NEW DELHI: Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday directed acting chief of the CRPF and a top security officer to stay put in
Chhattisgarh to ensure coordinated "targeted" operations against the Naxalites, apparently unhappy over the functioning of the paramilitary force.
The home minister's directive came as he was apparently unhappy over the functioning of the
Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) which has faced reverses in the recent past.
He has conveyed to the CRPF brass to resolve some "inherent" problems like weaponry, logistics and intelligence gathering mechanism to ensure lethality and better results by avoiding casualties in anti-Naxalite operations, sources said.
The home minister asked acting director general of the CRPF, Sudeep Lakhtakia and senior security adviser in the home ministry, K Vijay Kumar to stay put in Chhattisgarh to ensure coordinated operations against the Naxalites, they said.
The two officers will stay in Chhattisgarh till a robust
anti-Naxalite operation is carried out against those involved in the killing of 25 CRPF personnel yesterday, official sources said.
Lakhtakia and Kumar will ensure targeted action, based on pin-pointed intelligence, by the security forces against the Naxalites, the sources said.
Kumar is a former chief of the CRPF and he is credited for elimination of forest brigand Veerappan in 2004 in Tamil Nadu.
The home minister today said in Raipur that the government will review its strategy on battling the Naxalites.
As many as 25 CRPF personnel were yesterday killed in an attack by the Naxalites in Chhattisgarh's
Sukma district.
On March 11, 12 paramilitary personnel were killed by the Naxalites in the same district.