Op Greenhunt begins in south Orissa districts

The anti-Maoist joint offensive has finally started after much delay in Koraput and Malkangiri districts of Orissa,bordering Chhattisgarh,where officials said most of the area is dominated by the rebels and beyond state control. Border Security Force personnel aided by Special Operation Group of the Orissa Police and the Central Reserve Police Force launched Operation Greenhunt …

The anti-Maoist joint offensive has finally started after much delay in Koraput and Malkangiri districts of Orissa,bordering Chhattisgarh,where officials said most of the area is dominated by the rebels and beyond state control.

Border Security Force personnel aided by Special Operation Group of the Orissa Police and the Central Reserve Police Force launched Operation Greenhunt in the dense forests of the two districts four-five days ago,police said. The offensive has so far met with no resistance,a senior police official associated with the operation told The Indian Express. We are yet to get any tangible result. It seems the Maoists are on the run, a senior CRPF official said.

Armed with sophisticated weapons,GPS systems,night-vision binoculars,landmine detectors and helped by bomb-disposal squads and sniffer dogs,the joint forces are conducting operations both day and night.

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Police officials said the operation would be intensified over the next one week with around 7,000 personnel from 10 battalions of central forces,including five of BSF. They said the real challenge would be to gain foothold of the areas by the end of May as the onset of monsoon in the first week of June would make the operation difficult.

Though Operation Greenhunt was to start sometime in October last year,the state police refused to kickstart it demanding deployment of BSF personnel,who are trained in jungle warfare.