CRPF officer shifted for Naxal attack in Sukma

Bhopal: Prashant Dhar, commandant of the CRPF battalion that lost nine men in Sukma in a Maoist attack on Tuesday, has been transferred and attached to the group centre of the Central paramilitary force following an internal enquiry into the incident.

“Harminder Singh, currently posted in Jammu and Kashimr, will replace Mr Thar”, a spokesman of CRPF in Raipur in Chhattisgarh told this newspaper.

Sources disclosed to this newspaper that the CRPF probe into the incident has reportedly found that violation of standard operation procedure (SOP) by the CRPF party, which was targeted by Naxals near Poladi in Sukma district, led to the incident.

Senior officials in the security force have already said that the incident was “avoidable” and the alert issued the same morning after the encounter with Naxals was ignored and CRPF personnel still used MPV for travelling in the affected region.

All these issues, officials added, will now be examined by the court of inquiry.

The CRPF spokesman, however, said the counterinsurgency operations by the Central paramilitary force would not be slowed down due to the March 13 incident.

“We will move further deep into the forested region, considered core area of Naxal zone in coming days. Opening of new camps at Kistaram and Palodi in the area in the last one year, has shattered the Maoists leading to the attack,” the CRPF officer said.

In a related development, the scion of erstwhile Bastar royal family, Kamal Chandra Bhanjdeo has been accorded Z plus security following intelligence inputs that he has made into the hit list of the Maoists.