The Centre has sent a fresh battalion, comprising about 1,000 personnel, for undertaking anti-Naxal operations in Bihar as part of a strategy to combat Maoist violence in the state. The squad has been drawn from the paramilitary Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and will be deployed alongside the CRPF which is already present in the state.
The unit has been trained in jungle warfare and counter-Naxal operations and after initial induction process in the state capital is over, it will be deployed in the interiors, a senior official said. Earlier this year, around 2,000 SSB personnel were deployed for the same task in Jharkhand.
The SSB, which is designated to guard the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan borders, used to be a part of anti-Maoist operations till October 2011 when they were withdrawn from Chhattisgarh. The force will be the fourth central paramilitary one after CRPF, BSF and Indo-Tibetan Border Police to be a part of this task in a full-fledged manner.
The newly deployed battalion in the state will be under the operational command of the SSB frontier headquarter based in Patna. With this induction, the total number of personnel committed by the central government for anti-Maoist operations has risen to more than one lakh. Each battalion comprises around 1,000 personnel.
The CRPF has deployed about 82 battalions, BSF 11 battalions (five in Chhattisgarh and six in Odisha) and ITBP has deputed six battalions for such operations in various Naxal violence-hit states of the country.
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