Army to scour Naxal corridor

Recognising Naxal violence as a clear and present threat to internal security, the Army will now help conduct crackdown operations along the...

Recognising Naxal violence as a clear and present threat to internal security, the Army will now help conduct crackdown operations along the emerging Naxal corridor from Andhra Pradesh to Bihar and onto the forested Himalayan foothills of Nepal. The issue, along with J-K and the North-East, took precedence today during a review of internal security issues at the Army Commanders’ Conference.

‘‘Any indication of something not going well in the country concerns us directly. We will try to nip the evil in the bud,’’ Army chief General J.J. Singh said this evening after Day 2 of the conference. ‘‘We discussed the Naxal issue at the conference and we analysed the state of extremism within the country. We are aware that the Home Ministry and states are synergising their efforts to handle the menace. We will also advise them and contribute with our own inputs. We are directly in touch with the Home Ministry about how we can contribute.’’

The Chhattisgarh government has invited the Army to help set up a school to train the state paramilitary forces in low-intensity conflict and specifically, ways to deal with Naxal violence among other threats. A retired Army Brigadier has been selected to be commandant at the school and the Army will soon send officers and JCOs to get the task going.

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On the North-East, the Army chief said: ‘‘The situation is well under control. The civil administration has reached out to areas which were impossible to reach before. We have discovered more and more calls from militants for a ceasefire. Perhaps, there is a change in their ideology as well.’’

On cross-border terrorism, however, he said while infiltration had come down across the LoC into J-K, military intelligence showed that terrorist infrastructure in PoK remained intact.

To help states deal with insurgents, the Army will be using a large part of its budget on improved weapons. The Army chief indicated that new night surveillance capabilities had contributed much to dipping infiltration levels. ‘‘Night vision has been a huge help. In the last month, there is no evidence that there has been any infiltration at all, or maybe just minimal occurrences. Summer will tell if infiltration has really come down,’’ Singh said.