Chhatiisgarh polls: Securitymen asked to not run after mobile network in Bastar

Major share of force deployed had been drawn from CPMF which is not well-versed with jungle warfare

Not getting mobile coverage in the remote areas of Bastar, please do not move in and around for searching tower in the handset. This can make the jawans vulnerable to Naxal attack.

The clear instruction has been passed on to the security personnel who had been pushed into the Bastar forests to conduct free and fair elections in the territory that Naxals call “liberated zone”.

A major share of force deployed had been drawn from Central Para Military Force (CPMF) who are not well-versed with the jungle warfare.

“It is common mistake that the jawans coming from outside states are committing; entering into forests in search of network to talk to the family members and move into the danger zone,” a top intelligence official of the Chhattisgarh Police told Business Standard. The rebels had taken advantage of such situation and targeted the jawans earlier, he added.

Bastar along with Rajnandgaon division would be going to the polls in the first phase of election in Chhattisgarh on Monday. A portion of Rajnandgaon district is also affected by the Left violence and hence the Election Commission had decided to conduct polling in the red zone in the first phase. In all 18 assembly constituencies will go to the polls.

A thick security cover had been thrown open in the entire region even as more than 1,00,000 security personnel had been deployed in Bastar and Rajnandgaon.

Of the 4,142 polling booths in the first stage, 1,517 are sensitive and 1,311 are hyper-sensitive. The commission had relocated 167 polling stations in hyper sensitive areas for security and accessibility reasons.

According to senior officials, never before such a tight security arrangement had been made in the Naxal infested pockets where rebels, as usual, had given call to boycott elections. Since the security personnel are in a large number, the officials had briefed them minutely to avoid any error during the operation.

“The jawans have been asked not to move deep in the forests to relieve,” the official said. Besides, they had instructed to check even the blackboard in the class rooms they would be staying during the election duty.