‘Operation Hand Shake’ by Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh to smoke out guerrillas, dismantle Abujmarh | Nagpur News – Times of India

Drones, bomb squads, and advanced surveillance systems will be used. The operation will cover 5,000 sq km of dense forest. Central paramilitary forces and local forces will participate.

GADCHIROLI: Security forces from Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli and Chhattisgarh‘s Narayanpur and Kanker to intensify ‘Operation Hand Shake‘ across 5,000 sqkm of forested, booby-trapped Dandakaranya forests and decimate the last bastion of Maoists – Abujmarh.
Around 50 joint operations have taken place this year, but the final onslaught on the Maoist headquarters would begin immediately after dust settles on Maharashtra elections. High-flying sophisticated drones, special bomb detection and disposal squads, advanced technology-based surveillance systems and weapons would be used to carpet-bomb Maoist dens, bunkers and gun factories.

Sources stated security forces, which included a substantial portion of Central paramilitary forces and home-grown forces like district reserve guards (DRG) of Chhattisgarh and C-60 commandos of Gadchiroli, are set to storm the 2,000sqkm of Indravati National Park forests and another 3,000 sqkm of inhospitable terrain leading to Abujmarh hills, which has so far remained a security vacuum, paving way for rebels to build training camps, arms and ammunitions factories, medical units, press, research and analysis divisions, tailoring and stitching units.

‘Op blueprint chalked by central paramilitary forces’

Senior officials stated the blueprint of Operation ‘Hand Shake’ was hammered out by central paramilitary forces. “These forces would conduct area domination exercises along borders of both states, cross state borders to meet their counterparts and jointly conduct raids to flush out guerrillas,” said a source.
According to an official, commandos from both Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra would conduct area dominations and simultaneously share intelligence inputs. Sources stated Abujmarh serves as the resting and transit point for the Maoist apex body of the Central Committee members, state and military commission and meeting place for top guerrillas to chalk out strategies. Following Union home minister Amit Shah’s diktat to wipe out left-wing terrorism from the country’s heartland, security forces from Chhattisgarh side are repeatedly storming the Abujmarh and national park area.
Gadchiroli police is set to join the operations soon. It’s learnt the two states would jointly conduct inputbased operations into unchartered zones, which had so far remained a liberated zone of Maoists. In the last operations from the Chhattisgarh side, five Maoists were neutralized that included four from Gadchiroli division’s supply and logistics team and another senior Bastar-based woman cadre from Dandakaranya special zonal committee’s press team.
Sources from Maharashtra police stated senior officers of ranks of director general of police of respective states, central paramilitary forces and additional DG operations would be involved. Senior officials are expected to camp in Kanker, Bastar, Narayanpur in Chhattisgarh and Gadchiroli in Maharashtra for planning, coordination and launching joint operations. Intelligence machinery has been activated along bordering districts of both the states with villagebased input generation teams for micro-level inputs along with technical surveillance and feedback systems which would track, trace and follow Maoist movements.