Gadchiroli cops anticipate Naxal attacks, ready with combat plan

Some ten-odd booths have been shifted to safer places due to inaccessibility caused by heavy rains and thick vegetation.

The Maharashtra Police have prepared their combat plan anticipating major Naxal activity during the run-up to the Assembly elections as well as on the polling day and after, till the polling parties are safely evacuated to the district headquarters.

Despite heavy setbacks in the recent past, the police said, the Naxals were expected to make every possible attempt to disrupt polling in Gadchiroli, making liberal use of IEDs and ambushes.

With Maharashtra being the only Naxal-affected state going to polls next month, the Maoists are expected to be able to focus better on Gadchiroli. Already, a lot of posters calling for election boycott have been recovered from a lot of places and many inputs about increase in the frequency of Naxal movements are being received.

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Sources said the police were anticipating major Naxal activity, ambushes in particular, in south Gadchiroli areas of Aheri and Perimili. North Gadchiroli areas of Dhanora, Murumgaon and Gyarapatti, where the Naxals have weakened considerably, might witness IED blasts in surprise attacks, said the police.

SP Sandip Patil said: “We have already started aggressive area domination. We are not allowing the Naxal bid to move in large numbers together and have foiled such attempts six times in the past 40 days. The latest was in Kasansur last week, where we foiled one such congregation bid by 40-50 Naxals and have recovered a lot of material, including a few walkie-talkie sets.” Patil added that “coordinated security operations with neighbouring states were being ensured”.

Some ten-odd booths have been shifted to safer places due to inaccessibility caused by heavy rains and thick vegetation.

Shoulder bags sporting Ganapathi photo recovered

In what is seen as unprecedented, ground-level Naxal cadres have started sporting the photograph of CPI (Maoist) general secretary Muppala Lakshmana Rao alias Ganapathi on the back of their shoulder bags. SP Sandip Patil told The Indian Express that such bags were recovered after the recent Kasansur firing incident in Gadchiroli. “This has been observed for the first time to our surprise. Maybe the Naxals have the direction to project Ganapathi as their role model,” said Patil.

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