Chhattisgarh: Shah may spend night in Naxal stronghold
Raipur: Union home minister Amit Shah is most likely to spend a night at the Maoist core area in Bastar during his proposed three-day visit to Chhattisgarh, commencing on December 13.
He will be the first Union home minister to spend a night in the Naxal stronghold, if he does so.
Details of Mr Shah’s visit to Bastar is yet to be announced officially for security reasons, a senior police officer said here on Saturday.
Sources said that Mr Shah is most likely to spend a night at a forward base of security forces, set up in the core area of Maoists by the security personnel to use it as a landing point to neutralize influence of Maoists in the three to four km area surrounding it.
Deputy chief minister Vijay Sharma, who holds home portfolio, on Saturday indicated that the Union home minister will visit an area even farther from Puwarti village, the native place of dreaded Maoist Hidma who is said to have taken charge of protecting the red base in Bastar after being promoted to the position of Central Committee (CC) member of the outlawed CPI (Maoist).
He once headed the battalion number one of the Maoists.
Asked if Mr Shah will visit Puwarti during his upcoming Bastar tour, Mr Sharma said, “He (Mr Shah) will even go farther from that place”.
Puwarti village under Jagargunda in Sukma district in south Bastar has produced no less than two dozen hardcore Maoists who have been deployed for the security of Hidma.
The surrounding villages have yielded no less than 200 hardcore Maoists.
Security forces established a forward base in Puwarti a couple of months ago to neutralize the influence of Maoists in the area.
In January this year, a forward base was set up in Tekalgudam, barely three km from Puwarti.
Maoists attacked the forward base the day it was opened.
Three jawans and two Naxals were killed in the encounter that followed the Maoist attack.
Sources said that Mr Shah may have dinner with the jawans and family members of the security personnel slain in encounters with the Maoists at the forward base where he is likely to spend a night.
The Union minister is also scheduled to attend the concluding ceremony of Bastar Olympics as chief guest in Jagdalpur during his visit to Bastar.
He is also scheduled to attend a high-level meeting of senior officers of security establishments in Raipur to review the counterinsurgency strategy during his visit to the state, sources said.
Mr Shah had earlier declared that the country will be free of Leftwing extremism by March 2026.
In the current year so far, 207 Maoists have been killed in encounters in Bastar.
