What is Operation Prahar, the battle behind Chhattisgarh Naxal ambush?

Operation Prahar is a codename used by the police of various states for targeted action against criminals, outlawed elements or even for illegal liquor sales. But in Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, Operation Prahar gets a different meaning -- the battle against the Naxal insurgents.

Naxal is a term that is loosely used to refer to the members of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist). The CPI-Maoist is a banned extremist organisation in India -- under LWE (Left Wing Extremism) classification.

The term, Naxal, has its origin in the Naxalbari village in West Bengal, where this anti-government insurgency took root in the 1960s and spread to fairly large parts of East India. The governments at the Centre and in the affected states have found it challenging to root out Naxalism from the country.

Operation Prahar is part of the government strategy to deal with the armed challenge posed by the Naxal insurgents. It was launched in 2017.

It was during a combing operation by the security forces under Operation Prahar that they were ambushed by the Naxal insurgents on Saturday. Twenty-two jawans lost their lives. More than 30 were injured. One jawan went missing.

OPERATION PRAHAR HAS A LITTLE HISTORY.

PLGA — The Naxal Army

The CPI-Maoist organised their band of armed fighters, called People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA), which is also the armed wing of the organisation, in 2001 to enter into combat with the security forces. The PLGA has launched many deadly attacks on the security forces in Chhattisgarh and other Naxal-affected states since then.

Read | Anti-Naxal operation in Chhattisgarh was poorly designed, says Congress leader Rahul Gandhi

In December 2020, the PLGA announced a year-long action to mark their 20th year of formation -- December 1, 2020, to December 1, 2021. The PLGA’s announcement aimed to “regain their footing and armed strength” in the areas where they have lost their stronghold. The decision was taken by the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the CPI-Maoist.

NAXAL ARMY’S TRACK RECORD

In December 2020, the CMC said its PLGA cadres had killed around 3,000 jawans of the central and state forces, 222 politicians, over 1,100 police informers. It admitted to losing around 4,500 of its cadres since 2001.

Earlier in 2020, the PLGA also claimed that it halted attacks on the security forces due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It complained that the government, however, continued its operation against the Naxals unilaterally.

WHAT HAS BEEN GOVERNMENT ACTION AGAINST NAXAL INSURGENTS?

Since the formation of the PLGA, the counter-Naxal operation could be divided into three phases. The first phase was of the Salwa Judum movement.

Salwa Judum ran from 2004 to 2009 when a force of volunteers was trained by the security forces for the defence of villages in Naxal-affected areas and to offer an alternative to the youths who were being compelled by the CPI-Maoist cadres to join them.

OPERATION GREEN HUNT

Operation Green Hunt targeted the Naxal insurgents in their hiding places inside the forests. The Operation dealt a severe blow to the Naxal insurgency and practically cleansed Andhra Pradesh of CPI-Maoist footprints.

Operation Green Hunt was replaced by a scheme called SAMADHAN. It is an acronym where S stands for Smart Leadership, A for Aggressive Strategy, M for Motivation and Training, A for Actionable Intelligence, D for Dashboard-based Key Result Areas and Key Performance Indicators, H for Harnessing Technology, A for Action Plan for Each Theatre and N for No access to Financing.

SAMADHAN was launched in 2017 by the Union home ministry. Along with this came the phases of Operation Prahar. It was now for the first time that the security forces entered the core areas of Naxal insurgents deep inside the forests in the affected states, particularly Chhattisgarh.

WHY NAXALS AMBUSHED OPERATION PRAHAR FORCES

The damage was so much that the CPI-Maoist demanded that the government should halt Operation Prahar and withdraw the security forces as the Naxal insurgents had stopped their attacks.

The operation crippled the Naxal insurgency to a large extent. But during the Covid-19 impacted 2020, particularly in the latter half of the year, the CPI-Maoist organised itself by recruiting youths. Several people had lost their livelihood due to the lockdown imposed to mitigate the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic last year.

And, now as the CPI-Maoist observes the 20th year of the formation of the PLGA, it carried out a deadly ambush on the joint forces of DRG (District Reserve Guard), STF (Special Task Force), CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force), and CRPF’s special CoBRA unit in Bijapur.

Watch | Bijapur Naxal attack: Intelligence on Hidma a trap for security forces?