We won't stop until Bastar is rid of Naxalism: Senior cop
Sukma, A day after a police officer was killed in an IED blast in Chhattsigarh's Sukma district, IG, Bastar Range Sundarraj P on Tuesday visited the incident site and said the police were fully prepared to take on Naxalites.
The police will not stop until the Naxal menace is eradicated from Bastar, he added.
Another Improvised Explosive Device planted by Naxalites at the incident site was also recovered on Tuesday, he said.
Security forces have launched an operation in the area to trace Naxalites involved in Monday's incident.
Additional Superintendent of Police Akash Rao Girepunje was killed and two other police officers were injured when an IED planted by Naxalites exploded at a stone quarry in Konta police station area.
After visiting the blast site on Tuesday morning, Sundarraj reached Konta police station and interacted with police personnel.
He paid tribute to the deceased officer and said his sacrifice will not go in vain.
During an interaction with jawans, the IG said they are prepared on every front and will strongly take on Naxalites.
He urged all security personnel across the Bastar Range to stay strong, determined and resilient.
"We will not stop until Bastar is completely free from the grip of Naxalism. The sacrifice of Akash Rao and other martyrs will not go in vain. Their legacy will continue to inspire our mission for peace, prosperity and progress," he added.
After the incident on Monday, a Bomb Detection and Disposal Team searched the entire site and recovered another pressure IED planted there and defused it, he said.
The team also recovered the pressure IED components used in the incident and debris.
An FIR has been lodged in connection with the incident at Konta Police Station and further investigation has been initiated, the official said.
Security personnel have launched a search in the nearby areas to trace the Maoist cadres responsible for the incident. Stringent action will be taken against the perpetrators of this cowardly act, he said.
Girepunje , who hailed from Raipur district, was recruited as deputy superintendent of police in 2013. He had been serving as ASP, Konta since March last year.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
‘Ending Naxalism would be fitting tribute': Family remembers police officer killed in IED blast as ‘strongest pillar'
Putting an end to Naxalism would be the most fitting tribute to Additional Superintendent of Police Akash Rao Giripunje (42), who was killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, his family said Tuesday after his body was brought back home to Raipur. Giripunje died on Monday morning after he accidentally stepped on a pressure IED, planted by Maoists, when he and his team went to check on a JCB machine that was set on fire at Dondra village. At a wreath-laying ceremony organised in Raipur on Tuesday, Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai declared that 'Giripunje's sacrifice will not go in vain'. Assembly Speaker Raman Singh, Home Minister Vijay Sharma, Deputy Chief Minister Arun Sao, and other ministers and senior police officers were also present. A graduate, Giripunje worked as a bank official for four-and-a-half years before joining the Chhattisgarh Police in 2013. He became well-known in the police force through his singing at police events. He also wrote poems. He was from an economically backward family that had migrated from neighbouring Maharashtra to a settlement in Raipur, where his grandfather ran a garage at a rented premises. His father, Govind Rao, still runs the same garage. Giripunje was one of five siblings. The youngest sibling, 26-year-old Adarsh, an MBBS graduate, said, 'My brother was the strongest pillar of our family. We have three sisters, and all are well-educated. He built a new house for our family and bought land on loan. He took care of all my education expenses. He was a father figure and a guiding spirit. I could not imagine in my wildest dreams that this would happen to us. Now, I have to handle the responsibilities of the house and I need to be strong.' Adarsh said that ASP Giripunje said in his last call that he was 'excited to come home for his six-year-old daughter's birthday on June 11'. 'We were to celebrate her birthday at her mother's place in Bhandara, Maharashtra. In May, he had come to Raipur just for a day to attend his seven-year-old son's birthday,' Adarsh said. He also said the family is proud of Giripunje and that 'a fitting tribute for his supreme sacrifice would be putting an end to Naxalism'.
