‘Shift jailed Naxals to safer cells’

[Vinod Gopani]

New Delhi, March 31: The Centre has asked all the Naxal-affected State governments to shift top Naxal leaders, who are languishing in jails, in high-security cells. Besides, the Centre has directed the Chhattisgarh government to hire retired defence personnel to provide training to security forces in mine clearance.

Talking to this correspondent, soon after the meeting of the chief secretaries and director general of police of all the Naxal-affected States, Union home secretary Mr V.K. Duggal said, “All the Naxal-affected State governments have been directed to shift top Naxal leaders languishing in the jails to high-security cells. Directions were issued after the Jehanabad jail break incident. In this meeting, the State governments were asked to immediately shift the Naxal leaders to high-security cells.”

All State governments have also been directed to fill the vacancies in the State police at the earliest, he added. He said, “the Chhattisgarh government has also been asked to employ retired defence officers to train the State police personnel in demining and other operations. It will be further introduced in all the Naxal-affected States. The defence ministry has agr-eed to a proposal for identifying retired officers from the Corps of Engineers especially in Chhattisgarh.”

Mr Duggal said training by retired Army officers was being “most immediate” priority since the Naxalites were using improvised explosive devices to counter Salva Judum, a movement launched by people in Chhattisgarh to fight the “red terror.” “Keeping in view the Naxal attacks on railway properties, it has been decided that the Railway Police Force, GRP and the State police and the intelligence agencies will coordinate their efforts,” he said.