125 security posts set up deep inside Naxal-hit areas in 4 years: Officials
security posts, including 18 in 2024, have been set up by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in states affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in the last four years, providing a significant advantage to the security forces in the fight against the Naxals, officials said on Wednesday. Most of the posts, known as forward operating bases (FOBs), were set up deep inside forest areas, which were out of bound for government officials and security forces till their establishment.
The CRPF has set up 18 FOBs so far in 2024. Thirty-one such posts were established in 2023, 48 in 2022 and 28 in 2021, an official said.
With the establishment of these posts, the security forces fighting the Naxals have got a significant advantage, the official added.
More than 90 Naxals were killed, over 125 arrested and 150 have surrendered so far this year in Chhattisgarh alone, another official said.
According to the data of the Ministry of Home Affairs, LWE-related violence has declined by 52 per cent in the country and the number of deaths by 69 per cent, from 6,035 to 1,868, in the period between 2014 and 2023 as compared to the period from 2004 to 2014.
Following a detailed review of the security situation in the Naxal-affected states late last year, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had directed security forces to proactively carry out operations against the Maoists.
Shah's direction soon translated into the formation of a high-powered committee, which had the state directors general of police (DGPs), the directors general (DG) of
