Daijiworld Media Network – Karkala (SP)

Karkala, Nov 14: Additional director general of police (law and order), A R Infant, claimed that the aim of the three-day search operations conducted by the state forces in the naxal-infested areas had been achieved, and that the operation was a success. He was providing details of the operation conducted by a combined team of policemen belonging to different branches, during the last three days, in the areas lying at the foot of the Western Ghats in Udupi, Shimoga, Chikmagalur and Dakshina Kannada districts, where naxal presence has been evident.

Making the police personnel conversant with the hilly terrains of the Western Ghats, doing away with the apprehensions and fear among the people about the naxals, and instilling in them a sense of courage and confidence, finding solutions to the problems of the locals by holding mass contact meetings in the villages frequented by naxals etc., were the objectives of the operation. The officials have succeeded in their objectives. The experience obtained in this operation will come in handy for future operations, he said.

Western range inspector general of police, Gopal B Hosur, said that the people have extended their support to the policemen in the mass contact meetings, besides assuring the policemen that they will never extend any support to the naxals and Maoists. “We have succeeded in driving away a sense of helplessness and fear from the minds of the people. Encouraged by the experience, we will be conducting more such operations,” he said.

Hosur added, that during the anti-naxal operations conducted during the last eight years, the policemen had slain 15 naxals, while lives of two policemen had been lost. In addition, four villagers were also killed by the naxals, he revealed.  He termed the rumours about the police harassment of the tribal people living in forests as absurd and malicious propaganda, indulged in by some ‘intellectuals’. He reiterated that the people had fully cooperated with the policemen.

Deputy inspector general of police of the Anti-naxal Force, Amrit Paul, Chikmagalur district superintendent of police (SP), Nagaraj, Udupi district SP Pravin Pawar and other officers were present.