Jagdalpur (Chhattisgarh): The Chhattisgarh Police have sent more than a dozen surrendered Maoist cadres to the Counter Terrorism and Jungle Warfare (CTJW) College to brief fresh recruits on their methods, especially the handling of improvised explosive devices, ThePrint has learnt.
Most of the surrendered cadres either worked as ‘IED experts’ during their time with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). Some also worked in the outfit’s medical department, which was responsible for first aid and treatment of wounds and other ailments of the guerrillas.
They will brief the fresh batch of sub-inspectors and deputy superintendents of police at the college in Kanker, the state’s premier training institute to learn guerrilla warfare tactics.
Bastar Range Inspector General of Police Sundarraj Pattilingam said the move aimed at familiarising the recruits with the Maoists’ modus operandi and guerrilla tactics, ensuring their best possible training in fieldcraft.
The plan to send surrendered Maoist cadres came after the IG’s office sent a letter to the superintendents of police of all the districts in the division—Bijapur, Dantewada, Sukma, Narayanpur, Kanker and Kondagaon, seeking names of suitable cadres and appointment of a nodal officer to oversee their travel.
After the IG’s directives, 6 such surrendered cadres have been sent from Sukma while two cadres have been sent from Bijapur for the session scheduled for three days, sources said. Dantewada and Kanker have sent five each for the same session, they further said.
“This is a plan to hear from the horse’s mouth. The fresh batch of recruits requires training in handling IEDs and mines in the forests of Bastar, as a large exercise to demine the area of IEDs has to be carried out in the region,” a police officer privy to the planning of the sessions told ThePrint.
Regarding the inclusion of members from the Maoists’ medical team, the officer said that the pattern of their treatment and their understanding of allopathic medicine are essential.
“There have been several instances of senior Maoist cadres getting injured in encounters and still going on to live a long span of life. What and how have they managed to make effective treatment planning needs a deeper view that would only come in handy for the forces in the forest region,” he further said.
Officials said that inputs from the surrendered Maoist cadres have been critical in identifying planted IEDs in the recent past, and the planned session will add to their understanding.
“We have relied upon technology to find IEDs in the jungles and on roads. However, the surrendered on numerous occasions during the domination exercise has helped us identify IEDs by reading the placement of leaves. They have revealed that they used to place leaves in a peculiar manner to identify the spots they had put IEDs on,” another officer told ThePrint.
“The area of Bastar and the geographical area where IEDs may have been planted is insurmountable, even for technology. We need human intelligence and experience to help us demine the area in quick time,” the officer further explained.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)