Raipur, Sep 25 (Inditop.com) Home Minister P. Chidambaram Friday said the central government would extend all support to states to counter and defeat left-wing extremism in what would be a “long-drawn” fight.
“It is a long drawn fight against Naxals (Maoists). The centre is totally supporting Chhattisgarh in its efforts to counter left wing extremism,” he told reporters at the state secretariat where he reviewed the state’s internal security situation in the wake of police and para-military forces mounting an onslaught against the Maoist rebels.
Chidambaram, who refused to take any questions, said his visit to Chhattisgarh was to assure the centre’s support in the state’s fight against the Naxalites and to offer his condolences to the policemen who had laid down their lives while fighting the rebels.
Referring to the July 12 incident in which 29 police personnel, including Superintendent of Police V.K. Choubey, were killed in an Maoist ambush at Madanwara in Rajnandgaon district, he said the state government had taken prompt action to provide relief to the families of the killed security personnel.
Meanwhile, official sources said the government of Chhattisgarh – India’s worst Maoist hit state – had sought more forces and resources from the centre at the meet so that simultaneous operations could be carried out in the state’s sprawling, mineral-rich Bastar region where the rebels hold sway since the late 1980s.
