 kilometres away from the BSF Company Operating Base.

“As CRPF tightened the noose in Bijapur and Sukma, our assessment was that Naxals would relocate to Abujmad-Narayanpur, Kanker. New deployment was done keeping this in mind,” a BSF officer said.