Govt Determined to End Naxal Menace, Says Home Minister Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said that the government is determined to take the ongoing fight against the unrest created by naxals to its logical conclusion. The minister, who is on a visit to Chhattisgarh, made the comment after paying tributes to the 22 security personnel who were killed by naxals in the state on Saturday.

“Paid tributes to the brave security personnel who were martyred while fighting the naxalites at Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh,” he said in a tweet in Hindi. “The country will never forget your bravery and sacrifice. The whole country stands behind the bereaved families. We are determined to take the ongoing fight against the unrest created by the naxals to its logical conclusion,” said Shah.

The minister will chair a meeting at the Police Coordination Centre in Jagdalpur to review the security situation arising out of Saturday’s incident and also meet some of the injured security personnel in hospitals, an official said. Thirty security personnel were injured in the ambush by naxals and were admitted to different hospitals in the state, officials had said on Sunday.

After arriving in Chhattisgarh’s Jagdalpur town from Delhi, Shah paid his last respects at the Police Lines here, where the mortal remains of 14 personnel were kept in coffins draped with the national flag. Besides Shah, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and other dignitaries also laid wreaths on the coffins.

This is Shah’s first visit to the Bastar region of the state after assuming charge of Union home minister, an official said. The review meeting in Jagdalpur, will be attended by Chief Minister Baghel, senior officials of the state police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), he said.

Shah will then leave for the Basaguda camp of the CRPF in Bijapur in a chopper and will have an interaction and lunch with the CRPF and state police personnel there, he said. Security personnel were ambushed by naxals when they were out on a combing operation in a forest along the Bijapur and Sukma districts of the state.

Out of the total 22 fatalities, the CRPF lost eight men, including seven commandos of the CoBRA battalion (CRPF’s elite unit) and one jawan of the Bastariya battalion, eight of the other deceased were from the District Reserve Guard (DRG) and six from the Special Task Force (STF). One CRPF inspector is still missing, officials said. The home minister onSunday vowed to give a befitting response to the Naxals and said that the battle against the extremists will be won through joint effortsby the central and state governments.

.