Maoists regroup along border, combing on

ROURKELA: After keeping low for months, Maoist guerillas have begun to  make their presence felt along the forested Orissa-Jharkhand border even as security forces of Orissa and Jharkhand are carrying out joint combing operation for better area domination. In the continuing anti-insurgency operation, at least two CRPF jawans in adjacent Jharkhand had to be air-lifted two days back after they suffered injuries in an exchange of fire with armed guerillas at Thalkobad area. Sources said the recent appearances of the Maoist guerillas in the  border areas are manifestations of the fact that the Chhota Nagpur Zonal Committee (CNZC) of the outlawed CPI (Maoist) outfit has managed to regroup.  Notwithstanding the combing, the Maoists on Thursday midnight set afire several vehicles of a contract farm near Posoita railway station in adjacent Jharkhand, while the ultras recently exchanged fire with the Rourkela police in the interior Gurundia block. However, police described them as sporadic incidents. Jharkhand’s Chaibasa-based DIG Naveen Singh declined comment on the outcome of the operation, adding at the moment they are concentrating on sanitising the affected forest areas. With the guerillas having made the dense Saranda forest on the Jharkahnd side of the border as their operational hub, Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum and Sareikela and Orissa’s Sundargarh districts continue to face the heat.  Rourkela SP Himanshu Lal, however, said the situation had improved significantly, adding movement of the ultras got drastically restricted. Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the outfit’s CNZC Samarjee said over phone on Saturday to a section of the media to observe a shutdown on August 9 to protest atrocities on innocent villagers by the security forces. He claimed in the name of search operation the security men are inflicting atrocities and physical punishment on the tribal forest-dwellers.