New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS) Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde Thursday said the incident of Maoists cutting open the stomach of a trooper’s body to plant a bomb inside “has happened for the first time”.
He also said security forces were adopting strategies that were strong enough to fight the Left Wing Extremists.
Denying that morale of the troopers was low following the killing of 10 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in an ambush by Maoists in Latehar district of Jharkhand Monday, Shinde said “strategies applied were strong enough to fight”.
“This has happened first time… one incident has taken place,” Shinde said answering queries at a press conference here.
He said security forces were investigating the incident of the “IED (improvised explosive device) having been stitched in the stomach”.
He said the device was later defused.
Shinde said Maoists keep adopting new tactics and security forces would take cognisance of the new development.
He said security forces had launched large-scale operations in the Maoist strongholds in Latehar district and these would continue till the extremists were cleared from the area.
“This is expected to be a tough battle since the Maoists are entrenched in this area for decades and are familiar with the terrain. The operations will continue till the Maoists are cleared from this area,” Shinde said.
“In a recent fire-fight in this area, 10 security personnel were martyred and some injured,” he said and added that the Maoists have also suffered significant casualities.
He said former CRPF director general Vijay Kumar had been appointed the senior security adviser on matters related to security and development in areas affected by Left Wing Extremism.