India Gazette
an hour ago
- India Gazette
Chhattisgarh CM pays tribute to ASP Girpunje, martyred in Naxal attack in Sukma
Raipur (Chhattisgarh) [India], June 11 (ANI): Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai on Tuesday paid tribute to Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Akash Rao Girpunje in Raipur, who was killed in a Naxal attack in Sukma's Konta area on June 9. Deputy Chief Ministers Arun Sao and Vijay Sharma, along with others, also attended the ceremony. ASP Girpunje was killed in an IED blast in Sukma's Konta area. Senior officials and family members paid tribute to him. The ASP had served in Bastar for about 1.5 years and was dedicated to maintaining law and order. 'The martyrdom of Akash Rao will not deter us from our mission to eliminate Naxalism. We will continue to work towards peace and development in Bastar,' said IG Bastar Sundarraj. 'The news of ASP Akash Rao's martyrdom is extremely sad and heart-wrenching. We pray for his soul and the speedy recovery of those injured in the incident,' said BJP State President and Jagdalpur MLA Kiran Deo. The mortal remains of Giripunje reached the Mana Fourth Battalion of Raipur on Tuesday. Family members of Giripunje, Assembly Speaker Raman Singh, Deputy Chief Minister Arun Sao, and Cabinet Minister Laxmi Rajwade also reached the Mana Fourth Battalion. Police officials and residents also paid tribute to the police personnel. Earlier, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai condemned the IED blast in Sukma district. CM Sai said that his sacrifice would not go in vain. CM Sai also visited the residence of Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Akash Rao Giripunje in Raipur on Monday to meet his family members. 'We pay tribute to ASP Akash Rao Giripunje. The Naxals are doing this as they are rattled. His sacrifice will not go in vain. The naxals are taking their last breaths and doing all this in frustration. We condemn this incident. May his family get the strength to bear this loss. Those injured will be brought to Raipur for the best medical treatment,' CM Vishnu Deo Sai said. He added, 'A reputed Additional SP has lost his life due to the IED blast that occurred on Monday. This is unfortunate news. ASP Akash Rao Giripunje's sacrifice will not go in vain, and the naxals will have to pay a price for this cowardly act. The naxals will get a befitting reply for this'. (ANI)
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
In Maoist battle, a 6,000-strong force makes the difference
New Delhi : In August 2005, Basant K Ponwar moved from Mizoram to Chhattisgarh. At the time, Maoists had at least 106 districts in central and eastern India in their grip and were steadily expanding their menacing presence, prompting then prime minister Manmohan Singh in 2006 to call left-wing extremism (LWE) as the country's greatest internal security threat. The government's fight against the rebels was flailing, largely because Maoists were trained in jungle warfare and were picking up young boys and girls from villages to train them as child soldiers. In response, the government's bloated forces were unmotivated and unfamiliar with the forested terrain of southern Chhattisgarh. Growing frustration led to misadventures such as the Salwa Judum, a vigilante force that aimed to push back Maoists but ended up pillaging villages and torturing tribespeople, before being disbanded by the Supreme Court in 2011. The retired brigadier Ponwar, then the head of the army's Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School in Mizoram, took a different approach. The 1971 Indo-Pak war veteran brought his team and set up the elite Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School in Kanker, about 60km from Raipur. 'To fight in the jungle, you must live in the jungle. Make the jungle your friend. Police had to be reoriented in counter-Naxal operations through a rigorous 45-day programme,' Ponwar told HT. From this initiative was born Chhattisgarh's unique District Reserve Guard (DRG) force in 2007-08, that is at the core of the government's aggressive move to wipe out the decades-old insurgency by next spring. Since 2024, the 6,000-strong force, populated largely by tribal people and former Maoists, has pushed deeper into the Maoist heartland and made inroads into territories considered too hostile even five years ago. 'The locals, who knew the jungle, were formally inducted into the system and further trained in counter-insurgency. Over the years, the recruitment among Naxals also decreased because the local tribal youth would rather join the police,' added Ponwar. Today, DRG personnel are spread across seven Maoism-affected districts in Chhattisgarh, not tasked with regular law-and-order duties, focusing only on guerilla warfare suitable in the dense forests of Abujhmad. The force is involved in almost every key encounter, navigating IEDs, ramming through Maoist ambushes, engaging in gunfights, and guiding other security forces in jungles. This includes the takeover of the key Maoist base at Karregutta hills, a place where forces had never entered before, and the recent killing of top Maoist leader Nambala Keshav Rao or Basavaraju last month. 'DRG jawans are locals, who know the area and the terrain. Their training ensures that they can work in the toughest conditions. You need such brave local jawans, who are guerilla fighters. There is also a trust factor involved here. Locals trust the DRG personnel,' said Inspector General (Bastar Range) P Sundarraj, one of the first students at the institution. Ahead of the Centre's proposed deadline to end Maoism by March 31, 2026, the National Security Guard's black cat commandos are also conducting joint exercises with the DRG jawans. To understand why DRG was set up, go back to 2006-07. Retired bureaucrat Shivraj Singh, who was Chhattisgarh's chief secretary between 2007 and 2008, said the unit was first mooted after the Centre realised the gravity of left-wing extremism (LWE). 'The Maoist movement had spread throughout Chhattisgarh in the early 2000s. At that time, Maoists functioned like a Spartan Army by taking children and moulding them as soldiers. Local tribespeople were also fed up and approached the police with complaints about the abductions and how Maoists terrorised their village. Police were not adequately trained then as they were largely focused on guarding their posts. I remember then National Security Adviser MK Narayanan constantly telling the Centre how grave the problem had become,' he said. Singh said in meetings between the state and the home ministry, the government decided to build a specialised unit for guerilla warfare against Maoists. 'It started with the police identifying young constables who were residents of Maoist areas, and training them to be part of DRG. These young police officers knew the forest and were well-versed in the topography,' he added. Residents from LWE violence-affected districts are first recruited as constables. Those who show skills in guerilla warfare are handpicked to be in DRG and sent for rigorous training. To underscore their effectiveness, the Chhattisgarh government is now set to approve a proposal to induct around 3,000 more DRG personnel, marking the biggest recruitment in recent years of local tribal men and surrendered Maoists. The state government is also working to make the unit more lucrative by creating a new post of deputy superintendent so that its personnel do not remain stagnant at the inspector level, a senior Chhattisgarh home department official said, asking not to be named. Data on anti-Maoist operations seen by HT showed that between December 1, 2023, and May 20, 2025, at least 401 Maoists were killed in 199 gunfights and 1,355 rebels surrendered. Thirty-seven DRG jawans also died in the attacks. But gun battles are not the most important role of DRG. That would be guiding the forces into the Abhujmad, a 5,000 sq km expanse of uncharted forest spread across Chhattisgarh's four Maoism-affected districts. It is inside this swath of vast uncharted territory where top Maoist leaders traditionally reside, and where the fiercest battles have broken out over the past two years. DRG jawans, born and brought up in the villages within the forest, are the perfect guides to lead the forces inside, said a senior police officer, also requesting anonymity. Anant Ram, a DRG sub-inspector who joined the unit as a constable in 2009, said, 'Intelligence gathering is better when locals are part of the force. The residents are with us.' Another jawan, Binod Kumar, who joined DRG in 2018, said, 'I volunteered to be part of the DRG and was sent to counter-insurgency school. Before that, I had only done regular basic training. Now in DRG, I am proud to be part of a movement.' In the May 21 encounter where Basavaraju was killed, for example, it was the DRG men who broke three layers of his security cordon and killed him in a gunfight, said an additional SP rank officer, who asked not to be named. 'In that operation, around 1,500 DRG from four districts of Sukma, Dantewada, Bijapur and Narayanpur were involved. The only photograph of Basavaraju we had was over 30 years old as he was never arrested. Some DRG jawans, who were surrendered Maoists and had seen Basavaraju, confirmed his identity. DRG jawans not only knew the area but some of the surrendered Maoists were trained by rebels, so they know the antidote to ambush tactics,' said the officer involved in the operation. Chhattisgarh Police's additional director general, Vivekanand Sinha, said the role of locals in fighting is critical to counter any insurgency. 'DRG jawans are trained in guerilla warfare. They know how and where to move in the jungle. They know the modus operandi of the Maoists whether it is about improvised explosive devices planted everywhere or laying an ambush. When such jawans trained in guerilla warfare work in conjunction with the security forces, it is a formidable combination,' he said. Despite DRG's successes, concerns linger. The biggest among them is the memory of the Salwa Judum. Formed in 2005, Salwa Judum (or peace march in Gondi) was a state-sponsored vigilante force that comprised local tribesmen and former Maoists who were trained by police and given weapons to take part in counter-insurgency operations. But the force displaced large numbers of villagers and killed several people as part of extra judicial operations, accusing the victims of being Maoist collaborators. In July 2011, the Supreme Court declared the militia to be illegal and unconstitutional, and ordered its disbanding. Congress leader Mahendra Karma played a key role in organising the militia. He was killed in an ambush by Maoists in May 2013 along with 27 others, including then state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel and former minister Vidya Charan Shukla. 'This is just another armed force. You have just armed them and given them impunity,' said activist Bela Bhatia. But senior police officials underline that DRG is different. Unlike Salwa Judum, where locals were armed and trained by the state, DRG is a specialised unit of the state police. DRG jawans do not conduct operations independently and work directly under the district SP. 'Surrendered Maoists would be about 10% of the force. Salwa Judum was a vigilante group, DRG jawans are not. Surrendered militants go through a rigorous process of first working as gopniya sainiks (secret soldiers) with the police for several months. Based on their performance as informers, they are then trained and inducted as constables. DRG is also successful because Maoists are fighting the same people they had once trained,' a second officer said. Maoists fear DRG jawans, but the latter are also obvious targets. The first casualty in the encounter that killed Basavaraju was also DRG jawan Khotluram Korram. Another jawan, Ramesh Hemla died in an IED blast the following day. The battle is only going to get tougher. Ten months ahead of the March 31, 2026 deadline, there are still around 350 armed Maoist cadres who have refused to surrender. Young commanders such as Hidma and Barse Deva, are expected to put up a stiff fight. To prepare for this, the state government has started shifting DRG personnel in their mid to late 40s to police stations. The unit requires men with young blood, who can trek for 2-3 days in jungles, prepare their own meals, live there, engage in gunfights, and trek back to their base through the same route. This is life in DRG. 'Maoism will soon be a thing of the past. The state may not need so many DRG personnel in the coming years so the older ones are now being shifted to police stations. This is to ensure a smooth transition,' said a DRG person, who asked not to be named. The young jawan looks forward to a day when Chhattisgarh is no longer a red corridor. 'All of us are local tribespeople who have suffered. Our friends, and relatives were abducted by Maoists in the prime of their youth and forced into a life they did not choose. Not just that, we have seen our friends blown to pieces by IEDs planted by Maoists,' he said. For now, he has a job to do and it is personal. 'We have lost too many in this fight. We need to fight for them too,' he said.
